The Tradition
Day 12 is called Oplatek and the tradition comes from Poland, dating back to the 10th century. The custom is traditionally observed during Wigilia, a traditional Christmas Eve vigil that extends into Midnight Mass in Roman Cathollic Churches all over Poland. The pale unleavened wafers are baked from pure wheat flour and water are thin and identical to the alter bread given during Mass. The special Christmas wafers are rectangular and embossed with Christmas-related religious images such as the nativity scene, Mary and child or the Star of Bethleham. The family gather around the table to feast but first the eldest takes one of these large wafers and breaks a piece off and the wafers passes around the table whilst a prayer is said and each person breaks off a piece of wafer. Once everyone has a piece of wafer they wish good things for friends and family for the coming year whilst consuming the piece of wafer.
The Fibre
The actual fibre content is 50% Suri Alpaca, 25% Shetland, 25% Bluefaced Leicester. The wafers tend to be pale in colour and so is this blend too. We've selected some really interesting fibres. This is Suri Alpaca, Shetland and Bluefaced Leicester. Everybody knows BFL, they're an iconic UK breed and they have a lovely soft fleece. Everybody knows Shetland but again they're another well known UK breed with a load of different colours and a very springy fleece but how many people Suri Alpaca, their fibre is silky and it's got a lovely drape to it and you can really feel it in this blend The Suri adds a whiteness to it whereas the BFL and the Shetland give much more of creamy texture. This is a really versatile blend, whatever you want to do with it it will happily go along with it. If you're spinning you can spin this to a fine weight, like a lace weight if you wanted to, or you could make something really rather bulky for a nice sumptuous squish that will knit and crochet really nicely.
My Thoughts
I like this one. Soft with almost a halo about it but at the same time it feels like it has a bit of a bite, grip, but not too much, it will still be a nice soft yarn. I will most likely pair this one with one of the white ones from last years Advent Calendar as there were a number of white blends in that one too that will work lovely with this one to give me a nice amount to make something with.
The information that has been printed on the bags is not always correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards. The percentages that they gave on the chat boards seem to be correct.
What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens. This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.
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