Advent Calendar 2023 Day 5

The Tradition

Day 5 is called Almond Within and the tradition comes from Finland.  In Finland it is called Riisipuuro (Rice Porridge) It is a tradition of putting an almond into Rice Pudding or Rice Porridge that is eaten for breakfast on Christmas Day and the person who finds the almond gets to make a wish and will be lucky for the next year.  This tradition is much like our own British tradition of putting a coin in the Christmas Pudding.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 80% Finnish Landrace Wool, 20% Mulberry Silk (in Jaipur Pink and Budapest purple).  In this blend we have used Finnish wool, naturally, and to represent the Almonds, because our Sugared Almonds are always rather bright, we've got pink and purple Mulberry Silk going through it.  It looks like sugared almonds and rice pudding.  Finnish fibre is not really really soft, that's because Finland is not a warm place and so the sheep need nice warm double coats to keep the weather out.  You'll find that this is much more textured, its got more grip to it which means it will felt really well and will give a nice firm outer layer.  If you're knitting crocheting the stitch definition of this is absolutely fantastic and you benefit from the extra colour which gives a little bit of softness too.

My Thoughts

Yeah, hmmm, not a fan of this one.  It's the colour, I'm definitely not a pink girl, Pink! (as in US singer) yep, love her music, but pink as in colour, that's a noooooooooooo from me.  I will either have to put this braid with another white braid to reduce the amount of pink or I will have to over-dye the finished yarn after spinning.  Maybe I will do both, it will depend on how pink it is when "watered down" with other fibres.

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.  This one has been pretty straightforward in regards to the fibre content though, no mistakes with this one, hurrah!

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.