Spinning the 12 Days of Advent 2019

Spurred on by my recent spinning of the previous years' 12 Days of Advent set of fibres I decided to tackle this one which was produced the year after and was the last one that I purchased from that particular supplier before I parted custom with her.  It seems that I didn't make such detailed notes about the different options available that year on my stash page for this fibre but my chosen pack was called "Frost Fair" and the inspiration for the colours is the picture below.  Having said that I have discovered that I did, however, write a blog post about the options available back in the day and that can be found here.

The main braid is 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk and the 11 x 20g smaller packets are all 14.5 micron Merino, which is also known as Ultrafine Merino.  The original post that I wrote showing all of the fibres in my pack after I opened them can be found here. Apparently, according to the notes that I took from the supplier at the time, the colours are all on a theme but I haven't managed to work out what that "theme" is yet.  Answers on a postcard to...

This time I started with the main braid first and I spun this over-the-fold and chain plied due to the short Yak fibres and to try and keep colours together as much as I could.  It's lovely and soft and spun up to sport weight 102g/293m.

I spun all of the 14.5 micron merino fibre bumps in the same way, over-the-fold and chain plied.  I did have a few problems along the way with it breaking on me during the ply and this was due to it being underspun in parts.  I'm not a fan of such fine Merino, or at least not the stuff from this supplier, the fibres were very short in parts which didn't help in keeping the yarn in one piece.  Personally I prefer something with much more body and more hardwearing.

So this...

became this

All of the Merino spun up to sport weight.  At some point in the future I will figure out what I will make with it but I doubt that I will use all of the smaller merino bumps together in one project.  I'm glad it is all spun up now though because about half way through it began to feel like a tedious chore but I was determined to push on through and complete it.

Spinning up an old 12 Days of Advent set from 2018

Yesterday I finished spinning a set of 11 silks and a main braid that I started spinning on 16th July for the TDF2024 challenge of spinning something that you find tricky, your arch-nemesis.  This set was from way back to Christmas 2018 and was a set put together to celebrate the 12 Days of Advent (or 12 Days of Christmas if your prefer) by a supplier that I no longer use.  This is not an Advent Calendar, which run 1st to 24th December, this is to celebrate the 12 days after Christmas to 12th Night. There were a few different options available at the time, which I wrote about here, and I chose one called Pine Forest, as those colours appealed to me more than some of the brighter, bolder, or gaudy colour options.

The main braid is really soft and an interesting medium grey colour with splodges of dye along it which match some, but not all, of the colours of the Tussah Silks.  The set is designed to be used together in one project, or at least most of it together in one project, and there are plenty of patterns available that use a main yarn together with smaller amounts of other colours.

So although I spun the first two skeins of silk on 16th and 17th July I didn't spin anything else until 7th August as I was away or busy doing other things.  The Tussah Silk was all spun first, over-the-fold and plied as a standard 2ply yarn.  I used the same over-the-fold method for the main braid too with, again, the standard 2ply.  With hindsight I kind of wish I had spun the main braid as one big single and then chain plied it to keep the colours more together but it's done now and I like it as it is anyway.

The colours of the silks, starting with the pale blue in the 12 o'clock position and working clockwise around are: Sunrise, Fir, Milk, Storm, Twilight, Wood, Cloud, Tuareg, Fog, Thyme, Paradise.  The main braid I have called "Pine Forest", after the name of the entire pack, and the fibre content is 50% Corriedale, 25% Yak, 25% Rose Rayon.  All of the yarns have spun up at 16-18wpi, which is the range for Light Fingering weight.

I am very happy with the way the entire set turned out and I am no longer scared of spinning 100% Silk and I found spinning over-the-fold to be quite enjoyable.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Stage 17

The Cycling: Stage 17 is 177.8km of a mountain route that starts in Saint Paul Trois Châteaux and ends in Superdévoluy.

The Daily Challenge: If you're passing Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux it only seems right to drop into their famous truffle market.  Ply a dark fibre with a light to make a contrasting marl.

Suggested Fibre: For this, we'd pair Black Truffle with Wensleydale.  As well as spinning fibre, it's a great cheese combo.

What I did

I had already decided that I wasn't doing today's challenge, or any more of the challenges unless they fitted in with the fibre, when I chose to start spinning the fibre set I started yesterday.  Not only that, but we are about to go on a long weekend break away with our two teenagers in tow so with last minute laundry washing, organising and packing tomorrow and travelling on Friday, once I've collected our youngest from their last session at college until after the long summer break, I won't have time to do any more spinning this TDF.

So, today's spin was more Tussah Silk and it was Day 3 of the 12 Days of Advent.  A dark green Tussah Silk called "Fir".

This one took me about 30 minutes less to spin than my first mini skein of Silk.  I think it's turned out slightly better and a little more even as well.

This one is 20g/96.8m and I managed to not get myself in a tangled mess at the end of the plying this time.

Knowing that this is the end of my TDF journey this year my total TDF spinning lengths, taking into account the individual singles and the plies, amounts to 7,296.78m (which is about 4 and a half miles).  I know that doesn't sound like much but considering how much spare time I actually have during each very busy day it is actually a lot of yarn spun.

These are all my TDF2024 spins together, in order, starting from top right to left then bottom right to left.  I will do a quick write up of the next few and final days of the TDF route and challenge info, but of course there will be no spinning in relation to them.  I hope to be able to carry on spinning my silk packets over the 6 week summer break, but who knows what could happen, I take life one day at a time at the moment.

12 Days of Christmas 2019 Part 2

Back in October I wrote about the 12 Days of Christmas "Advent Calendar" for 2019.  All packages have now been opened and I've had chance to take photos and do some fancy work with them to add the names of the colours of the fibre to them.

As last year, I have organised them in the same way, the main braid is in the large photo and then each day thereafter starts with the small photo on the top right hand side, working down and then across the bottom towards the left.

Just in case you can't read the labels, they are in order: Lily of the Valley, Honey, Pearl, English Countryside, Shabby Grey, Hydrangea, Currant, Cocoa, Blossom, Nougat and Night.

The spinning tip for the main braid would be the same as last year due to the Yak fibres and that is to spin it over the fold as the Yak fibres are shorter than the rest and this avoids ending up with just a clump of Yak fibres in your hand.

I will probably spin them all separately and create something that involves all of the finished yarn in all of the colours.

12 Days of Christmas 2019

After the success of last years idea to create a 12 Days of Christmas spinners pack, the woman who runs the online shop where I buy most of my spinning fibre and who also runs the monthly fibre club that I have, announced this years options much earlier this year, clearly she is now aware of their popularity and needs to be organised much earlier to avoid disappointment coupled with the worry of any issues regarding Customs & Duty should the UK crash out of the EU on 31st October.  No one knows what is going to happen as this countries politics is in total chaotic mess.

Once again, we have three options.  All of them will include a 100g hand dyed braid of a luxury blend fibre that works with the colours she has chosen for each option, so the main braid for each option will a different colour.  The main braid will be 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk, which is the same blend that most of us had last year, although I was one of the spinners who had a different blend.  The eleven small packets to be opened one each day thereafter will be different fibres.  They will all be packed into a hand printed cotton bag like they were last year, although the design for the bag will be different than last years.

Sleigh Ride has little parcels containing 10g of Mulberry Silk in a set colour palette and everyone gets the same colours each day.  This is the inspiration photo.

Frost Fair has little parcels containing 20g of 14.5 micron Merino in a set colour palette and everyone gets the same colours each day.  This is the inspiration photo.  This is the one that I chose to get.  My reason for getting this one was because I haven't had the courage to spin last year's yet as I am not comfortable spinning pure silk, it scares me because its so fine and can clump into a nasty mess very easily and I don't want to ruin it.  I will spin a small amount of silk from a sample pack first before risking this beautiful pack.

Nutracker has little parcels of 20g of Tussah Silk and everyone will get a slightly different selection but all colours will work together.  With this one you have to be OK with getting surprises as they will be all sorts of colours in lots of combinations and could be jewels, brights, pastels, neutrals etc.  This is the inspiration photo.

My parcel arrived this morning, 21st October, but I will add the photos of it once I have my Christmas Tree and decorations up as I want a Christmassy photo of it like last year.  Another cardboard drinks coaster inside the package and that matches the bag and is a different design to last year. 

And just like magic, here is the photo.

12 Days of Christmas 2018 Part 2

Back in November I wrote a post about the 12 Days of Christmas "advent calendar" of fibre that I bought myself.  Well, obviously we are well into the New Year now and I have opened all of the little parcels inside.  I was a good girl and only opened one packet per day.  I didn't peep, even though it was really tempting to do that.

I have added the days and the names of the colours to the photos below but they might be quite small to read.  The Tussah Silk are in order from the top right going downwards and then turning left along the bottom, 20g each of Sunrise, Fir, Milk, Storm, Twilight, Wood, Cloud, Tuareg, Fog, Thyme, Paradise.

The spinning tips for the main braid is to spin it over the fold as the Yak fibres will be shorter than the others and that it likely to be comfortably spun somewhere between fingering and double knit weight.  Some people have blended the silk with the main braid and then spun and plied that, others have blended the silk with other fibre they have and used some or all of it to ply with the main braid, some have spun them all up separately and will use all 12 yarns in some kind of stripey or patterned item.  I like the idea of keeping them separate but I've never spun pure silk and it frightens me a bit but apparently that is also easier to spin if you spin it over the fold.  I've never spun over the fold but all that means is that instead of spinning it from the end of the braid in one continual length you pull pieces of and fold it over your finger and let the fibres go into the yarn from there.

I also took a photo of the free coaster that we got in the pack, which is really pretty.

12 Days of Christmas 2018

As soon as my regular fibre supplier announced her idea that she had for a special Christmas parcel bundle of fluff I was all ears.  Her idea was for one main braid of fibre that we all open on Christmas Day and then 11 small packets of fibre to be opened one a day for the following 11 days and all this would be parcelled up in a hand-printed fair-trade cotton bag that she designed and printed herself.

She came up with 3 options originally and every time she released a new batch they sold out in minutes so due to high demand she came up with a 4th option using fibre she had in stock to replace one of the colourways that sold out after 2 batches.

These are the inspiration photos that she released, from left to right top row: Northern Lights, Ski Lodge, Christmas Cake and the large photo is Pine Forest.  Northern Lights was put together and released for the last batch.

Some of the fibre bases changed as they sold out and was replaced with the same colour on a different base, such was their popularity.  I decided to go for Pine Forest, which I managed to get from the third batch because I either missed the release time or I just wasn't fast enough and it already sold out before I could checkout.  They literally sold out that fast.  It was crazy!

These are the descriptions that she wrote for each colourway.  The main braid is 100g of luxury hand dyed fibre and then we have eleven 20g parcels of Tussah Silk that have numbers on them so we all open them on the correct days.  A different colour main brand and different colour range of Tussah Silk for each colourway.

Christmas Cake
Warm rich tones, think Spices, Candied Peel, Dried Peel, Dried Fruit. (Spoiler: pick this one if you're not a fan of blue, this really is the contents of your spice rack, the citrus fruit bowl, raisins, sultanas, with a small amount of green.)
Batch 1: 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk
Batch 2: 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk
Batch 3: 100% BFL

Pine Forest
An early morning walk in a pine forest, snow on the ground, frost sparkling on branches, dark shadows. (Spoiler: there is green... but not in huge quantities.  It's focusing on the interesting things light does as it filters through branches.  This one is filled with cool colours and interesting neutrals).
Batch 1: 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk
Batch 2: 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk
Batch 3: 50% Corriedale, 25% Yak, 25% Rose Rayon.  This is the one I managed to get.

Ski Lodge
A mug of hot chocolate, classic skiing knitwear, a midnight view of a snowy mountain. (Spoiler: this one has a real mixture of colours.  Very few of what I describe as "warm" tones, and the ones that are included aren't bright and in your face.  They're designed to set off the other colours.) 
Batch 1: 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk
Batch 2: 50% Corriedale, 25% Yak, 25% Rose Rayon.
Batch 3: None produced - replaced with Northern Lights colourway

Northern Lights
Bright colours dancing across a dark sky
Batch 3: Superfine Shetland

So, my parcel arrived this morning and I couldn't wait to take photos and a little peep inside, knowing that they were all in little sealed paper bags so that I couldn't really peep at what was in store.  I found a little round cardboard thing inside the bag with a pretty design on it, turns out to be a coaster but I've not taken a photo of it. Really excited for Christmas now to see what I've got.