Advent Calendar 2024 Day 4 - Cinnamon Bear

This one is about a character called "Cinnamon Bear".  I have never heard of it and all the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

I do like the designs on the little packets though.  Each one is different and this one, whilst Cinnamon in colour, features some kind of fir tree branches with pine cones, although at first glance I thought they were feathers!

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  I like this one, it could be an interesting spin.

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 14

The Tradition

Day 14 is called Misa de Gallo and the tradition comes from Spain and translates as Roosters Mass. The Festival of the Rooster has a few origin stories, the one we like tells of how they (we're not sure who they are!) were trying to work out when to have a mass to celebrate the birth of Jesus; it was hard to come up with an agreeable time so they settled on "when the cock crows".

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 50% Corriedale (Amber & Crimson), 35% Manx Loagthan (natural), 15% Bambo (Ella).  For this blend we've looked at a traditional barnyard cockerel and tried to pull as many colours as we can into this.  I don't think we've done a bad job.  The base of this is brown, like many chickens are and this brown is Manx Loaghtan which originally comes form the Isle of Man, they're always brown and they have four horns, two at the top and two down below.  Quite a short staple but it is a remarkably soft fibre for something that you'd find from our shores.  The rest of the fibres in here are Corriedale because we really didn't want to put Merino in with this, we wanted something that would be similar in handle to the Manx and we've also put a little bit of bamboo in here just to get that sheen that you see on the rooster tail feathers and if you look at a strutting rooster in the sunlight you will see all of these colours in this blend.  For spinning, what I would probably do is split it along the length and do a nice loose spin to make sure I'm not muddying all the shades up.  This is a nice springy versatile blend with a good amount of colours in and every time you spin it it will go differently.  If you spin from the fold or if you spin from the lines (down the length).

My Thoughts

The colours are interesting, I didn't get excited or squeal at this one or anything, but I don't not like it.  This isn't soft and squishy or luxurious but it is a hardworking kind of fibre blend that would make great winter accessories like hat, scarf and gloves.  I'm not sure what I will be doing with this but I could maybe find some similar fibres and similar colours in my stash and make this braid go a little further.

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, yay!  

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.

Spinning up the Texture Sparkle blend

Last year I bought some spinning fibre using money/vouchers that I had for my birthday.  I've just spun up one braid from that purchase.  It was a bit of a challenge for me as it is so textured, lots of bumps of sari silk, and I am a little OCD with wanting to create a nice smooth even yarn but I am trying to get out of my comfort zone from time to time and push my own boundaries of creativity a bit.

Its 28% Manx Loaghtan, 28% BFL, 28% Sari Silk, 10% Merino, 6% Stellina.  I've spun it at sport weight and I have 246m of lovely squishy to play with.  Its not super super soft but it is really nice.

I've bought more spinning fibre

What am I like, I've only gone and bought more spinning fibre to go with the vast amount I already have.  To be fair I've had gift vouchers for my favourite fibre seller and money for my birthday so I went and ordered some lovely stuff that she's just put in the shop.

The first braid is this 50% Romney Wool, 25% Silk, 25% Linen.  The description is that it gives and unusual texture but beautiful stitch definition. Romney is a long stapled British wool of 28-29  microns and by blending it with silk it softens the blend and increases shine and it can worn around the neck.  I love the colour, a pale blue-green colour.

The second braid is this 28% BFL, 28% Manx Loaghtan, 28% Sari Silk, 10% Merino, 6% Stellina.  The description is that this is a gorgeous fluffy textured blend that is not super soft but will have lovely bounce form the Manx Loaghtan, and ancient breed from the Isle of Man with a micron count of 29-31 with fantastic crimp. This won't spin smoothly so embrace the joy of sari silk and add some bling.  I was totally attracted to it by the colour, sparkle and texture.