Advent Calendar 2024 Day 16 - Tomte

This one is about Tomte, who sound very much like Nisser from last year. 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.

The design on today's packaging does actually appear to have relevance to the story of the character that the fibre is based on, houses.

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, even if does seem a little busy with the number of colours/shades.  One of the ingredients is dark green Shetland and guess what I bought from the Wool Show the other day, yup, dark green Shetland which might go some way to being put with this .

Spinning up May 2020's fibre from the fibre club

I am so glad to have reached the point where I have spun up the last full braid of fibre that I purchased directly from a previous supplier that I had issues with.  I wish I could say that that is it with fibres from her but I can't.  I still have one double braid lot that I bought second-hand and I still have fibres in my "ingredients cupboard" that are from her, although they are going down gradually.

This one is "Athena" and from May 2020.  I wanted to keep a lot of the colour separation to create an interesting yarn rather than one that is blended together to make a boring "beige yarn". I split it in half across the length, creating two shorter pieces, and then each half I split down into lots of long thin strips to keep as few colours as possible in each piece.  

I spun it finely and plied to produce a yarn of Light fingering weight of 103g/510m.  The fibre content is 40% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Alpaca, 20% Baby Camel, 20% Mulberry Silk.

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.

Spinning some BFL/Mulberry Silk in green-blue

I bought this yarn in April 2020, so about 4 and a half years ago-ish and at a time when I was looking around for alternative fibre suppliers.  It is from an independent spinning fibre retailer who buys in undyed fibre and dyes it themselves and then sells it.  There are a lot of small businesses that do this and whilst they can be pretty they are also quite limited in terms of fibre content as they wouldn't contain any sparkle element or they wouldn't be a solid shade with different colours of texture etc and sometimes the dyer accidentally felts the fibre a little, which is easily done and I've done it a few times myself over the years.  Thankfully that is not the case in this instance, it's so soft.  The original fibre is from John Arbon Textiles.

I wanted to try and keep the variation of colours in the finished yarn as much as possible but I also didn't want it to form splodges of colour so I split it down the length, one for each ply, and spun it over the fold.

For the second single I started spinning from the other end, again over the fold, and this way when I plied the two singles together there was less chance of the same colours coming together all the way through the yarn.  Of course the colours probably do come together at times but hopefully, for the most part, it has barber-pole the colours.

This measures up to 16wpi - Light Fingering Weight and there is 110g/478m.  The fibre content is 80% Bluefaced Leicester, 20% Mulberry Silk

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 First Rest Day

The Cycling: Today is the first official rest day of the Tour and the cyclists transfer to Orléans in readiness for tomorrow.

The Daily Challenge: Orléans was liberated by Joan of Arc on 8th May 1429 - not a very relaxing face but a key part of history!  Rest is important.  So we challenge you to nap uninterrupted from 30 minutes.  

Suggested Fibre: No spinning, just napping!  But if you are desperate then it's a good opportunity to finish what you've started - or even to try to get ahead if you've got a goal in mind.

What I did

I finished spinning the second single and then plied them both together.  Amazingly, and only just, I did actually manage to squeeze all of the yarn onto one bobbin when I plied it and there is no room left between the yarn on the bobbin and the flyer arm (which spins around the bobbin feeding the yarn onto the bobbin.

This spun to fingering weight and there was actually a bit more in the pack than the 140g.  My finished skein is 148g/375m

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Stage 9

The Cycling: Stage 9 is 199km of a hilly route that starts in Troyes and ends in Troyes.

The Daily Challenge: This area produces 1/4 of all champagne.  We estimate that to be around 75 million bottle which is enough to fill 22 Olympic swimming pools!  Spin a fibre that is a treat for you; it might be your go-to favourite or something you've been saving for a special occasion.

Suggested Fibre: Pink Champagne is the first of this year's limited edition TDF blends.  It is 37.5% "Rose Leaf" Tussah Silk, 25% "Eggshell" Merino, 25% "Sandstone" Merino and 12.5% "Oyster" Merino for a subtle colour and soft handle

What I did

This fibre is kind of a treat for me and I have been saving it for a while.  It is a 140g pack of gradient blend that is 86% Corriedale Wool, 14% Mulberry Silk.  I got this from a previous supplier that I used to get most of my fibres from before I stopped purchasing from her due to her behaviour and attitude towards some of her customers, including me.

My plans for this fibre was to spin a 2 ply yarn by splitting each bump of fibre into 2 equal parts. I did consider just spinning one long single and then chain plying it but I wouldn't be able to fit it all into one bobbin and it just fried my brain trying to work out how to handle having to split the single over 2 bobbins whilst keeping the colours in the right order for plying afterwards and how to manage the join from one bobbin to another so I took the easier route of spinning two singles and plying.

I pre-drafted each half of the bumps, joining the bumps in order as I pre-drafted and I did notice that the fibre didn't draft particularly smoothly and evenly.  I started spinning from the lightest colour in the gradient, towards the darkest shade.

As I was spinning this blend I discovered the reason for this blend not drafting particularly smoothly in places and that was due to this fibre having clumps of really short fibres, along with some absolute rubbish, every now and then down the braid.  It made spinning a little more challenging but I persevered and spun all of one single and made a start on the second one today.

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 16

The Tradition

Day 16 is called Pavuchky and the tradition comes from Ukraine.  The tradition goes that a poor widow and her children found a pine sapling growing in the dirt floor of their shack.  So that they could have a Christmas tree to decorate that year they cared for it diligently but when Christmas eve came they couldn’t afford decorations. The spiders that lived in the shack heard this and spun their webs across the little tree so that when the family came down in the morning and the sunlight shone in through the window, the tree glistened with the web decorations.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 70% Shetland (Forest & Evergreen), 15% Red Eri Silk, 15% Mulberry Silk (Edinburgh Grey). This blend mimics the tree decorated with spiders webs. We have a base of Shetland, we've used British Shetland in all the different shades of green that we have and then we've added Mulberry Silk and Eri Silk to this to mimic the spider webs and it drifts through absolutely lovely and I think that this really has done the tale justice.  This has got a lovely sheen through it and you can just imagine all of the silk as little bits of spider web hanging off the tree.  Because this is Shetland it has a lovely bouncy spring to it and the weight of the Mulberry Silk doesn't take anything from that, if anything, it adds a little bit of extra softness.  If it was put into a garment in some way it would look absolutely fantastic.

My Thoughts

I love this one.  I do notice that in my length of the blend there appears to be more Silk at one end than the other so when I spin this I will have to split it down the length and turn one half around and put it back together to even out the Silk.  I thought the Silk was white initially and was surprised to find out that it is grey but it must be a very pale grey because it looks almost white.  This one isn't overly soft but it's not nasty, with the Shetland it is another everyday wool with added luxury from the Silk.  I might spin this with something white, I have plenty of options so will find something to match the fibres in this one. I don't think that I want to barberpole this one, perhaps I will blend it first.

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 for this one.  

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.

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 8

The Tradition

Day 8 is called La Ribote and the tradition comes from Martinique in the Caribbean.  Music and singing features a lot in the Christmas celebrations on the Island and a Ribote is the term used for the tradition of a large group of people that go from house to house singing hymns and carols on the evening and sometimes they will call in on people who are working such as Fire Stations, Hospitals etc and then after all of the singing they are usually invited to share in food and drinks.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 50% Bamboo (Amelia & Naomi), 40% Gotland (grey & white), 10% Mulberry Silk (Buenos Aires). Martinique is a beautiful island and this is an absolutely beautiful blend to go with it.  Just because it's winter doesn't mean the colours are going to be any different.  We have got bamboo, Gotland and Mulberry Silk.  Bamboo and Mulberry Silk are really soft fibres so the Gotland is in here to hold it all together and this Gotland also adds a bit of sheen because Gotland is a lustre wool.  If you look really closely at this blend you can see there are lots of different shades in it.  We've taken all the blues from the Mulberry Silk ranges and the Bamboo ranges and blended them with Gotland to get this lovely shiny fibre.  In terms of spinning if you were to spin this quite fine or make a four ply with it you find it has very good drape when its knitted or crocheted.  

My Thoughts

I love this one.  I love most things blue and I do like a bit of Gotland and I never say no to blends with Mulberry Silk in them.  I did have a lot of trouble trying to capture the colours in the original photo with my mobile phone, it just would not show all of the lovely tones.  I would say that it will be spun as it is, there is no way these colours can be separated out at all, it's too well blended for that.

This one is so different to how the camera on my phone captured the colours and at the time I couldn't get it to show all the variation of blues and greys that are in this blend but my proper Canon camera has.

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 for 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.

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.

Dyeing an array of fibres purple

Further to my previous three posts I have continued to dye the Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool and fibre selection that I have chosen and now that the third lot is dry I can get on with my fourth and final lot. 

So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:

150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself
40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"
25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar
25g of Mulberry Silk
12g of Tussah Silk Noil
12g of Trilobal Nylon
12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar

I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production.  This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.

I made up a dye bath of 1% dye depth made up of 67.5% River Blue and 22.5% Flame Red and 10% Midnight Black.  What I weighed out was 1.86g of River Blue, 0.62g of Flame Red and 0.276g of Midnight Black.  The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots, they are little bit patchy but they are OK.

Dyeing an array of fibres blue

Further to my previous two posts I have continued to dye the Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool and fibre selection that I have chosen and now that the first two lots are dry I can get on with my third. 

So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:

150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself
40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"
25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar
25g of Mulberry Silk
12g of Tussah Silk Noil
12g of Trilobal Nylon
12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar

I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production.  This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.

I made up a dye bath of 1% dye depth made up of 75% River Blue and 25% Amazon Green.  What I weighed out was 2.07g of River Blue and 0.69g of Amazon Green.  The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots, they are little bit patchy but they are OK.

Dyeing an array of fibres yellow-orange

Further to my post of earlier today I have also dyed a second batch of fibres the colour that I had intended to the first time around, before I weighed the dye out incorrectly.

So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:

150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself
40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"
25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar
25g of Mulberry Silk
12g of Tussah Silk Noil
12g of Trilobal Nylon
12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar

I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production.  This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.

I made up a dye bath of 1% dye depth made up of 95% Sunshine Yellow, 2.5% River Blue and 2.5% Flame Red.  What I weighed out was 2.62g of Sunshine Yellow and 0.138g each of River Blue and Flame Red.  The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots or the Milk Protein, they are little bit patchy but they are OK.

Dyeing an array of fibres orange-brown

Further to my post of a few days ago I have now decided what I am going to do with the combed Llandovery Whiteface Hill fibre.  I decided to split the fibre into 4 lots of around 155g each and add the same fibres to each lot but in different colours so that I can dye the fibre an appropriate colour and make 4 yarns that are almost identical but just in different colours.  The total amount of fibre in each lot will be enough to make 2 skeins of yarn and a nice amount to make a shawl.

I started out by sorting items from my ingredients cupboard into colour groups and then checking if I had at least 4 different colours of any given fibre.  Where I didn't have the necessary 4 colours that fibre was eliminated from the piles.  Next I had to decide which fibres in each colour group worked well together, such as which shades of blue out of all of the packets looked good together.  I ended up with 5 piles of 4 small packets of fibres so I had to eliminate one colour group, which I did easily as the colours didn't work together as well as the other piles.

I also decided that I would take the opportunity to dye some of the currently undyed fibres in my stash at the same time so that these would go into my "ingredients cupboard" for use at a later date.

So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:

150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself
40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"
25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar
25g of Mulberry Silk
12g of Tussah Silk Noil
12g of Trilobal Nylon
12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar

I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production.  This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.

I had intended my first batch to be dyed a kind of mustard yellow but I made a really stupid mistake when I was weighing the dye out and only realised once I added the fibres to the dye pot and saw the colour it all went.  Whoops, but a happy mistake because the fibres have turned out almost the exact colour I had intended for my second batch.

What I had planned was 1% dye depth made up of 95% Sunshine Yellow, 2.5% River Blue and 2.5% Flame Red.  What I should have weighed out was 2.62g of Sunshine Yellow and 0.138g each of River Blue and Flame Red.  What I actually weighed out was the correct amount of Sunshine Yellow and then I messed up and weighed out 1.38g each of River Blue and Flame Red (10 times too much of each colour).  The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots and in both cases they are kind of a peachy-coral colour along with what can only be described as grey and it looks like a pile of burnt rubbish. 

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 21

The Cycling: Stage 21 is 115km of a flat route that starts in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and ends on the Paris Champs-Elysees.

The Daily Challenge: As always - spin something yellow (and try to finish it)

Suggested Fibre: Destination

What I did

I finished spinning my own blend for the Yellow Jersey celebration.  It hasn't turned out light and fluffy like the fibre at all, it's actually spun up quite dense despite me trying to keep it thinned out and light and I think some of that is down to the Suri Alpaca element of the original main blend that I dyed yellow.

The finished yarn is 50% Merino, 21.5% Suri Alpaca, 7% Cellulose, 7% Bamboo, 4.5% Angelina, 3.5% Mulberry Silk, 3.5% Trilobal Nylon, 3% Sari Silk, fingering weight and 338m/125g.  I have named this braid after the winner of the yellow jersey, Jonas Vinegaard.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 20

The Cycling: Stage 20 is 133km of a mountain route that starts in Belford and ends in Le Markstein-Fellering.

The Daily Challenge: Share something that you are immensely proud of.  It could be your achievements so far this tour or something completely unrelated.  Time to blow your own trumpet.

Suggested Fibre: Leo

What I did

I made a start on something that I am proud of and also it is something I created especially for tomorrow and the celebration of the Yellow Jersey.  There is enough of this to take more than one day to spin.

There is about 130g of fibre in this blend so I spun the first 65g, the first single and then made a start on the second single.

Making my own matching reverse blends from some North Country Cheviot fleece

I'm carrying on with more blending today, although I might pay for this later with some serious shoulder ache.  I keep forgetting that I'm not as young as I once was and the old bones and muscles moan and creek these days.

A few days ago I dyed some North Country Cheviot fleece a gorgeous shade of green that is certainly different to anything you could possibly find in any shop.  Today I am going to blend everything together that I have picked out and I am going to do it twice, in reverse colours.  Bear with me, all will be revealed and will make sense shortly.

So, first up is the Lime coloured Cheviot with the natural or white textures. In this blend was 157g North Country Cheviot wool, 10g Tussah Silk, 6g Hemp, 5g Mulberry Silk Noil, 4g Trilobal Nylon.

Top left: Natural undyed hemp and below that is natural undyed Mulberry Silk Noil
Top right: Dyed North Country Cheviot hand combed nests
Bottom left: White Trilobal Nylon and bleached Tussah Silk

Next up is the natural coloured Cheviot with lime coloured textures.  In this blend was 137g undyed North Country Cheviot wool, 10g Tussah Silk in shade Caiprinha, 7g Hemp in shade Caiprinha, 7g Silk Noil in shade Chlorophyll and finally 2g each of the Trilobal Nylon in shade Caiprinha and Neon Green, the later I dyed myself a few days ago because I knew I hadn't got enough of the Caiprinha for this project.

Top left: Hemp in shade Caiprinha and below that is Silk Noil in shade Chlorophyll
Top right: Undyed North Country Cheviot hand combed nests
Bottom left: Trilobal Nylon in Caiprinha and Neon Green and Tussah Silk in shade Caiprinha

I did try and over-dye the Silk Noil in Chlorophyll a few days ago to make it more like the green of the Caiprinha fibres but it didn't want to take the dye, it might have done slightly, but not very much.

So the finished blended fibres are very pretty.  My favourite right now is the green with the natural coloured textures.  It's a shame that the silk noil in the other blend didn't take on the green dye as it would have made it less "yellow" but I'm happy enough with these.  The amounts are different between the colourways and so is the final fibre content because of that but once spun up I envisage that these two will be worked together in the same project in some kind of striped item.

The fibre content of the Green Cheviot with natural textures is :  86% Cheviot Wool, 6% Tussah Silk, 3% Mulberry Silk Noil, 3% Hemp, 2% Trilobal Nylon.  There is approximately 174g of this to be spun.

The fibre content of the Natural Cheviot with lime textures is : 83% Cheviot Wool, 6% Tussah Silk, 4.5% Silk Noil, 4.5% Hemp, 2% Trilobal Nylon.  There is approximately 153g of this to be spun.

Making my own yellow blend for the last day of the TDF2023

I've been playing with my blending hackle again today and making a yellow fibre blend in preparation for the upcoming Tour de Fleece 2023.  There is always a "yellow jersey day", usually on the last day of The Tour.  I'm not buying any fibre for this event this year, I will make do with what I have because I have plenty that needs to be used up.

I have already dyed some fibre for this purpose just a few days ago and I have sorted out what else will be added to it to make it more interesting.

Top row: unknown cellulose/plant fibre and Trilobal Nylon both dyed a few days ago
Middle row: Angelina, Merino/Suri Alpaca blend I dyed a few days ago, Sari Silk in shade Honeycomb
Bottom row: Bamboo in shade Clara and Mulberry Silk Noil I dyed a few days ago

So the fibres I have picked out are all yellow but in different shades and textures and some are matt and some are shiny/lustrous.  In total 140g of fibre went through my blending hackle and I got 130g back out all nice and ready to spin in four bumps of fibre, which when paired up give me two x 65g lots.

Look how soft and fluffy this is.  It's gorgeous and I can't but help think of cute little ducklings.

The final fibre content is: 50% Merino wool, 21.5% Suri Alpaca, 7% Cellulose, 7% Bamboo, 4.5% Angelina, 3.5% Mulberry Silk, 3.5% Trilobal Nylon, 3% Sari Silk

Advent Calendar 2022 Day 24

The final packet contains another pure white fibre and is called Not So Scrooge and is another fine soft fluffy one.  The fibre content is 25% each of Ultrafine Merino, Cashmere, Mulberry Silk and Rose Fibre.

 

Advent Calendar 2022 Day 23

Another Christmassy coloured fibre today, similar colours to the very first day but this one is different fibres and is called Candy Cane.  The fibre content is 50% Suri Alpaca, 25% Merino, 25% Mulberry Silk.  I might spin this one and Mistletoe & Wine together.

Advent Calendar 2022 Day 12

Oh, this one has made me a little sad because obviously the name of it was decided sometime ago so that the scratch cards could be printed and the boxes made up and we have since lost our great treasure Queen Elizabeth II.  This one is called Queen's Speech and what a luxury this one is at 40% Superfine Merino, 40% Mulberry Silk and 20% Cashmere.

I thought about buying more of this one but decided that I was too scared of it, it's so fine I might turn it to felt if I breathe on it.