Advent Calendar 2024 Day 11 - Melchior

Day 11 is all about one of the Three Wise Men, Melchior, with the others being Caspar and Balthazar. I was bought up as a Christian, so I do know the story, but I have never been a practising Christian and, other than as a child, attending a wedding or attending a funeral, I have never been to church. I follow a Pagan path of belief and celebrate with the decorated tree and feasting, which have their roots firmly planted in Pagan origins pre-dating the 8th century, being adopted by Christians in Germany in the 16th Century.  I don't think I need to write anything up as 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 this packet, to my recollection of the story, it just a nice winter type design with a British bird.

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 has a nice amount of texture, and I'm not shy of spinning texture.  I might pair it with something white or I might see what else I have that could go with this one.

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 17

The Tradition

Day 17 is called Pastorelas and the tradition comes from Mexico.  The tradition of the shepherds on their way to the baby Jesus and overcoming all temptations which try to stop or divert them - including the devil!  This is often shown as a folk play with the overarching theme of good versus evil. 

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 60% Puntas Arenas, 20% Merino (Fuchsia, Chartreuse, Denim), 20% Superbright Trilobal Nylon.  This is a fun one. We have Puntas Arenas, Nylon and Merino. The Puntas Arenas is a newer breed that we've got in stock and it's a very bright white, nice and bulky, and very soft, it's like a Merino type and its a very very versatile fibre.  In this as well we've got some lovely streaks of colour and little bit of Nylon.  This has been designed for those who might want to knit socks or want something with a little bit more stability.  The Nylon in it does help hold things together but it is only a small percentage because you don't want anything feeling too squeaky in your yarns.  You might loose the colour if you're not careful so I would break it down the lines to make sure I got some of these lovely colours throughout and if you pull it apart you can see the colours blending into the Puntas Arenas to give you come nice heavy tones.  This is a really versatile blend, its nice and bulky, and it has got a good bit of squish to it and it is also very soft so actually it is quite nice to have something that has got softness and a bit of handle to it so it won't run way whilst you're trying to work with it.

My Thoughts

I love today's fibre, the colours and the way it is put together makes it look almost delicate, reminds me of fine china tea cups with little pink roses on.  It is mostly soft with just a tad hint of something more rugged, something with a bit of grip to keep it all together. I had difficulty getting the camera on my phone to capture the colours in the blend properly but my proper Canon camera has done a much better job. I loved this one so much that I bought more of it when it became available in the New Year.

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 were initially wrong but not totally different to that that was printed on the bag.  They initially gave us 80% Puntas Arenas blend, 20% Merino and when we delved into it deeper we got the final fibre content of 60% Puntas Arenas, 20% Superbright Trilobal Nylon, 20% Merino (Fuchsia, Chartreuse & Denim).  

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.