Spinning the Olive Green Jacob blend

I have found the time to finally spin the blend that I made back in June with the Olive Green Jacob wool.  I forgot to take any photos of the pre-drafted fibre in my spinning basket and I had plenty of chances to do that because I made 4 skeins and each has two halves so I had 8 opportunities and I just didn't take any photos because I'm dippy!  Thankfully I did remember to take at least one photo of the spinning-in-progress.

When I pre-drafted this I had to thin out all of the additions that I added and then when I spun it I thinned it out some more and was mindful when the silk noil came up to make sure that got thinned out too so that I got some texture but not great big bumps of it.  Some people love really really textured yarns but I do not, I don't mind a little bit of interest but I'm not into overly textured yarns.

I got 4 skeins, all double knit weight, 101g/215m, 105g/215m, 104g/221m and 103g/228m. The final fibre content is: 54% Jacob Wool, 16% 23 micron Merino Wool, 14% mixed white wools, 5.5% Cellulose, 4% Tussah Silk, 3% Hemp, 2.5% Silk Noil, 1% Trilobal Nylon.  I had trouble capturing the true colour in photographs and I had to manually adjust them to increase the green as they were showing as almost greyscale photos.

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 3

The Tradition

Day 3 is called Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii and the tradition comes from Japan.   The first KFC outlet opened in Japan in 1970 and its manager was Takeshi Okawara.  He came up with the idea of a creating a "party barrel" of KFC to be sold at Christmas after overhearing a couple of foreigners talking in his store about how they missed having turkey at Christmas whilst they are in Japan.  He marketed his "party barrel" at Christmas in his store until KFC themselves took the idea up and marketed it across all of their Japan stores for Christmas 1974 under the name of Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii, or Kentucky for Christmas.  It was a success and Takeshi Okawara rose through the company ranks quickly, serving as president and CEO of Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan from 1984 to 2002.

Previously, there was no Christmas tradition in Japan as the majority of Japanese people follow Shinto or Buddhism faiths, worshipping ancestors and spirits with only around 1% of the population following the Christian faith.  Today an estimated 3.6 million Japanese families treat themselves to the special meal at KFC over Christmas period.  Other families treat it as a time to have a romantic celebration, similar to St Valentines day, and have a meal in upscale restaurants and then there are some families that acknowledge the day but do not celebrate it in any form.

The meals are so popular over the Christmas period that you can't just walk in a get one.  Most people pre-order the meal weeks in advance and if you don't do this then you could be waiting in line for hours to be able to get one and daily sales at some KFC restaurants can be 10 times that of any other time of year.  It's not just barrels of fried chicken that is available, over the years the meals have morphed into banquets and you can now get fried chicken, cake and wine.  In a country that puts a high value on its elders, they now also dress up the company mascot, Colonel Sanders, in Santa outfits. 

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is different to that that was printed on the bags, see the comments in "My Thoughts" for full details. There are some kind of similarities with some colours maybe with some sort of branding but it is totally unintentional and this blend doesn't contain any interesting herbs or spices.  It has a nice bold colour provided by the Corriedale and although Corriedale is not as soft as Merino it does have the same stitch definition when its being knitted or crocheted.  It has a nice bulk to it, which you don't find in Merino blends and there are lovely little bits of Tweed running through it to add a little bit of extra colour and some texture. The lightness comes from the Lotus Fibre, which has just been blended throughout so instead of being a heavy dark red it lifts it quite a bit.

My Thoughts

I like this one, it's quite festive and could even represent Santa with the red suit, white trim and black accessories.  I'm glad that the blends are not all super soft and fluffy, I like having a bit of a more hardwearing fibre too.

The information that has been printed on the bags is not necessarily correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards.  The percentages that they originally gave on the chat boards was 60% Corriedale, 30% Tweed, 10% Lotus, which is different from the Corriedale, Lotus and Viscose that is printed on the bag and after some discussion it transpires that "Tweed" is actually 80% South American Wool, 20% Viscose and it took a little while to get the actual contents from them and work out the actual fibre percentages, which is 60% Corriedale, 24% South American Wool, 10% Lotus and 6% Viscose . 

As a customer/consumer I don't want to know the percentage of "other blends" that are in the blend and I shouldn't have to then do research or ask questions to find out what is in that blend and do the maths to add those fibre percentages into the main blend fibre content percentages.  Thankfully I was not the only one that brought this oversight up with them and they've been pretty good about it. I have now also adjusted the fibre content details on all other blends in my stash that contain "Tweed" to correct them to what they actually are.  Thankfully I have not made any shawls or anything with any yarns that I have spun using this "Tweed" content.

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 2

The Tradition

Day 2 is called Ligligan Parul and the tradition comes from the Philippines where there is an annual Giant Lantern Festival held in the City of San Fernando in the Philippines, not to be confused with The San Fernando Valley in California, USA. It began in San Fernando in 1904 but it's history goes back further, to Bacolor which is the previous provincial capital, and it was a much simpler religious activity that is known today as Lubenas, where the lanterns measured just 2 feet and were made from bamboo and coloured paper.  Over the years the competition of making them has progressed so far that these are now around 15 to 20 feet in diameter, made of coloured plastic or fibre glass and illuminated by 3,500-5,000 electric light bulbs and there is now a limit of a maximum of 10,000 lights because it has become a real big competition between the different administrative divisions of the Philippines.

 The Fibre

The fibre is 80% Merino (23 microns), 20% Extra Bleached Tussah Silk and the colours represent the bright lights of the festival.  This one needs to be big and bright and so we have used Merino and Tussah Silk so that it is both soft and bold.  Imagine this with a black back drop and that is how the lanterns appear in the festival.  It has a really nice sheen, from the Silk and the Merino is really bringing the blues and greens.  Any garment made from the spun yarn would be snuggly and cosy and lovely next to the skin.

My Thoughts

I like the colours in this one, the colours remind me a little bit of a Blue Tit (British garden bird).  Its not an unusual blend in terms of the fibres, Merino and Tussah Silk blends can be found everywhere.  I'm not sure how I will handle the colours, let them blend to give an overall bluey-green yarn or separate them out to give a more colourful yarn. I don't need to make any decisions yet.

As usual I am waiting until I have opened all of the packets before I decide what I will do with it.  I am also writing up these blog posts some time after the event and the first photos are what I took on the day of opening using my mobile phone and the early December natural light, which isn't always the best, and the next photos have been taken some time after using my proper camera and my little lit pop up studio and the colours are more true to life. 

The information that has been printed on the bags is not necessarily correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards.  

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 1

So, following the arrival of the Advent Calendar about a week and a half ago, I have since decided to throw the fibre packaging away as it really isn't worth the hassle of trying to do anything with it.

This year's advent calendar is themed on different "Holiday Traditions" from around the world.  I will say "Holiday" because there are numerous religions and faiths that celebrate at this time of year and it's not necessarily called "Christmas", there are many other names for many different celebrations.

The Tradition

Day 1 is called Gävle Goat and the tradition comes from Sweden where a huge goat is made of straw every year and erected in the town of Gävle at Slottstorget (Castle Square).  It is basically a giant version of the traditional Yule Goat decoration.  This tradition started in 1966 when an advertising consultant by the name of Stig Gavlén (1927-2018) came up with the idea of placing a giant version of the traditional decoration in the square and the giant goat has been subject to all sorts of vandalism and destruction since then, usually by human hand but sometimes by nature.  As of December 2023, 42 out of 58 goats have been destroyed by burning or some other cause.  It is now illegal to destroy the goat and if you get caught doing so it is a 3 month prison term for you.  The first one built in 1966 stood at around 13 metres tall and the height has varied over the years, with one year it being just 2 metres tall and then this year it stands at around 12 metres tall.  

The Fibre

The fibre is 80% Mohair, 20% Flax and represents the Goat and the Straw element of the tradition. The flax brings a little bit of texture to the blend and the blend has a fantastic sheen to it.  Anything you knit with the spun yarn will have a little bit of texture and colour running through it.

My Thoughts

It's not a fibre that I am particularly familiar with so this will be interesting.  As usual I will wait until I have opened all of the packets before I decide what I will do with it.  I am hoping to create great pairings with other packets of fibre from either this year or last year, as I have used very little of last year's advent calendar.

As what I often do, due to a busy life, I am writing up these blog posts some time after the event so the first photos are what I took on the day of opening using my mobile phone and the early December natural light, which isn't always the best, and the next photos have been taken some time after using my proper camera and my little lit pop up studio and the colours are more true to life. I am also including a close up photo of each of the pattern strips that are on the packets, each one is different, and some are of a different clarity/quality, that is not my photography skills but rather the printed design and this must be down to the original image source.

The information that has been printed on the bags is not necessarily correct and there are no fibre content percentages.  This information has been provided in the online chat boards for this advent calendar and in some instances, where they have used amounts of other blends that they produce along with other fibres to make this new blend, we have collectively asked for further clarification and then the fibre content has changed quite considerably.  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 and before "World of Wool".  Petty much the only thing that will show up on the black packaging are the metallic gel pens.  This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags, they all have my scribble on them.

Spinning the white blend of the North Country Cheviot

I know that I have started to blend the Llandovery Whiteface Hill ready for spinning but I really should crack on and finish the spinning that I started as well.  I've already spun the lime green version a few months ago now so it was time to spin the natural version of the North Country Cheviot blend.   I almost forgot to take any work in progress photos of the spinning, but at least I did remember, unlike last time!

This one is prettier now that it's spun up and it will be interesting to see how it knits up at some point in the future.  I intend to find a pattern that will use both yarns in one project.

The fibre content of this one is 83% Cheviot Wool, 6% Tussah Silk, 4.5% Silk Noil, 4.5% Hemp, 2% Trilobal Nylon

It has spun up to double knit weight and the skeins are 77g/180m and 72g/162m

Blending the Orange-Brown Llandovery Whiteface Hill - Foxes and Pumpkins

Today I have been having fun with my blending hackle and tackling the Llandovery Whiteface Hill fleece that I dyed orange-brown back in September.  I sorted out the additional fibres that I would be adding to all four lots of Llandovery Whiteface Hill back at that time and then dyed the lots of fleece colours to go with the additional fibres that I had chosen.  All of the additional fibres in the different colours are within a few grams of each other and I plan to use all of each bump of fibre so that the final fibre content won't be exactly the same for all four blends but will be very close.

The other fibres that I chose to put in this blend are, from left to right, top to bottom: 19g Tussah Silk in shade Rust, 12g Trilobal Nylon in shade Pumpkin Spice, 10g Silk Noil in shade Pumpkin, 11g Hemp that I dyed myself in June 2023 using cold water dyes and finally 156g Llandovery Whiteface Hill fibre that I dyed in September that I think looks like the colour of foxes.  With this in mind I have decided to call this colourway "Foxes and Pumpkins".

I discovered that I had somehow managed to felt the wool slightly during the dye process so I had a little bit of trouble getting it to open up again but I managed it and I ended up with 208g of a lovely unique blend ready to spin.

The fibre content of this one works out to be:

75% Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool
9% Tussah Silk
6% Trilobal Nylon
5% Silk Noil
5% Hemp

The 2023 Advent Calendar has arrived

The long awaited Advent Calendar has arrived in a huge box, it's so big my first thought was the line from Molly Weasley when she says "big box for Ron".  I opened the outer-box to reveal a massive black gift box with packaging around the sides.  This packaging is apparently the waste from the wool mill and consists of various fibre and yarns and there has been a bit of a challenge thrown out to see what we will do with it.  Some have said they will bin it, some have said they will probably use it to protect garden plants from the frost and cold over the winter and some, like me, are considering the options, but there is a lot of it.  My packaging weighs 584g!

I have no idea if I will use this, or not, but for now it is bagged up.  It may yet end up in the compost bin or dug into the vegetable bed or something.  I'm not sure yet but it is really soft.

So, onto the box, now that I can actually get it out of the outer box.  It's huge, bigger than last year's, but it also feels relatively flimsy, compared to last year's so I'm not sure if its a size thing or whether it's a cheaper box.  It's more matte and the wording is stuck on with some kind of tape, whereas last years box had a more shiny surface and the wording was properly printed onto the box.  We did try to carefully peel the tape off but the lettering is coming with it so we pushed it back down.  There is no magnetic closure on the box this year and the ribbon can be pulled through both parts of the box.

If I had bought this as a gift for someone else I would be a bit disappointed but I have bought this for myself and it is just the box and the most important things are inside, but even so...

The box is actually too big and so these didn't arrive neat like they are now, they were all over the place and I was a good girl and managed to stand them up without looking at the print on the front that details the name they've given to each one and the fibre contents.  There was also a load of "sprinkles" inside the box, I'm not sure if they paper or a kind of plastic or laminated type material but they have the Aztec type print on them and they are shaped like sheep.  Might use them for something, not sure, but they were a little annoying like when people put sprinkles and glitter inside birthday and Christmas cards and send them in the post to you for you to open and get covered in it all.  Now that all the bags are all stood up the only print I can actually read clearly are the numbers of the days so I sorted them out in order.  They are nice bags by the look of it, I didn't look at them in detail because I'd be able to read the contents and I don't want to but apparently they are resealable.  The issues with these bags are that the details are printed on the outside and so can ruin the surprise and I store all of my fibre in clear bags so that I can see at an instant what the colour is so once I've opened each day I will most likely be cutting around the details to place it in a clear bag with the fibre.  I wonder if they could have had a peel off piece placed over the name and fibre details so that all we see on delivery as the numbers on the bags.  That would have been a solution.

I'm sure as the boxes arrive with their customers those of us who chat on their social media will express our views about what we like about it and what we don't like about it.  I can't believe I start opening this in just over a week's time!