Advent Calendar 2023 Day 6

The Tradition

Day 6 is called Pōhutukawa and the tradition comes from New Zealand.  It is a flowering tree called the New Zealand Christmas Tree or Iron Tree that flowers November to January with vibrant red flowers.  The oldest tree is thought to be around 600 years old and they are sacred in Māori culture and mythology.  It is a coastal evergreen tree belonging to the Myrtle family that grow up to about 82ft tall.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 60% New Zealand (brown), 20% Sari Silk (Rosette), 20% Corriedale (Grass).  Because this is a New Zealand tradition we have New Zealand fibre in it.  This is a natural brown shade of New Zealand and its got green Corriedale in it, which also comes from New Zealand and its got red Sari Silk in to represent the flowers. You've got a little bit of everything in this blend, brown for the bark, green for the leaves and red for the flowers. This is actually quite a soft blend because the fibres in it are bulky and squishy and you would be able use these in any chosen craft.  This will be an interesting fibre to spin with.  The Sari Silk has got different staple lengths in it which means you don't always get an even draft on it so you would end up with some of it slightly thicker and some of it slightly thinner which would be a lovely textured yarn and it would also be good for an art yarn.  Because this a recycled Sari Silk you get pops of other colours in it so we've got a little bit of pink in here are well as a tiny little bit of green too and it will be a fun blend to work with.

My Thoughts

Upon open the packet I immediately thought of one of the fibres from last years advent calendar, which this reminds me of.  I am thinking that it might work well with last year's Day 3 "Wreath".  The colours are not my favourite blend but I'm ok with that.  

I am also writing up these blog posts some time after the date 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 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.

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.

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 4

The Tradition

Day 4 is called Window Shoes and the tradition comes from Iceland and is just a small part of the tradition of the 13 Yule Lads.  Icelandic Folklore features stories and poems about monsters and trolls and one of these is a female troll called Grýla, who has dozens of children with her first two husbands, none of which are mentioned anymore, but is now married to Leppalúði and has 13 children with him known as the 13 Yule Lads.  In old times these characters were portrayed as kidnappers of naughty children who would take them back to their huge family cave and eat the children.  They were used to frighten children into good behaviour, similar to the story of the Boogeyman.  It is said that the King of Denmark, Christian VI, objected to the use of this disciplinary stool and the scary stories were officially banned in 1746.  In more modern times The Yule Lads are benevolent pranksters who arrive one by one over the 13 nights in the run up to Christmas or Yule and each one stays for 13 days, starting on 12th December and the first lad departs on Christmas Day with the rest departing daily through to 6th January.  They place small gifts in shoes that children leave on window sills, although if the child has been naughty they will find a rotten potatoes in their shoe. 

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.  We have used Icelandic in this blend, naturally, and blended it with Stellina and Glitz to mimic the Northern Lights so you have greys and whites of the snow and cold and these little shocks of green and purple just to mimic the lights and you can actually see it coming through in the blend, which is lovely,  This isn't a really soft blend because Icelandic is not a really soft fibre.  It is double coated which means it has a long coat on the outside and then a shorter warmer coat on the inside which gives it character, as you will on the sheep they look a bit scraggy in places, so this blend is not hugely smooth but its perfect for outer garments if you're going to knit or crochet.

My Thoughts

I'm not a massive fan of this blend but I don't dislike it either.  It is certainly interesting and it definitely does not contain any Stellina whatsoever, there are no metallic looking fibres in this at all.  Stellina looks like the metallic threads that you can buy to hang off a Christmas Tree and gives a sparkle whereas Trilobal Nylon is much softer and really really fine and gives more of a shimmer than a sparkle. At this point in time I am not sure what I will be doing with this one.

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 50% Icelandic, 30% Glitzy Aubergine, 20% Glitzy Mallard, which is different from the Icelandic and Stellina that is printed on the bag.  I have some Glitzy Mallard in my stash and this is made of 70% Merino, 30% Trilobal Nylon.  Aubergine and Mallard are just the names of two colours of the same range of fibre that have the exact same fibre content and no Stellina in sight.  The actual fibre content is 50% Icelandic, 35% Merino, 15% Trilobal Nylon

As I said yesterday, 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. 

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 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.