Spinning "Chocolate Box"

This is the second of four planned yarns that I am making using the last of the black Jacob wool that I have from fleece that I got several years ago.  For this one I topped up what was left on the bobbin of the black Jacob and then I spun up the 53g of "Selection Box" 50% Shetland, 25% Bamboo, 12.5% Flax, 12.5% Sari Silk from Day 20 of the Advent Calendar 2022.

I spun each of them separately and then just plied them together until all of the Selection Box was used up.  I used 52g of black Jacob with the 53g of Selection Box.  The fibre content is 50% Jacob, 25% Shetland, 12.5% Bamboo, 6.25% Flax, 6.25% Sari Silk.

I love the way that the colours of Selection Box are constantly changing like the flickering flames of a fire and plying that with the black Jacob really shows that up.  I've played around with the original name and the fact that it is now plied with the black/brown Jacob and called it "Chocolate Box".

This has turned out to be Double-Knit weight and there is 97g/214m

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 7

The Tradition

Day 7 is called Nisser and the tradition comes from Denmark.  They are actually called Nisse and are small gnome like creatures with white beards that live in homes and gardens and look after the area they live in as well as any resident animals.  They are one of the most familiar creatures in Scandinavian folklore.  In English editions of Hans Christian Anderson stories the word Nisse as been translated and replaced with the word Goblin.  Rice pudding with a pat of butter on the top is put out for them on Christmas Eve and if you skimp on the butter you risk them playing tricks on you for the next year. 

The Fibre

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The actual fibre content is different to that that was printed on the bags, see the comments in "My Thoughts" for full details.  The blend is made of Merino, Viscose and Bamboo and its this wonderful green shade because if you're living the garden you're actually going to want to be well camouflaged in the foliage.  The Merino brings the green to it then we have the Bamboo running through and also the nepps and tweedy-ness of the Viscose coming through as well which gives us a lovely amount of texture.  It's really soft which makes it versatile for spinning, crochet, wet felting and it will do all of that at a drop of a hat. 

My Thoughts

As soon as I opened the packet this one looked very familiar to me as I have something the same or similar in my stash called Riddle and I kind of know what I will be doing with this one, spinning them up individually but to the same thickness and using them both in the same project, maybe something with stripes.

The percentages that they originally gave on the chat boards was 50% Riddle, 25% Tweed, 25% Merino, which is different from the Merino, Viscose and Bamboo that is printed on the bag.  I have some Riddle in my stash and this is made of 33.33% Merino, 33.33% Bamboo and 33.33% Tweed.  We have already discovered that this Tweed is actually made up of 80% South American Wool, 20% Viscose. So, there is Tweed in the Riddle part and also extra Tweed has been added.  Figuring this one out actually made my head spin a little but I done the math and the actual fibre content, with figures rounded to 1 decimal point, is 41.7% Merino, 33.3% South American Wool, 16.7% Bamboo, 8.3% Viscose.  The also informed us that the additional Merino element is made up of two colours, Emerald and Lightning.

Top: 50g of Nisser containing 50% Riddle
Botton: 100g of Riddle

As I've already said a couple of times, 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, as this one got quite messy!.

Spinning "Night Sky"

This is the first of four planned yarns that I will be making using the last of the black Jacob wool that I have from fleece that I got several years ago.  For this one I spun up a whole bobbin of the black Jacob and then I spun up the 48g of "Baubles" 100% Merino from Day 8 of the Advent Calendar 2022 that I overdyed in June 2023.

I spun each of them separately and then just plied them together until all of the Merino was used up.  By some miraculous fluke my finished yarn weighed exactly twice that of the Merino, so despite being different types/textures of wool both singles weighed the same and so this is 50% Jacob, 50% Merino.

I love the way the colours of the Merino are constantly changing between blue/lilac/purple and plying that with the black Jacob really makes the colours pop.  I've called it "Night Sky".

This has turned out to be Double-Knit weight and there is 95g/225m

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.