Advent Calendar 2023 Day 13

The Tradition

Day 13 is called Sinterklaas and the tradition comes from The Netherlands. Based on Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children, who was a Greek bishop in Turkey.  He is depicted as an elderly, stately man with white hair and a long white beard and wears a traditional white bishops alb with a long red cape over the top and a red mitre on his head. When he died stories of the goodness he did were told and eventually these became celebrated in the middle ages. Sinterklaas carries a big red book which records whether each child has been good or naughty in the past year. The feast of Sinterklaas is celebrated in the Netherlands on St Nicholas' Eve, 5th December, with the giving of gifts. The feast is also celebrated in other nearby countries on 6th December.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 60% Bio-Nylon (Rosso), 24% South American Wool, 7% Merino, 6% Viscose, 3% Stellina (Gold). Saint Nicholas has been dressed in red and white and that is what this blend is focussing on.  A blend of bio-nylon, wool, viscose and Stellina,  The red in this is the bio-nylon, chosen because it is biodegradable and even though Sinterklaas is dressed in red we really wanted to focus on the glitteryness and also on some of the textures that you see like ruffles around his hood and his collar and cuffs.  We have the lovely red and the glittery Stellina and you can see the really nice nepps running through this.  The great thing about this, it's got a very very large amount of Stellina in it, more than we normally put in which means it will show throughout all of the work you're doing but because this Stellina is quite soft it's not going to give you an itchy or scratchy feel. If you're spinning with it you probably want to draft it out in advance of spinning so that you can make sure you get a bit of everything in every ply and this really is quite a fun blend, there is a lot going on.

My Thoughts

I took a sharp in-take of breath when I opened this one and then squealed excitedly.  It's gorgeous! I can't wait to spin this one and I might spin it along with a white blend from last year's advent calendar that was pure white but very much similar to the white parts of this blend.  I'm not sure yet but that might be what I do with it.

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 not correct.  What they originally gave us was 60% Bio Nylon (Rosso), 30% Natural Tweed,  10% Glitter White/Gold.  They state that it is a high Stellina content blend, and it does look like there is a lot of it.  After discussion, the Natural Tweed is actually 80% South American Wool, 20% Viscose and the Glitter White/Gold is 70% Merino, 30% Stellina so this means that the final fibre content is actually 60% Bio Nylon, 24% South American Wool, 7% Merino, 6% Viscose and 3% Gold Stellina.  I can't believe that there is only 3% Stellina in the blend, it certainly looks like there is far more than that in the blend! 

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 "Sky at Night" and "Magic"

This is the last 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 spun up the last of the black Jacob and then I spun up the 63g of 100% Merino from that I overdyed in June 2023, it was previously a repulsive "Hot Pink" or "Barbie Pink" colour that was in a "mixed bag" that I bought for my "ingredients cupboard" but I was never going to use it as it was so the time had come to over-dye it in a useable colour. 

I spun each of them separately and then just plied them together until one of them ran out.  As it happened, I ran out of the Jacob before I ran out of Merino so once I had finished the yarn I made a small skein of Merino by making an Andean plying bracelet of the remaining single on the bobbin and plied it back to itself.  The main skein is 52.5% Jacob, 47.5% 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.  It is similar but different to "Night Sky" so I have called it "Sky at Night".

This has turned out to be sport weight and there is 99g/244m

For comparison between the two...

This one is the top one of the two, the bottom one is the one I spun up on 6th December 2023, which was a little thicker too.

The remaining Merino, I spun back to itself so that this little skein is 100% Merino and is sport weight and 12g/33m and I've called it "Magic".

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 12

The Tradition

Day 12 is called Oplatek and the tradition comes from Poland, dating back to the 10th century.  The custom is traditionally observed during Wigilia, a traditional Christmas Eve vigil that extends into Midnight Mass in Roman Cathollic Churches all over Poland. The pale unleavened wafers are baked from pure wheat flour and water are thin and identical to the alter bread given during Mass. The special Christmas wafers are rectangular and embossed with Christmas-related religious images such as the nativity scene, Mary and child or the Star of Bethleham.  The family gather around the table to feast but first the eldest takes one of these large wafers and breaks a piece off and the wafers passes around the table whilst a prayer is said and each person breaks off a piece of wafer.  Once everyone has a piece of wafer they wish good things for friends and family for the coming year whilst consuming the piece of wafer.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 50% Suri Alpaca, 25% Shetland, 25% Bluefaced Leicester.  The wafers tend to be pale in colour and so is this blend too.  We've selected some really interesting fibres.  This is Suri Alpaca, Shetland and Bluefaced Leicester.  Everybody knows BFL, they're an iconic UK breed and they have a lovely soft fleece.  Everybody knows Shetland but again they're another well known UK breed with a load of different colours and a very springy fleece but how many people Suri Alpaca, their fibre is silky and it's got a lovely drape to it and you can really feel it in this blend  The Suri adds a whiteness to it whereas the BFL and the Shetland give much more of creamy texture. This is a really versatile blend, whatever you want to do with it it will happily go along with it.  If you're spinning you can spin this to a fine weight, like a lace weight if you wanted to, or you could make something really rather bulky for a nice sumptuous squish that will knit and crochet really nicely.

My Thoughts

I like this one. Soft with almost a halo about it but at the same time it feels like it has a bit of a bite, grip, but not too much, it will still be a nice soft yarn.  I will most likely pair this one with one of the white ones from last years Advent Calendar as there were a number of white blends in that one too that will work lovely with this one to give me a nice amount to make something with.  

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.  

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 11

The Tradition

Day 11 is called Black Cake and the tradition comes from Barbados. A lot like our traditional Christmas cake but made with browning, which is a caramel-like syrup made from sugar and water which darkens as the cake is cooked, giving it a deeper colour and a distinctive flavour.  While our cakes can be soaked in whiskey, brandy or rum, the Black Cake is traditionally soaked in rum. 

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 40% Jacob (Black), 40% Shetland (Woodpecker and Tropic), 20% Bio-nylon (Bluebell). We have some beautiful blues because you can't think of Barbados without the blues but we also have some natural blacks in here.  The natural black is brought to us by the Jacob and Shetland. Jacob has patches of black and white with grey in between. Shetlands come in a massive variety of colours but they do come in black so you get these lovely darker shades.  We've popped some bio-nylon in which means that it has this lovely blue shade running through it and the great thing about the bio-nylon is it acts just like a wool, you don't get any squeak or sheen or anything like that, it looks matte, like a Merino blend would.  This isn't a super soft blend, its got a nice handle to it which means it will behave itself when you're spinning, it won't try and run away with you.  This is a really really versatile blend and it does have nice bit of bulk and squish to it so just like Barbados black cake I reckon this blend is going to be a bit moreish as well.

My Thoughts

I love the colour of this one.  It's not as soft as I would expect from Jacob and Shetland and I know that bio-nylon is not a harsh fibre either, its really soft.  I have found this though, that Jacob, especially, from suppliers is never as soft as what I get from raw fleece, and I think it might be because I comb all of the fleece that I get in and so all the coarsest fibres are removed to leave just the nicest, finest, softest fibres whilst fleece prepared for spinning by mills probably leave a lot of that in as they will want to get as much from a fleece as possible but my preference is always quality over quantity. With the bio-nylon in this one the yarn should be quite hardwearing.  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 colours and it came out quite bright and vivid but in reality it is much duller and it is even a little darker than what my Canon camera captured.

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.  

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 10

The Tradition

Day 10 is called Red Candle and the tradition comes from Ireland and dates back to the 17th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries there were oppressive laws put in place by the British Government to try to restrict the practice of Catholicism in Ireland and churches were not allowed, forcing Catholic priests into hiding.  During the night, Priests would sneak back into towns to say mass in people's homes.  A lit candle in the window would signify that it was a safe place for the priest to go but it also drew the attention of British Soldiers who wanted to know what the reason for all the candles were so the innocent story that they were placing candles in the window to light the way for the safe passage of Mary & Joseph began. On Christmas Eve large red candles are lit and put in windows to mark the arrival of Christmas and also to welcome home friends and family.  Many also use the candles in the window to remember departed loved ones or to pray for the safe return of a loved one who was away from the home at that time.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 55% Merino (Crimson), 30% Bamboo (Harrietta), 10% Flax (Carmine), 5% Stellina (Gold).   We have blended Merino, Bamboo, Flax and Stellina for this blend, you've got to have a bit of glitter when you're talking about candles. The Merino is what holds all of this together, this is 23 micron Merino so is soft but not super soft and the flax adds a bit of texture. The bamboo in it will just give a very very light sheen and we've balanced the Stellina with a little bit of white as well so its not too heavy in the red department.  This is a really really versatile blend. In terms of spinning and weaving this will do that all day long if you draft out and pull it into sections you can make sure you get a bit of sparkle in every single bit of yarn.

My Thoughts

I love this one, it's red and sparkly and I love me some sparkles! The phone on my camera didn't do too bad this time.  This should make a soft yarn and it shouldn't be too difficult to spin as the flax and Stellina will give a bit of grip to the other fibres. My immediate thought is to put this with the other red that we've already had this year on Day 3, the KFC related tradition. We will see in the future.

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.  

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.

Spnning "Mint Chocolate"

This is the third 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.  I made sure I had a full bobbin of the black Jacob and then I spun up some odds and sods of green Merino that I had in my "ingredients cupboard", which is a cupboard full of small amounts of various fibres in various colours that you can buy as "mixed bags" etc and most are generally 10-30g sample sized bumps of fibre, into a gradient.  I made the green merino gradient by just simply pulling bits off of each adjoining colour and basic hand blending it a bit to make a "go-between" colour.  I did this for all of the adjoining colours.  It's far from perfect but it's worked pretty well.

31g Conifer, 18g Forest, 18g Leaf, 14g Peppermint
89g Natural black/brown Jacob 

As you will note, there was far more of the darkest green than any of the other 3 greens and I could have decided to not use all of it but I did use it all and my thinking was that I could use this to my advantage if I make a semi-circular shawl that starts with just a few stitches and increases with each row. I would have quite a deep section of the lightest colour and then as the shawl gets bigger the next two colours would be used on a decent number of rows, but not as many as the lightest colour, and then with the length of the rows being so long by the time I start using the darkest shade I would need that extra amount to get any decent number of rows worked in it before it runs out.

I spun each of them separately and then just plied them together until all of the green Merino gradient was used up.  I used 89g of black Jacob with the 81g of Merino.  The fibre content is 52.5% Jacob, 47.5% Merino.

I'm not totally in love with this one.  I had an idea and I had to try it out.  It could have gone better, I could have done it better.  I think the palest of the green looks almost white and I think that is what is throwing me off this a little bit. It is what it is.  I've called this one "Mint Chocolate".

This has turned out to be Double-Knit weight and there is 166g/396m

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 9

The Tradition

Day 9 is called Julebord and the tradition comes from Norway and translates as "Christmas Table", also called Julefrokost in Denmark, Julbord in Sweden.  This tradition is about feasting and drinking with friends and family.  People gather and enjoy all of their favourite sweet and savoury traditional Christmas food.  This can include lamb, spiced sausages, rice pudding, jam and mulled wine and also Akevitt, which is a distilled Scandinavian spirit that has been made since the 15th century and is distilled from grain or potatoes and flavoured with a variety of herbs.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 50% Superwash Merino (Syrup), 20% Soybean, 20% Milk Protein, 10% Tussah Silk (Kale). With this blend we have been very careful with what we've put in it because we wanted to mimic the sort of foods that you might have at a Juleboard so specifically we have a Superwash Merino which is named Syrup and we've got Soybean and, Milk fibre and then we have Tussah Silk in the colour of Kale.  We wouldn't recommend eating all of these together by the way as it probably wouldn't taste very nice.  We have a lovely bright yellow blend and this is immensely soft and the kale in this is very very pale blue green colour coming through it, which adds a nice bit of depth to this blend.  This is very soft but unfortunately this will not work for felting.  If you spin, crochet or weave this will work very well in everything that you do and you can also put it through the washing machine but only on a gentle wash.  You can see the white of the Milk fibre and the Soybean in it.  The Soybean is slightly more creamy and the Milk is a bright white.  Merino in Syrup is the yellow and the Tussah Silk in kale is the green and that is a lovely blend and it really is so soft without being overly drapey.  You find that sometimes if you put too much of a fibre, such as a Mulberry Silk into it the drape is so heavy it pulls the blend apart but the Merino does a really good job of holding everything together and giving it a really great handle.

My Thoughts

This is a really fine fly-away blend, there is Milk fibre and Soybean in this, which are cellulose based fibres and these are very much like the Tussah Silk, which is also in this and these fibres make up 50% of the blend with the other 50% being the Superwash Merino. This one is a lot brighter/bolder than how the camera on my phone captured the colours, which looked quite washed out. I think I will need to spin this quite slowly and carefully so that it doesn't clump up.

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.