12 Days of Christmas- 1st January- Jólasveinar

This years 12 Days of Christmas parcels started with a hand dyed braid on 25th December, but then the following days all contain brand new colours of Superfine Merino & Silk. 
This is the exact same fibre composition as all the rest of the stock currently in the shop, so can be used interchangeably in the same projects. This was specially commissioned for the 12 Days of Christmas parcels, which meant I had to order lots of each colour. As a result the spare fibre is going online at midnight (GMT) on the day featuring each individual colour. Anyone can buy this spare fibre... it's really rather pretty! You can find it in the Superfine Merino & Silk section of the shop, and the usual Buy 2, Get a 3rd Half price offer applies to this fibre as well. ​

I've given them seasonal names, picking out traditions from all around the world. ​
​The colourway today is called Jólasveinar.
This shade of icy blue reminds me of frozen glaciers, it's designed to work well with lots of the other colours we've already seen, and a few that we have yet to see by clever use of similar component colours. 

This is a time of year where the giving of gifts is a central part of many cultures and traditions. Who gives the gifts varies, as does the date that the gifts are given. There's also usually a character who is responsible for monitoring bad behaviour! 
​Jólasveinar are the 13 Yule L ads from Iceland. They visit during the night on the 13 nights leading up to Christmas Eve.  Children leave a shoe on the windowsill, and if they have been good a small gift will be left, if they're behaved badly then they'll get the not so nice gift of a rotten potato. 
Each Jólasveinar has his own name, and own characteristics, and they all cause a particular brand of mischief on the night they visit. The present giving is relatively new, a softening of the scary and mischievous behaviour of the  Jólasveinar. They're the sons of Gryla and Leppalud, and for the rest of the year share a cave with Urðarkötturinn, The Yule Cat. He travels around the countryside at Christmastime and eats people who have not received any new clothes to wear for Christmas Eve. 
This myth is relatively recent, probably from the 19th century, and created by farmers to incentivise farm workers to finish processing the autumn wool, and therefore receive their payment of cloth.