Tour de Fleece

I have never participated in Tour de Fleece - a stash busting event by spinners over the same time period as the Tour de France (in fact the Tour de France people got so worried about their image that I heard they actually sent a nastygram to the Ravelry people saying cease and desist - like who isn't going to be able to tell the difference???)

Anyhow, I took stock of my "stash" before we headed to Eugene & Black Sheep Gathering last month.  No new stuff for me - I have MUCHO MUCHO stash - probably not as much as some - bur probably more than many - 6 or 7 large plastic tubs?

I didn't join any teams or anything but my Tour de Fleece goals for myself are:

#1 - spin at least one ounce of fiber a day - I have found that 2 ounces on each bobbin plies up to a FULL bobbin but I can generally fit it all on and then I have a 4 oz. skein with no breaks.

#2 - Keep a log of what I spin, how much the fiber cost, and how many yards I spun.

#3 - Spin nice enough yarn that our friends Donna & Tom will be comfortable offering it in their farm stand at the Bow Farmer's Market.-

So far I have three 4 ounce skeins - the third one is yellow & lime green - I'm calling it "Lemon/Lime Sorbet" - it's really pretty.

Well, It's late and I've got today's ounce yet to spin!  I'd better get busy!!   

Spinning & spinning

I am still spinning for yarn to make fingerless gloves that were ordered from the Artisan Faire that I did in September - and some ladies from church ordered some special yarn for a family member as a birthday present - so that's one reason why I haven't been at the computer much -

This was some BFL roving that I got at Black Sheep Gathering a couple of years ago - that is the nice thing about "stash" - it inevitably comes in handy - and it doesn't spoil.

Maybe someday I'll learn how to Navajo ply like the beautiful BFL silk yarn that Michelle just finished (you have to scroll down past the tree pictures) -







But it made a beautiful yarn and the fingerless gloves will be colorful.

Depending on how early The Shepherd goes to bed (the time after he goes to bed is my spinning time) and what kind of fiber I'm spinning, I can almost get a two ounce bobbin filled in a couple of hours -




And speaking of Michelle - here is a bobbin of "Inky" - from the beautiful black roving that I bought from her last month. Talk about coals to Newcastle - me, buying Shetland roving? But except for some black & white from Wicket, we don't have any plain black that isn't part of a project already, and I wanted to use a natural colored yarn.

I have been wearing the one pair of fingerless gloves that I had left over (the gold ones in the front) from the Artisan Faire. They are not long enough for my hands, and I don't have any of that particular yarn left, so I've been coming up with some scraps that I think will be good contrasting colors to add some "stripes" to the top of them. But, having never had "real wool" gloves or mittens, I've been amazed at, even with the short length, how warm they keep my hands. I'm looking forward to getting these lengthened.

Stay tuned to find out why I'll have to wash them before I can wear them again though.

Spinning, spinning & more spinning

I have been doing quite a bit of spinning in my spare time - this is some superwashed merino/mohair/silk blend that The Shepherd gave me for Christmas - 4 ounces of brown, green and red yumminess. Don't know what I'll do with it yet.








This is some of Kathy Green's potluck roving that I bought last fall at the Whatcom Weaver Guild sale. I have spun it "s" (counter-clockwise) and plied it "z" (clockwise) because it is a gift for a friend who crochets. I read an article in Spin-Off magazine that said that this type of spinning ("backwards" from conventional spinning) produces a nicer crocheted fabric. I've not made anything with my yarn spun this way yet, so, the "jury" is still out on this one - I'll keep you posted.

Well, here I am -

...sitting at the computer, at a quarter after 11 (p.m.) waiting for a Pumpkin buttermilk pound cake to cool so I can turn it out of the pan - If it turns out to be good, I'll give you the recipe - if not, I'll take it to work - those people will eat anything -

I can't believe that it is the middle of October already - I just did my "Colors of September" - (barely made it in September!) and now it's almost time to do the "Colors of October" already.

"Well, what have I been doing??" you ask...

Mostly I've been doing LOTS of spinning - I've finished a bump of Kathy Green's "potluck roving" for my church auction - & I'm working on an 8 oz package of superwashed Merino and alpaca blend to put in the auction as well. Last year I spent a lot of time spinning the wool, and crocheting a hat and set of fingerless gloves for this event (it is an annual event) and it only went for $25 in the live auction (the wool alone had cost $28!) but my silent auction item of 8 oz of handspun yarn went for $40 - well, that's a no-brainer - two sets of handspun wool coming right up - (I'll take pictures after I get it all washed up and pretty) - and spinning takes up my late night time that I usually use for blogging - something had to give - but I have lots of things to tell you, so keep an eye out for new posts -

Right now, I'm going to go try that Pumpkin Pound Cake!

Just one more yarn thing (well, maybe 2?)

Here are the sample skeins that I made in my class.












The darkest on the left is Navajo/Churo

The brown (moorit, of course) is Shetland

The Light grey is CVM

I can't remember what the dark grey is...



The creamy white on the left is Rambouillet and kid mohair (oooh soft)

The center white is mill spun singles that I triple plied

The next one is the Leicester Longwool

The singles are the Corriedale that we were to spin as many different sizes that we could. These are my thinner ones.


This is the first yarn that I spun from the class that I took a couple of years ago - Yvonne gave us each a big bump (maybe 8 ounces) of roving and this is how it turned out.

Not so good - - just a little underplied -

Judith just happened to mention about "re-plying" yarn - hmm I thought - maybe I could do that with this

So when we had our spinner guild meeting last week, I questioned someone about how to accomplish the task and ta-da - here you have the new re-plied yarn -

It's now a little bit "over-plied" but I'm pretty sure it will come out when I wash it.

I shall make my self a pair of slippers!