Tour de Fleece 2010: Final output

 

Well, that was certainly a long and interesting ride.

Tour de Fleece, Day 20

 

Whoops. That whole going on vacation, traveling to Calgary, and visiting people really took a chunk out of my ability to post. And spin. But here's what I've been doing! A) Finished up the purple stuff. ~60 metres, nice and thin and even. B) Knitted the Swiss yarn into a bowl to felt. Couldn't find an appropriate pattern for 55 metres, so faked it. Knit from the centre out, with M1Ls and M1Rs at the four corners for four colours, then even for the rest. Discovered I had much less of the orange than any other colour. Felting will be tomorrow morning! C) Spun up two blue singles, and am working on the orange for a three-ply. A spindle blowout means that the blue is stretched across three spindles. Pictures of the plying to come!

Tour de Fleece, Day 13

 

Spinning thin takes a long time! Still working on the random fibre, working on a thin single. Yesterday's photo included for comparison.

Tour de Fleece, Day 12

 

Yoga at lunch and massage before knitting equals not a lot of spinning today. But I'm trying for a thin single, and so far succeeding. I've also discovered that thin single equals slow progress. :)

Tour de Fleece, Day 11

 

What a dreary day. Luckily, this yarn turned out better than I'd hoped! I might even knit something with it! Random fibre, pink and light blue, plied together (and didn't have much of the light blue left!). Finished plying at North Edmonton knit night. :) I have some more of the random fibre in my bag for tomorrow, but this success has inclined me to ply it with another colour rather than onto itself.

Tour de Fleece, Day 9: Team Talespinners Challenge Day

 

Well, that was a long and busy day. Times that you can't see in the mosaic above:

• Start: 7:41 am


• With breaks for talking to Mom, walking Priest, buying cookbooks at Chapters, and groceries, finished spinning one third of the bag by 5:00 pm. Given that I watched one full disc of Faery Tale Theatre, plus spun a little bit more, I'm estimating about 4.5 hours of spinning for this third of the bag


• With doing dishes and making and eating dinner, done chain-plying the single by 8:59 pm


• Wound onto niddy noddy by 9:18 pm. Letting it rest overnight before giving it a bath, because I've got laundry on the drying rack right now

Specifics: ~64.8 metres of Louet Northern Lights Wool Top in 'Burning Bush.' The Talespinners challenge is to spin something inspired by a fairy tale character. I had started this thinking Firebird or Phoenix on its pyre, but I wasn't feeling it as I spun. As luck would have it, I happened across the sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge while I was hunting up cookbooks at Chapters, and I thought this yarn, with its red and brown tones, matched up with the main character of that retelling well. So I will call this yarn (and the two other thirds that have yet to be spun) Punzy.

 

Tour de Fleece, Day 8

 

Not a great amount of spinning today, but there wasn't a great amount of time either, and I did want to rest up a bit for tomorrow (Team Talespinners' challenge day!). I don't have spinning calluses yet, and my fingers are getting sore! Random fibre, pink is complete, blue to ply it with still in progress. I figured I might as well have some fun, since I can't think of anything else to do with pink fibre... I think I'll call the resulting yarn 'Fraternal,' or maybe 'When You Don't Want To Know.' :)

Tour de Fleece, Day 7

 

Left: Random fibre, pink, spindle made by my dad. The spindle is a little light, and the shaft is a little short, but I'll muddle through. Something to keep me occupied until Talespinners Challenge Day (Sunday!).

Right: Fleece Artist BFL Sliver in Moss, Andean plied. Resting on the niddy noddy overnight.

Tour de Fleece, Days 5 and 6

Day 5, top: Swiss wool, chain plied. That was definitely interesting. It rested overnight as a ball, and I wound it onto the niddy noddy tonight to rest again. I'll set the twist tomorrow and count yardage.

Day 6, bottom: Fleece Artist BFL Sliver in Moss. Great to spin, and making good progress. I should be able to ply it tomorrow. I can't decide if I'll chain ply again for a 3-ply, or Andean ply for a 2-ply. We'll see what it tells me to do.

Tour de Fleece, Day Four

 

Left: Fleece Artist BFL in Moss. Really nice to spin.

Right: Swiss wool, unknown fibre. All spun and ready to chain ply. Tomorrow, once I research how. :)

Tour de Fleece 2010: Day Three

 

Top left, centre: Thistle, unknown fibre, plied today (badly), soaking now. 31.2 m. My dad made the niddy noddy.

Bottom left, bottom centre: Swiss wool, unknown fibre, brought by my parents back from Switzerland last summer. Eight different colours, one handful of each. Spinning the single. Did the white (you can see it below the green) and the green today. Yellow and purple to go, then time to chain ply. Spindle is a Snow White top whorl from The Dragonfly Workshop.

Right top, bottom: Next up, Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester Sliver in Moss left over from my thrummed mittens (I had to buy more). My dad made this spindle as well.

Top centre: Also received today, hand carders! Loaned to me by a friend at work. :)

What I did today...

 

Turned the thistle and weed alley behind the garage into a full garbage bag of plant matter and a now-rakeable area, mowed the back yard and broke the electrical outlets on the outside of the house, made a tired puppy, put together a work bench, and spun up a spindle for the first day of the Tour de Fleece. What should I do tomorrow?