Tour de Fleece 1st week

 
  

 

The Corriedale Ewe I plied on Day 1 has dried, and it shrunk a bit.  Instead of the 200-220 yds I was estimating, I got 179 yds of traditional 3ply (537 yds singles) from five ounces of drum carded fleece. Average wpi is 16.  

  
 

The ten mini-batts of the Rambouillet/Dorset/Corriedale fleece I drum carded on Day 1 have been spun. I still have lots more to drum card so this is ongoing.

I'm spindle spinning the Polwarth/silk blend from Two Sisters Stringworks. This is what I spun for Day 2. The spindle is now twice as full and ready to be moved to a bobbin. I've got about two ounces, more or less, left to spin. I'm hoping to get to that this weekend.

This is today's (Day 8's) progress: Abstract Fiber "Chocolate Rainbow" alpaca/silk, 190 yds 3ply yarn (570 yds singles). Picture taken before twist set (it's drying now). Spun worsted/semi-worsted and chain/Navajo plied.

 
 

 

And They're Off....

 
 
The 2013 Tour de Fleece (TdF) started today, June 29th, and runs through July 21st. For the unfamiliar, the Tour de Fleece runs concurrent with the Tour de France. While the cyclists race through France, we spin through our stashes in an effort to meet our individual goals. Those goals are personal and can range from just learning to spin, spinning a new fiber, to learning the ins and out of a new wheel or spindle, spinning down a certain amount of stash, or to spinning a whole fleece. This year I'm on three Wildcard teams: the Diagon Alley Marauders (the Hogwarts at Ravelry group),  Footloose (the Hansen mini-spinner group), and the Spin Your Stash group, as well as the Lantern Rouge group, one of the main TdF groups. My goal is to spin as much as I can.
   
 
This is what I hope to get through. It's mainly finishing up SWIPs and a couple of new projects.
Clockwise from right: (1) Ramboulliet-Dorset-Corridale cross fleece what's left to prep, spin, ply (2) Abstract Fiber Chocolate Rainbow bump #2, 4oz (3) Six bobbins of Corriedale ewe singles to ply (4) 4oz hand painted Finn, and (5) Two Sisters' Stringworks Polwarth/Silk blend.    
  
There are a few others I wanted to include, but we will see how far I get with this first.

First up is plying the Corriedale in a traditional 3ply.  The twist isn't set yet (it hasn't finished drying yet), but I'm estimating there's between 200-220 yds of sport weight yarn here.  I was in such a hurry I forgot to check the wpi before I soaked it, but it was spun semi-worsted so I'm hoping it won't poof up too much. Time shall tell.  
  
 
Next up is the alpaca/silk blend from Abstract Fiber in the Chocolate Rainbow colorway.  If it looks or sounds familiar, well it should.  I spun the first bump during last year's TdF.  I'm spinning this worsted and will chain ply as I did the first bump.  I just love the colors in this. I spun until the fiber started sticking to my hands too much, then switched to prepping the RDC cross fleece on my drum carder. I ended up with ten small batts totaling about 3.50 ounces.
Here's a group photo of Day One's progress, top to bottom: batts, Chocolate Rainbow, plied Corriedale skein

TdF Days 16 & 17

Days 16 & 17 progress:



This is four ounces of the alpaca/silk blend in the Chocolate Rainbow colorway from Abstract Fiber.  I plied this on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.  Love the colors.  Picture is hot off the niddy noddy and pre-finishing soak.  Although I spun worsted, it seems a bit fuzzier than I expected.  This required a lot more twist than I expected too, both in the spinning and in the plying.  Somewhere in my stash I have some 100% alpaca fiber that I think I'd like to try as a comparison - would it require as much twist as the blend or was that because of the silk content;  is the fuzziness a characteristic of all alpaca or just that one, etc.  Just not right now.  Maybe in a month or so.

I also started plying up the cotton, and that too requires a lot of twist.  It's slow going so I will continue working on it as a change of pace from regular spinning.




Brought To Me By
Audiobooks: 
DVDs etc: Charmed S1; Veronica Mars, S1; 
Pod/VideoCasts:  Yarnspinners Tales; The Knit Girllls,  Sticks & String; 

TdF Day 15 - MoreChocolate Rainbow

TdF Days 15:

Finished the first four ounce braid of the alpaca/silk blend.  No picture because it's basically the same as the first pic, just a fatter bobbin.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is a designated plying day, so I will ply both the alpaca and the two bobbins of cotton then.  


Brought To Me By
Audiobooks: 
DVDs etc: Dr Who, S5; Charmed S1; 
Pod/VideoCasts:  Yarnspinners Tales; Cast On; 

TdF Day 14 - Alpaca/Silk

This is about half of the first braid spun worsted. The fiber is a 50/50 alpaca/silk blend from Abstract Fiber in the Chocolate Rainbow colorway. Once I adjusted to the longer (than cotton or llama) staple length of three to four inches, it's proving to be a very easy spin.

Participating in the TdF always teaches me something. This time it's practicing drafting techniques: attenuated long draw for the cotton and llama, and short forward draw (SFD) with this alpaca/silk blend. I actually think I'm getting the hang of working SFD back and forth across the fiber supply instead of down the side. Something I've always had a problem with.

Brought To Me By:
DVDs, etc:. Dr Who, season 5; Charmed, season 1;

TdF Day 13

Early this morning, like crack of dawn early, I plied up the second braid of Cheviot. Worsted spun, chain (Navajo) plied, and I think they both came out nicely:



Will figure out the yardage after they've dried.


Started spinning the Alpaca/silk blend this evening. Refresher:



This is a brown (chocolate) alpaca and silk blend dyed in lovely jewel tones called Chocolate Rainbow. I've decided on spinning this worsted, and as it appears I can spin this fine enough to get a thin (say maybe fingering weight) 3ply yarn, I'm planning to chain ply and keep the colors intact. Staple length averages about three plus inches which isn't as long as I expected. It's slippery and needs more twist than I expected as well. I'm thinking I might like this better to spin if it had a little less silk in it (this is 50/50 blend). I do like the difference in dye take-up between the silk and the alpaca though.


Brought To Me By:
DVDs etc: Dr Who-The End of Time; Buffy TVS season 7;
Pod/Videocasts: Yarnspinners Tales; Round The Twist

TdF Day 9 - Llama etc

I started spinning the Llama cloud early this morning. Should probably call this Dark Chocolate Bliss! The staple length for this is about an inch or so. No guard hairs. Very easy to spin; just pull off clumps of fiber and go. Spinning longdraw because of the short staple length and it's going very smoothly. I'm thinking I'll make this a 2ply yarn.



Also started spinning the second Cheviot braid, and some more cotton. Things are progressing.

And after checking out the 70/30 alpaca/silk fiber this morning, I'm still contemplating how it should be spun. I need to take a piece off and sample which I prefer - spinning worsted or semi-worsted. Hoping to get enough for a good sized shawl so definitely a 2ply, but how to spin requires more thought.


Brought To Me By:
DVDs, etc: Dr Who: The Waters of Mars
Pod/Videocasts:. Yarnspinners Tales, Round The Twist,