Tour de Fleece 2014

The first week of the Tour de Fleece I finished spinning the remainder of my Phat Batts, this:

And spun it into four skeins of worsted weight, thick and thin, chain ply yarn totaling about   426 yards.

My second project, spinning sock yarn from some lovely gray Finn/Lincoln cross fleece I hand combed is a traditional worsted spun 3ply with two singles strands spun clockwise and one counterclockwise, and plied counterclockwise. I've never spun this kind of yarn before so I was eager to see what happens.  I ended up with about 299 yds of 3ply which isn't enough for a full pair of socks but would work if I use a different yarn for the legs.

It probably should have more plying twist to be a good sock yarn. I may add that later on.

My third project was to finish plying the 2x2 cabled yarn I was making from the Rambouillet/Montedale cross fleece. I thought I'd finished it several months ago but found some extra bobbins tucked in a corner.  The end result is about 61 yds worth of worsted weight yarn.

Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:  
  Audiobooks:. Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas; The Vampire King by Heather Killough-Walden; Curtains For Three by Rex Stout;           
  DVDs etc:   Murder She Wrote; The Big Bang Theory; Witches of East End; Moonlight;              
  Pod/VideoCasts:  The Knit Girllls; Two Tangled Skeins; Twinset Designs; Yarnspinners Tales; Knitmore Girls;                                    

Fall Spinning

Off My Spindles/Wheel:

For Spinzilla, in October, I spun eight ounces of Corriedale pencil roving from Crown Mountain Farms in the Walpurgis colorway. I also spun about five ounces of BFL/Finn cross fleece, and a little bit of "Mo", a Finn/Dorset/Targhee cross.

This is the finished Walpurgis yarn. It's a chain ply:

And here's the finished 2ply BFL/Finn yarn (top skein), as well as what little 3ply yarn I managed to spin before I gave up on Mo (right skein). Oh, and that's the Walpurgis singles on the bobbins. And by the way, the team I was on (Team Knit Girllls) took second place.

On My Spindles/Wheel:

The only active spinning I have going right now is a small portion of a Rambouillet/Montedale cross pre-washed fleece I purchased several years ago.  I started prepping it by combing then drum carding, but I didn't like the way the carded fiber was coming out or spinning.  Way too many nepps. So I settled on just combing it but still spinning smoothed, attenuated long draw. I've finished the spinning and started plying it (2ply) which will eventually become a 4ply cabled yarn.

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

On/Off My Spindles

On/Off My Spindles:

While I was spinning for the Tour de Fleece, I also continued spinning on projects already in progress.  In some cases that may've been a mistake.

For instance, I spun and plied braid #4 of the Wensleydale in the Rasputin colorway (spun worsted/chain ply).  I did it in one day.  A Mistake.  I rushed, and this little skein came in at half the yardage of the first three.  It's a sport to DK weight yarn instead of fingering.  Grrr  I could smack myself sometimes!


On the bright side, I finished spinning (woolen) and plying (3ply) all of the first half of the Finn/Dorset/Targhee fleece called "Mo".  For this I managed to keep the yarn weight consistent.  I ended up with nine skeins totalling 625 yards of 3ply DK/light worsted weight yarn.  Now I just have to tackle washing the other half of the fleece...



I also plied up the first little skein of the "Promise" soy silk/wool blend yarn.  It's a tiny little thing because I, frankly, got tired of it.  I'm not exactly happy with the feel of the fiber as I'm spinning. Not enough wool content I guess.  Love the colors though so I will finish it.  Eventually.




I'm really looking forward to starting on this tomorrow:



It's Shetland in the "Forecast" colorway from Spunky Eclectic and is my only scheduled Ravellenic's spinning.



Brought To Me By:
Audiobooks:
DVDs etc: Monarchy S1; Harry Potter & THBP; 
Pod/VideoCasts:  Knitmore Girls; The Nerdist; The Knit Girllls;