Tour de Fleece - Finale

 
  
 
 

Well, another TdF is over, and as usual the extreme heat made it very difficult to spin. However, I did manage to get two more projects done.

Tour de Fleece: Day 19
 

This is the finished Polwarth/Silk blend from Two Sisters Stringworks:

The skein on the right was spun and plied during the Tour; the other two were done beforehand. Spindle spun worsted and either spindle or wheel plied (chain ply) these three skeins total approximately 360 yds of 3ply, 1,080 yds of singles (112 grams/3.95 ounces). TdF spinning portion was 204 yds.

Tour de Fleece: Day 22

I plied the last skein Saturday morning (July 20) of the RDC (Ramboulliet, Dorset, Corriedale) cross fleece. There are five skeins wheel spun/plied during the Tour added to the previous eight skeins. This is a traditional 3ply yarn from either hand combed & hand carded rolags or hand drum carded batts, woolen spun then plied on my wheel (Hansen mSpinner). I'm estimating 726 yds of woolen spun 3ply yarn (2,178 yds singles) for the five skeins, which I will confirm after skeins are dry.

I didn't get to the blue-green braid at all, but that's okay. I'm not really feeling it right now so it's going back in the stash bin. Maybe it will float back up for next year's Tour de Fleece.

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

Wool Breeds Challenge - Polwarth

Polwarth is not a rare breed, it is one of the Fine Breeds, developed in Australia by crossing Merino and Lincoln sheep (3/4 Merino, 1/4 Lincoln).  According to my reference books, it has a micron count of 22-25 (very close to the Merino's 18-24) and an average staple length of four to five and a half inches (from the Lincoln stock).

I've spun Polwarth before (see my August 15, 2010 blog entry)  but that was spun worsted and chain plied.  I thought for this sample I'd try spinning long draw and doing a regular three-ply. 

Polwarth is very soft and squishy-spongey and is very nice to work with.  I like to think of it as Merino with character.  The fiber prep for this sample is combed top which drafted easily longdraw both from the end and from the fold.  I split some of the fiber into three sections, and after I'd spun one from the end and one from the fold, I decided to experiment with the last section by carding it and spinning from a rolag.   I found no discernable difference between the from the end and fold strands and only a slight difference (fuzzier or more of a halo) in the from the rolag strand.

Group sample pic is top to bottom:  fiber, two-ply worsted spun, three-ply longdraw worsted & woolen spun.  The closeup is of both samples.






I'm looking forward to spinning up the rest of the Polwarth I have in my stash.