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

This and That

 

The 2013 Tour de Fleece starts on June 29th and runs through July 21st.  So far I've joined three teams: the Diagon Alley Marauders (the Hogwarts at Ravelry group),  Footloose (the Hansen mini-spinner group), and the Spin Your Stash group. I haven't decided yet what exactly I'm spinning, but as my general theme this year is stash busting, it really doesn't matter.  And I still have a couple of weeks yet to decide and finish prepping fleece.

    

I am once again participating in The Knit Girllls' Stash Dash 2013 challenge which started on May 24th and will run through Aug 5th.  This year we are knitting, crocheting, spinning and/or weaving our way through 4k of yarn (that's 4,375 yards).  Fingers crossed that I'll actually reach the goal this time.

  
  On My Needles/Hooks:

I'm actively working on the Wendy Johnson 2013 Summer Mystery Shawl and the Cauchy socks by Cookie A, but they're not the only projects on my needles right now.  There's also the Owlie socks in Hufflepuff colors, as well as the resurrected Charlotte Bronte shawl,  the Hexipuff Baby Blanket and some preemie hats.      

    

I've had the urge to make stranded color mittens for quite some time now.   I have two books of mitten patterns in my library that I'd love to work my way through, as well as a sampler pack of Knit Picks Pallette yarns to knit with.  Right now I'm going through the books and my Ravelry favorites and queue and selecting patterns and matching yarns for them.  Sometimes planning is as much fun as knitting!        

  
 
  On My Spindles/Wheel:

  I have worked on some odd fiber samples for the  Itty Bitty Bits and I've been sporadically spindle spinning a bump of BFL/silk from Two Sisters Stringworks, but mostly I've been doing fiber prep - combing and carding fleece.    

There's a Ramboulliet/Montadale cross fleece that I'm using to practice carding on my new drum carder.  Honestly, I think I prefer hand carding, but that could be because I'm new at it (the drum carding).

I'm also working on an absolutely lovely Ramboulliet/Dorset/Corriedale cross fleece (a/k/a the RDC fleece) that's just a joy to comb and hand card. It's only drawback is it has a lot of yellow in it, but a nice dip in a dye bath should take care of that.  I've started woolen spinning the hand carded rolags and it spins like butter.  My singles are the thinnest I've done so far so I'm hoping my final 3ply yarn will end up as fingering or sport weight yarn.      

There's also the Expand Your Horizons spinning for March (Jacob) and May (Coopworth) that I have the fiber for but haven't touched.  I may not get to spinning this particular batch of Coopworth because I'm blending it with some other fiber for Q to use for her sister's wedding shawl.  Guess that means I just might have to buy more fiber.  Heehee :-)      

      
  
 
Brought To Me By: Crafting accomplished with the following audio/video accompaniment:    
  Audiobooks:                
  DVDs etc:  Midsomer Murders; Why Didn't They Ask Evans; The Borgias; Murdoch Mysteries; Hemlock Grove; Doctor Who; Moonlight; Twin Peaks; Angel; NCIS;                      
  Pod/VideoCasts:  The Knit Girllls; Round the Twist; Yarnspinner's Tales; The Knitmore Girls; The Nerdist; Knitting Pipeline; SpinDoctor;