July Summer fun

If it's Summer, it must be time for Stash Dash, and if it's July, it must be Tour de Fleece time!  

This year for the TdF I'm just spinning with no big goals or plans. I'm currently spindle spinning this Masham bump from Spunky Eclectic in the Verdigris colorway.  

 

And I've finished a few others too.  Like this one: BFL in the Gumball colorway that I started in Dec. I chain plied and got about 188 yds of DK weight yarn. 

I also finished this one, a Cheviot called Golden Fields from Spunky Eclectic. 

All three of these are included in my Stash Dash total, as is a pair of sock

My last two skeins of the Corriedale/Polypay fleece

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;                                    

On Your Mark...Get Set

This year's Tour de Fleece starts this Saturday, July 5th and runs through July 27th.  If you are not familiar with it, the Tour de Fleece (TdF) is a global Spin-Along (SAL) held in tandem with the Tour de France cycling competition.  While the cyclists race through France, we spin along with them in an effort to meet our individual goals. Our goals can range from just learning to spin, or spinning a new fiber, spinning down a certain amount of stash or learning a new technique, to spinning a whole fleece - whatever is challenging to us.

I considered joining several teams this year, Wildcard and Official, as I usually do, but eventually decided to keep it to just one team: the Diagon Alley Marauders from the Hogwarts at Ravelry group (and not just because I'm the team captain this year).

My TdF goal is simply to spin down as much stash as I can.  That includes finishing up old SWIPs and starting new ones. For the new, I'm still in the process of prepping fleece, and also deciding which commercially prepped fiber bumps to spin. I love spinning my natural color fleeces, but I need some color to break up the monotony. They're all so pretty though, it's hard to choose.  So I'm thinking maybe I'll go deep stash diving and pull out some of my really early purchases.  Age before beauty I guess. LOL

What I have decided on so far:

(1) five ounces of hand combed Finn/Lincoln cross (adult) to be spun into 3ply sock yarn, one singles spun 's' & two singles spun 'z', plied 's'.

(2) finish plying up (2x2 cable yarn) the remaining Rambouillet/Montedale cross singles (yes, just when I thought I was done with this I found more hiding in a corner).

(3) if I haven't already, finish flicking & combing the Shetland Moorit fleece, then finish spinning.

(4) if I can find it, finish spinning that soysilk/wool blend in Promise colorway that I started in 2012.

Add in three or four more and I'll make a decent little dent in my stash. I would like to spin a minimum of 24 ounces (680 grams) but I don't intend to race through my spinning and sacrifice quality of spinning for quantity spun. That's why my goal is just to spin as much as I can. If I make or surpass 24 doesn't really matter. I'll be happy with whatever yardage I can get to add to my StashDash2014 total.

Ponderings

The Tour de Fleece this year starts on July 5th, and I've been contemplating what to spin. The Knitmore Girls are doing another sweater SPAKAL (spin-along knit-along) so spinning a sweater's worth of yarn is one possibility. Another is to see just how much I can spin in three weeks, and if I go that route, will it include plying what I've spun or just spinning the singles? I also have to consider the weather. July in NYC is hot and sticky and I don't have A/C. On the really bad days I just can't spin.



ON MY NEEDLES:

A hat in leisure colors for the Socks For Soldiers group. I'm using Claudia Handpainted Yarn in the Desert Dusk color way.





I also have a couple pair of socks on the needles in various stages from just started to almost finished.



ON MY SPINDLES:

I'm about halfway through the four ounce bump of Annunaki at Tieman. The first ounce and a half has been plied (chain ply) and is sitting on Sadie, my wheel, at home. If I finish spinning my singles before I get back, I'll start plying them on my spindle, otherwise I'll just add them to what's on the wheel.

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.

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 wrap-up pic

This is my final lineup pic of this years TdF spinning.

Right to Left:
Cotton (24g) Alpaca/Silk (118g), Llama (46g), Yak/Merino (117g), Cheviot wool (233g)





Total 538 grams is a little over a pound (about 18 ounces) of fiber spun.

I still have to spin the second bumps of the alpaca/silk and the yak/merino, but that won't be done until after the Ravellenic Games are over. Right now, I'm going back to my already in progress spinning; we'll see how much of that I can finish by Friday (not too much I'm thinking, maybe Buccaneer).

TdF Day 23: Finished!

Day 23:

TaDa!  




This one shows the colors a little better.



Finished plying at like 5:30 this morning. I normally don't mind plying, but this one, I thought it would never end. Maybe that was because this was a 2ply and I've been doing a lot of 3ply lately. Whatever. It's done!


This was a good TdF and I enjoyed the change of pace from just wool spinning.  But I also learned I really like spinning wool and am eager to get back to it.  


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

TdF Days 21 & 22 - spoke Too Soon

Ya know how I said last time that the yak/merino blend was a fairly easy spin and I'd have no problem getting the first bump done by Sunday? Well, I had to get cocky didn't I.

This is the first half of the bump, about two ounces, spun up. Took me over five hours!!!!



I did okay for the first quarter or so, and then kablam! Not enough twist disguised as just barely enough twist to wind on, or too much twist on too thin a single and snap! I would wind off enough to start up again and it would fall apart. I wound up having to take my lightest spindle and carefully respin a third of the cop while attached to the first part that was okay and then rewind back.

Normally, I spin my singles by look and feel - do I like the way it looks (guess that's the twist angle I'm visually judging), does the twist feel right between my fingertips (not too hard or wiry but definitely changing the fiber texture), does it hold together when I tug gently, and does it ply back on itself the way I like? I think I got too carried away with my fancy drafting and forgot to check my basics. Because when I went back to the basics and added in counting as if I was plying to make sure of sufficient twist in the long drafting zone, everything worked fine.

I'm a little more than half way through the second half of this bump now. I expect to finish it tonight and ply in the morning. Right on time...

TdF Day 20: Yak/Merino blend

Day 20: 

Getting down to the wire here with only three more days left.  

Today I started spinning the 50/50 yak/merino blend in the New Moon colorway from Abstract Fiber. I have two four ounce fiber bumps or strands of top.




I split the first bump in half lengthwise for a standard 2ply yarn.  The staple length is about 2 1/2 inches.  The fiber is soft and slightly spongey feeling. 

This would be very easy to spin worsted, however, the fiber itself doesn't feel (to me at least) as if it would like being compacted into a worsted yarn.  It might take away from the softness of the fiber.  So, instead I'm aiming for a semi-woollen yarn, spinning an attenuated backward draw from the end (kind of the bastard child of longdraw and point of twist).  I tried, at first, spinning point of twist from the fold, but the staple length made it uncomfortable for me.  

The spinning is going fairly smoothly so far.  And I'm pretty sure I can finish spinning and plying this first four ounces by the end of the Tour on Sunday.  


Brought To Me By:
Audiobooks: 
DVDs etc: Veronica Mars, S1; 
Pod/VideoCasts:  Yarnspinners Tales; Round The Twist; 

TdF Days 18-19

Day 18 was a bust. Just too hot to spin

Today was even worse but I managed a little plying before it got too difficult. This is as far as I've gotten plying the cotton: one small skein done, one in progress.



I will finish plying the leftover singles on the bobbin, probably tomorrow.

And I will decide what's up next: camel down, yak/merino (50/50), bamboo or cashmere I'm leaning toward the yak/merino fiber, I think. Camel down and cashmere should be really short stapled fibers similar to the cotton, and the bamboo would be like the silk in the alpaca silk. All too much "been there, done that" for me right now. So I guess I just talked myself into the yak/merino. (There's a bad pun in there I think...talking into...yak, yak yak...but my gray cells have left the building, so, never mind)

Brought To Me By:
DVDs, etc: Veronica Mars S1;

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 Days 12 - Oops, Zzzzzzzz

Sorry folks, I conked out last night before I remembered to post. But I actually made some progress yesterday.

Day 12 I finished spinning up the last two ounces of the second Cheviot braid.  I also plied the Llama (2ply).  And I took the cotton with me to the Atrium meet up and spun for over an hour while I waited for my fellow Knitter's to arrive. I've scheduled this Sunday as a plying day, so I'll ply the two bobbins of cotton and whatever else I've spun through Saturday then.  

Llama pictured here is actually a dark brown.  I had to wash out the color with lights to get a semi-decent pic of the yarn strands.






Brought To Me By
Audiobooks:
DVDs etc: Buffy TVS, season 6; 
Pod/VideoCasts:  Yarnspinners Tales, Knitmore Girls,

TdF Day 11 - Rest Day

Today in the Tour is supposed to be a day of rest. So real early this morning I finished spinning up the llama and wound it onto a plying bobbin. Then I set it aside to rest.

My plan for tomorrow morning is to ply the llama, finish spinning the second half of the second Cheviot braid, and then tackle my overflowing "wash me" box. There must be a dozen skeins/hanks in there waiting for their twist to be set. And a couple of shawls to wash/block Fun times!

Non TdF related: I got another three inches or so done today on the Woolgathering sock while I was waiting to see dr. Stripey socks always seem to go so much faster than others!

TdF Days 4-7

This isn't blogging every day, I know. Me bad. Its not that I have nothing to say, it's just that I'm not so good at coordinating words and especially pictures on a daily basis. So I'm going to play catch-up now and try again for daily posting tomorrow.

Day 4 I spun some more cotton on the spindle and I think I was finally getting the hang of it. At least I only dropped the spindle a few times. No new picture, so look at the previous post's picture and imagine a cop twice as big.

Day 5 I got the urge to ply. Instead of spinning up more cotton, I chain (Navajo) plied what I'd spun up of the Promise fiber. You'll possibly remember that's the pink, blue and lavender stuff. It's a small skein of probably fingering weight yarn (twist hasn't been set yet so it might bloom a little) See:



Days 6 and 7 (yesterday & today) I spun and plied, a lot actually. Of course none of it was what I was supposed to spin for TdF, but it's spinning so I'm counting it. Yesterday I tried organizing my WIPs baskets and came across two braids of handdyed Cheviot fiber that said 'spin me'. So I did. I spun the first braid yesterday and chain plied it today. The fiber is from Two Sisters Stringworks, and while the Cheviot was a little coarse feeling, the fiber braid itself was lovely to work with. Sometimes hand dyeing can slightly felt wool fiber making it difficult to work with. Not the case with this fiber. It drafted easily without any pre-drafting, and the colors are lovely. I think it will be a DK weight yarn after the twist is set, and at least 130 yds of 3ply, probably more.



I also plied up another 3ply skein of the pre-washed half of Mo today. Mo is the Finn/Dorset/Targhee cross fleece I've been processing; half is raw wool and half pre-washed by the seller. No pics of this yet. All my Mo skeins (except one) need a bath first before they're camera ready and I can get a final yardage count. I'm keeping one skein unwashed so I have something to aim for when I spin up the second half.

Brought To Me By:
Audiobooks: Embrace the Night by Karen Chance; Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie; 
DVDs etc: Dr Who season 4, Rosemary & Thyme season 2

TdF Day 3

Day 3 I spun cotton on a drop spindle. For three hours and a lot of spindle dropping. But I persevered and came up with this:



No, I don't know how many ounces or grams that is - I didn't measure, I just spun. It's not much, though, and it's a lot thicker single than I got for Day 2 on the support spindle, see:



Cotton is weird to spin. It has a very short staple length, which means you need a lot of twist for it to hold together, but which also means it's pretty perfect for longdraw. However, it doesn't have the resiliency of wool, so too much twist makes the single snap much faster and easier than wool. It's a fine line to tread when spinning cotton.

Another problem I ran into with cotton on a support spindle is that because the single doesn't need to be strong enough to support the weight of the spindle and cop, it is relatively easy to underestimate the amount of twist needed to make a structurally sound single that will handle rewinding onto bobbins and plying without falling apart. I ran into this problem with wool spun on a support spindle too. It's something I have to watch out for.

Both Days spinning was directly from the cotton sliver - no pre-drafting (staple is so short you really can't). I would like to try spinning from a hand carded and rolled puni, a rolag, and a quasi-batt. But not today. Day 4 if I spin, it will be on other Projects. There are a few projects in progress that need plying. And I need to do some knitting too.