How The West Was Spun

Tour De Fleece Summary - 2011

The 2011 TdF is over!  If you spun, I hope you had a blast!!  I know I did. 

I thought a little handspun summary was appropriate, so here's what I got finished during the tour:

770 yards of mixed BFL from 2IBH in the "Diving Horses" colorway - for a sweater

 

374 yards of merino/cashmere/nylon from 2IBH in the "Landslide" colorway.  For socks.

 

440 yards of a combo spin - Shetland from Funky Carolina in the "Cobble" colorway, and Falkland from FatCatKnits in the "Betsy" colorway.  Earmarked for a vest.

 
 
And finally, 418 yards of merino/silk from my shop, colorway "Summer Breeze".  Probably for socks as well.

 

I spun a total of 36 oz of fiber (2-1/4 pounds), with 2002 yards spun AND I put nothing new into my stash, which was a pretty big accomplishment for me! 

All for now....

Wooly Wonka Fibers - Merino/Silk - Summer Breeze

For my final TdF skein, I decided to spin up the 4 oz of fiber that were part of the monthly fiber club I'm running thru the shop.

The original roving was a 75/25 merino/silk blend, and the colorway was "Summer Breeze".

 

I spun it up semi-worsted putting in a nice bit of twist in the singles, as I am considering this for a sock project.  I divided the 4 oz into two 2-oz sections, and then split each of those lengthwise into 9 pieces, which I then spun onto two bobbins.

 

I plied the two bobbins together, to yield a 2-ply yarn, a 4-oz skein with 418 yards (fingering weight).

 

The above photo was pre-bath so I am assuming the merino will pouf up a bit after it has a soak, but I'm hoping the extra bit of twist I put in will also help keep it from over-poufing. 

All for now......

The Tour Continues

Monday, July 18th was a rest day, but I did get some spinning done yesterday.  I think this will likely be my last braid for the tour.

 

This is the July fiber club from my shop.  It's a 75/25 merino/silk blend and the colorway is "Summer Breeze".  I'm spinning this up as a fingering weight yarn, although I'm not sure yet what I'll make with it.

I have one bobbin (2 oz worth) completely finished, and I've got maybe half of the second one filled up.

 

The Tour ends on Sunday, so my goal is to get the final bit of singles spun up and then ply this by then.

All for now.....

Tour De Fleece: Days 10 and 11

Monday was day 10 of the tour, which was a "rest day".  I took some time to go ahead and prep fiber for the next 8 ounces I have earmarked to spin.

I'm going to be doing a combo colorway spin, one braid from Funky Carolina, and one braid from Fat Cat Knits.

First up is a 4-ounce braid of Shetland from Funky Carolina, dyed in the "Cobble" colorway.

 

I split this roving lengthwise into 12 long skinny strips to break up the color runs.

On day 11 (Tuesday), I sat down and spun.  I'm trying to keep this spin semi-woolen with less twist in the singles for a little more loft and to (hopefully!) prevent the final project from being to wire-like, since this fiber, and the Falkland from Fat Cat Knits are more medium-grade fibers and sort of a medium softness as well.

 

Here's those 4 ounces spun up.  I'm shooting for something like DK-weight, although I have a tough time with DK.  It's just heavy enough it's heavier than my default/no-think-spin sport weight, but not heavy enough to be worsted, and I usually wind up with one or the other, but we'll see how this one goes.

Next up will be the companion spin (I'm planning to ply these two together for 8 ounces total of 2-ply) from Funky Cat Knits, which is also prepped and ready to start.  

This braid is Falkland wool in the "Betsy" colorway, which is an "End of the Day" colorway, meaning not repeatable and done up from the dregs of dye batches from a day's worth of dyeing.

 

I'll be working on that this week.  All for now.....

2IBH - MCN - Landslide

Today's a rest day on the tour - so yesterday I plied up the merino/cashmere/nylon roving I've been working over the weekend. 

The original braid was from Two If By Hand.  It's the uber soft MCN blend they carry and it is a DREAM to spin.  Colorway is "Landslide".

 

I stripped the roving into 16 small thin strips to break up the colorway quite a bit throughout.  I spun 2 oz onto two bobbins. (That was my project for the end of the week/beginning of the weekend.)

 

And then I finished up plying yesterday, yielding a 2-ply yarn with 374 yards total (fingering weight), which I think is going to be fantastic as a pair of socks.

 

All for now.....

2IBH - Mixed BFL - Diving Horses

It is done!  I love how this colorway spun up, and despite the fact it's 90 degrees out here and dry as a bone, I'm thinking of winter sweaters already!

The original fiber was five 4-ounce braids from Two If by Hand of mixed BFL from their Secret Circus club.  The colorway was "Diving Horses".  I spun this up into a 2-ply yarn, which came in just under 800 yards, of a heavy Aran-weight/bulky yarn.

 

I am seriously considering the Britta Sweater for this yarn - I just need to swatch and see if I'm in the ballpark for it at all. 

 

Next week, I'll tackle some smaller-gauge spinning.... all for now......

The Tour: Days 3 and 4

Moving right along on the mixed BFL project for the Tour, I finished up my singles.

 

And started plying.

 

I have a ways to go with the plying portion of the festivities.  I am working my way through the very long Audible version of Game of Thrones.  (I tried to watch the cable version of it - HBO? Showtime?  Something.  But just could not get into it at all.  I am enjoying the book so much better.)  I have something like 35 hours of voice to listen to, and I'm at about 11-1/2 hours, so plenty to keep me entertained while I get this big batch plied up. 

PS - Y'all should NOT look for this level of progress after this batch.  Nothing else I've got planned is worsted weight yarn, so it'll be a much slower go from here on out.

All for now......

Tour De Fleece - Days 1 and 2

The Tour has kicked off and since I am DELIGHTED to say we are back in the house (and the horses are home), life is slowly starting to get back to normal.

My first project for the Tour this year is a 20-ounce lot (five 4-oz braids) of mixed BFL roving from Two If by Hand in the "Diving Horses" colorway.  Before the Tour started, I took all the braids, stripped them into 6 to 8 lengthwise strips per braid, wound them loosely into little balls and then plopped them into a storage container and mixed them up, so they would be blended on the bobbins as singles.

 

Day 1:  I have to come clean and state that, when we evacuated, and were able to get back into the house to pick up a few "essentials" beyond our box of important papers and the animals, I grabbed my travel wheel and the bin of this fiber, which happened to be by the door, and while I bit my nails and watched the smoke plume last Monday night, I spun up about 2 ounces pre-Tour.  So we won't really count those towards my tour totals, but lordy, I needed something nonstressful to think about and this was definitely it.

So, that said, on day 1 of the tour (Saturday, July 2nd), I got back to work on the singles for bobbin #1.

 

Yesterday, Sunday, I applied myself and got the first bobbin of singles filled.

 

It doesn't look like much, but these are BIG bobbins from a new wheel I'm trying out.  So that's actually 10 of the 20 oz spun up.  I went ahead and started on the second bobbin, and put another 4 or so ounces on it, so I've gotten 14 of the 20 oz spun up for this project's singles so far.

Today (Monday, the 4th), I'm at work for the morning for holiday coverage, but then I'm hoping to get at least a few more ounces spun up and on the bobbin.  Hopefully I'll be able to start plying by mid-week!

Tomorrow I'll spare you more pics of singles and show you the handspun shawl I started, which was also in the evacuation project pile.  Four hours of driving back and forth every day to feed the horse boys = lots of mindless knitting time!

All for now......