Tour de Fleece 2009
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Wednesday 24th June
Tour De Fleece 2009
The Tour de Fleece is coming up, from July 4th to July 26th. It is the spinning analogue to the Tour De France bicycle race. Last year I made valiant efforts to spin every day, but circumstances thought otherwise and I skipped several days.
One Tour De Fleece goal for this year is to spin every weekday. I think fifteen days of spinning is doable. Another goal is to improve my plying, and for that I need plenty of singles to practice on. I put a lot of plying twist in the yarn, probably too much. Two well-plied skeins would be a good goal to aim for.
Above is my current spinning. My Kundert spindle has some of a Fuzzarelly batt on it I got from Susan's Spinning Bunny, the fibre is merino, silk, and angora. Really not liking the neps in the batt but the colour is turning out well. This will be a two ply yarn and I'll make a plying ball from it (see this article on drop spindle plying from Abby Franquemont).
On the wheel is some suri alpaca roving from an animal called Bevin, who is a fantastic toasted coconut colour. I didn't meet Bevin at MOPACA but I'm told he's gorgeous. The roving is amazingly soft and destined to be a three ply light sport-weight yarn, I'm hoping for about 300yds of yarn (which means spinning 900yds/823m of singles, eep!). I want it to stay this soft, and my Teach Yourself Handspinning book says to spin from the fold. I've never done that before, it should be an interesting experiment! It feels like kitten belly-fur on a well-groomed, indoor cat.
Monday 6th July
First skein
My goal for this year's Tour de Fleece is to spin every weekday of the Tour de France, and to have two decently plied skeins by the end. I tend to rush the plying and so it can be more twisty than it should be. Decided to leave Bevin for another challenge because my "Teach yourself visually handspinning" suggested spinning it from the fold. Worked on the rest of a 2oz bag of kid mohair instead.
Saturday 4th July
First Independence Day as a US citizen! No spinning today, made awesome fresh cherry pie and lit fireworks for the first time in my life.
Sunday 5th July
Spun 1.5oz of mohair on the Majacraft Rose, spinning it thin with a wicked amount of twist, it seems to require that. Singles on the bobbin have a nice halo. Using kid mohair from Blackwater Treasures in a grey/white colour that has some VM in it, fibre feels pre-drafted out of the bag, very easy to spin. Two bobbins ready to ply. Hadn't expected to finish it so fast and I have no idea what to spin next.
Monday 6th July
Left the mohair overnight to set a little before plying. Tried to slow down and keep checking for balance as I plied, came out with 102yds of light fingering weight yarn. Washed it, thwapped it against the shower wall, and hung it up to dry. Next!
Thursday 9th July
Skein and bobbin
There are two separate Tour de Fleece's going on, the one I'm doing, and another one on Ravelry with prizes and hoopla. They both apparently started in 2006. A highlight of the Tour de Fleece I'm signed up with is the list of participant blogs on the main page, because spinner's blogs aren't always easy to find.
My goals were two well-plied skeins by July 26th, and spinning every weekday. Four days in, I already had the best 2 ply skein I've done. Maybe I need to add another goal.
Tuesday 7th July
Yesterday's mohair skein is dry, and it's balanced and mostly even, with a slight halo. It is the best two ply I've produced and I'm looking forward to knitting with it. Planning to make a kerchief for bad hair days.
Spinning 2oz of 60/40 Suri alpaca and Icelandic sheep blend for another 2 ply skein, this one will be a light beige colour. Brief window of spinning time before karate group class, taught by Aimee. When she has us do the spinning wheel kick, I get a mental image of booting a Schacht across the room.
Wednesday 8th July
Very pleased with how the mohair skein turned out. The plying is very good, not too much twist and it looks consistent. Slowing down is key for me. Planning to dye it with tea next week.
Spun more alpaca/Icelandic on the wheel, over halfway through the first bobbin and spinning well. It's a nice toasty colour but the fibre sheds like crazy! Got a tea towel to lay on my lap when I'm spinning. This will probably end up a light fingering weight when it's plied.
Thursday 9th July
More alpaca/Icelandic on the wheel today. Finished the first bobbin and started the second.
Tuesday 14th July
Spinning along
Getting close to my "two well-plied skeins" goal now, still spinning every weekday. I'm spinning on Tour de France rest days because my goal is not to follow them exactly.
Friday 10th July
Working on the second bobbin of suri/icelandic, probably about halfway through. Pleasantly surprised with how fast this is spinning up, I'm going to need another fibre to spin very soon. Can I spin another 4oz of fibre before the Tour is up on July 26th?
Heading to Chicago for the weekend, so no spinning Saturday or Sunday. Still on track for my goal of spinning every weekday.
Monday 13th July
Didn't quite finish the suri/icelandic today, but I will tomorrow so I can ply Wednesday and start some pink merino/bamboo on Thursday. Why is all the dyed fibre in my stash shades of pink? I'm not a pink person. I think the suri/icelandic will be another light fingering weight 2 ply. Spinning with a tea towel on my lap to catch the stray fibres, wish I'd thought of this before!
Thursday 24th June
One goal met!
Made my goal of two well-plied skeins on Tuesday 14th, one of mohair, one of suri/icelandic. Both are small skeins, 102yds and 117yds, and both are two ply. The skeins are balanced and the plying is even, I'm very happy with these. My other goal is spinning every weekday and I'm still on track with that.
Tuesday 14th July
Finished spinning the suri/icelandic, plied and washed it, 117yds of 2 ply yarn with a nice halo. The skein is balanced and the plying seemed to be OK. This fibre didn't shed as much as the mohair. The strands stuck together after washing, so I have to re-skein it. Suri/icelandic in the middle, mohair is on the right.
Wednesday 15th July
Divided up the merino/bamboo/nylon fibre (60/30/10 blend) from Susan's Spinning Bunny into two 2oz clumps. The colour is "Sunrise" and it's a lot more pink than I was expecting when I ordered it. Fibre feels very soft and it has a nice blend of colours from white to bubblegum to deep pink. It feels a bit like silk, a bit like milk protein fibre, somewhat flyaway, and the roving is dense. Spun it thin, it will be another 2 ply yarn.
Saturday 18th July
All pink, all the time
Decided to re-skein the suri/icelandic yarn, I might have felted it a little when I washed it. The mohair yarn will be dyed in black tea next week, and re-skeined after that.
Thursday 15th July
Spun more of the pink merino/bamboo. The colouring is interesting, it looks as if the different fibres took dye differently. There is some red in the mix, but a lot of light and dark pink. Got the first layer down on the bobbin, I'm spinning with the second slowest ratio on the slow whorl and trying to treadle slower. When I first started spinning my problem was the yarn would snap all the time, now my biggest problem is the ultra-thin sections that get over spun. I'm liking this colour more now I see it spun up, it will have a barberpole effect when it's plied.
Friday 15th July
More pink fluff today, finished the first bobbin, so 2oz spun so far. I think I get bored spinning the same thing all the time, it was great spinning the 2oz bags of fibre because it felt like I made more progress. Perhaps I need more bobbins so I can work on two wheel projects at once. Wondering what the 30% bamboo will do to the drape of the yarn.
Wednesday 22nd July
Are we there yet?
Reached the "trudging through knee-deep mud" part of spinning on Sunday, I want to get to the plying! No ideas on what to use the pink skein for, I just want it off my wheel. This Tour de Fleece has been exclusively wheel-spinning, I love my Majacraft Rose. I love my Tudor Rose spindle too, and I have an interesting batt on my Kundert spindle. Last year I spun at lunchtime, and in Borders, trying to meet a "spin every day" goal. Didn't quite make it but I had a really good excuse.
Saturday 18th July
Got the first two layers down on the second bobbin, the never-ending mound of pink fuzz is being whittled down to size. I'm curious how it will look when it's plied up, the colour changes are subtle along the length of the fibre. I might get this plied by the end of the Tour! Whatever will I spin next...
Sunday 19th July
Still spinning the pink. Three foot-long sections of roving left to go, each one gets split in three because it's so wide and dense. Wanting to get to the plying, feels like I've been spinning this for too long, even though it's only the fifth day.
Ruth mentioned her mother has access to "wool". No idea on breed, quantity, or quality, all we know is it's not carded. Said I'd take a pound and see what it's like. Most likely uncoated raw fleece, so I'll need to get my tetanus shot up to date.
Monday 20th July
Wanted to finish spinning the pink today or tomorrow, and have a finished skein by the end of the week, but I still have two foot-long chunks to go. Hopefully I can knock this out by the end of Wednesday and ply on Thursday. Would like to have some orange fibre to spin instead of pink, I thought this merino/bamboo would be orange from the photos on the website. Almost all my fibre stash is undyed wool or alpaca. Got a lot of alpaca in the stash, so I need to learn how to spin it well.
What to spin next? It needs to be a small project. I was eyeing up the steel wool pads for sanding the tabletop for my craft room, it would be coarse but the staple length didn't look too bad...
Tuesday 21st July
More pink. I'm seeing alternating bubblegum and maroon sections. Got halfway through the penultimate foot-long chunk, very limited time to spin today. Tomorrow I will either have to get creative, or declare a rest day, I don't think I'll be able to get to the wheel.
Wednesday 22nd July
Got creative, insomnia spinning at 4am. Seems to be way more on bobbin #2, how do you get these things even?
Saturday 25th July
Final days
Grinding out the last of my Tour de Fleece and well on track for that yellow jersey!
Thursday 23rd July
Choirs of angels sang me to my rest because I finished spinning the pink! I'm going to ply this puppy tomorrow, wash it, and put it to bed. That will be three decently plied skeins for my Tour de Fleece instead of my planned two, and spinning every weekday and spinning a weekend. There seems to be way more on bobbin #2, but I'll Navajo ply the leftovers after I get my 2-ply skein done. This was my first experience with a bamboo blend and it leaves me wanting to give carbonised bamboo another try.
Friday 23rd July
Plied, washed, and hung the new skein up to dry, 198yds of decent 2-ply pink yarn. Not as much left on bobbin #2 as I expected, planning to wind that off into a centre-pull ball and deal with it later.
For my next skein, I'll spin three bobbins with 2oz of Targhee on each and make my first true 3-ply yarn. I have 10oz of this stuff to spin through and it's a nice greyish brown colour and puffy soft. It's the fibre I got free with my wheel from The Fold and I've been looking forward to spinning it. Doing it in 2oz blocks should break things up, I can spin 2oz fairly quickly.
Tuesday 28th July
Yellow Jersey!
In the Tour de France, the maillot jaune, or yellow jersey is awarded to the winner, Alberto Contador. The Tour de Fleece is over, and I met my goals!
Spin every weekday
Made this goal, and also spun three Sundays and a Saturday. Not easy to do, but I should be able to spin a couple of times a week, especially once I get the craft room set up.
Ply two skeins
I plied three skeins during the tour. The first was 102 yds of kid mohair, it made a nice 2-ply skein that I dyed with tea. The second was a 60/40 blend of suri alpaca and Icelandic wool, which made a 117 yd 2-ply skein. Finally there was a 60/30/10 blend of merino, bamboo and nylon that became 198 yds of 2-ply yarn.
I have plans to knit the mohair skein into a narrow bias scarf, not sure what to do with the others yet. I also started spinning some undyed Targhee for my first true 3-ply skein. The fibre feels like a softer version of Jacob wool and I'm trying to spin it crazy-thin in order to get a less-than-bulky yarn when there are three plies. We'll see how that goes.