Tour de Fleece 09 – Week 2

Hellooooo! Wow, going back to work last week really put a crimp in my spinning time. The noive! Well, I guess the job helps pay for more fiber to spin, so… yay, job!

So, yeah, I didn’t finish much this week, but it was still a good week and I spun every single day!

Day 10 (July 13)

Technically a day of rest, I still spun a little. I finished plying the Wensleydale that I posted last time (the purple at the end of the last post). It’s all right. Very, very purple. No photo of the finished skein yet.

Day 11 (July 14)

I taught myself how to use a drop spindle! Looking at photos of what others can do with drop spindles really inspired me to try it again. Before I learned on a wheel, I tried using a cheapie bottom-whorl spindle and I hated it. Just never got the hang of it. This time, I got a well-made top-whorl spindle and caught on right away. I certainly have a lot of practice ahead of me before I make nice yarn, but still…! The fiber in this photo is Corriedale from Dicentra Designs.

Day 12-16 (July 15-19)

I kept working on the teal fiber from Sporfarm — a little bit all week — and just finished the second bobbin on Sunday (day 16). It’s pretty, but it’s just not keeping my attention. I thought I might try to ply it with some beads on a thread, but I don’t know…

Here’s the same photo from last week.

Day 15-16 (July 18-19)

More on the drop spindle! I started to feel that I was muddying up the colors in the corriedale, so I wound that off and pulled out some merino/alpaca/shetland blend from Lavender Sheep. Please ignore my very messy winding technique… it’s about all I can do to just keep a twist going and not break the yarn and, and, and! Neater winding will have to come later.

So, there’s the end of week 2! There’s a suggestion that we challenge ourselves on Wednesday as that’s the day of the  Tour de France’s densest mountain stage with 5 mountain passes. Hmmmm, maybe by then I can try to ply on this drop spindle. That should be challenging enough!