Wanted to show the solution for that super-twisty corespun stuff:
Now I love it! Thanks to my friends at Ravelry for helping me figure out what to do with this fiber. :-)
Also wanted to share this… I was randomly drawn for a prize on one of the days of the tour, and this is what I received:
I can’t wait to spin this! It is 4 oz. of South African Fine Wool from Yarnadoodledoo called “Orange Blossom Special”. I’ve had my eye on her Etsy shop for a while, so when I saw that one of the prizes available to select from was from her, it was my first choice!
This post is photo-heavy… ready?!
So, I figured I should go ahead and wrap this up. Had fun, won a prize (more on that in the next post), and got lots of yarn spun! Without further ado, here are my final photos from this year’s Tour de Fleece:
Days 18-19 – No photos. Day 18 was a frustrating day and I didn’t really produce anything I wanted to take a photo of. Day 19 was officially a rest day, though I still spun. More frustrating stuff. Moving along.
Day 20
50/50 Merino/Bamboo from Creatively Dyed – corespun
I could not figure out what to do with this fiber for the longest time. It’s absolutely gorgeous, I love the colors and the shine of the merino/bamboo, but the color repeats were so small and it was so slippery that trying to spin straight-up yarn with it was not working out for me. Muddy yuck. So, finally, I thought of trying corespinning. This is only my second attempt and I thought it was going pretty well…
Day 21 – Hilarity ensues!
Corespun – way, way, way spun
Whoops.
Day 22
I seem not to have taken a photo on day 22. I started spinning something new, and the finished yarn is shown on the last day. But for day 22, let’s take another look at that corespun:
twiiiiiist!
So, so, pretty. But so, so twisty. I despaired.
Day 23
Merino/Tussah Silk from Dicentra Designs
This yarn was so shiny and bright, it was hard to photograph. It’s not my best… think I was getting a little tired of spinning by this time.
So, that’s everything for this year! Here’s a little collage of everything I worked on:
Thanks for following along! A couple of these are up for sale at my Etsy shop if you see anything that interests you.
Went raspberry picking Saturday evening at Childer’s Raspberry Farm in Albany. The raspberries are ginormous! Today I made freezer jam with them. Is it wrong to just have toast with jam for dinner?
Here’s my yarny progress for the last few days:
DAY 15
Beach Glass – chain plied (N-ply)
DAY 16
Maleficent – Polwarth from Abstract Fibers
DAY 17
Maleficent – 2 ply, 426 yards
OMG, how many days does this thing go on?
Through July 25th!?
::thud::
I’m okay!
DAY 12
Raspberry Pinstripe – Targhee, hand dyed by me
DAY 13
Iris – Merino/Tussah silk from Dicentra Designs
DAY 14
Beach Glass – Merino, hand dyed by me
Day 10 was a day to rest from spinning, so instead I washed 13 skeins of yarn and dyed this Polwarth:
Except I decided I hated the chestnut brown color with the yellow – at least using this method for dyeing – so today I overdyed the whole thing with cherry red and golden ochre. Now it reminds me of those flames that get painted on cars. In a good way, though. Pictures tomorrow.
Day 11 – Didn’t get much spinning done today. I spun up a little sample of the above fiber to be sure I hated it (yep), and then I got started on this Targhee that I dyed:
Took me a couple of false starts to figure out what I wanted to do with it, but finally decided to split off three even sections, with the red by itself, and then do a 3-ply. Will probably finish this tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s a big day for Visitor Cat… she’s finally going to the vet. And if I get the green light on her health, she’s probably coming into the house. Yes, I’m nervous about it.
I kinda started calling her “Mabel” in my head, but its not set in stone.
Been working on this for four days now… have the first bobbin done and am working on the second.
Decided to take a break today (Day 9) and ply this fiber that I’d already spun. It’s merino that I dyed a while back with Easter egg dyes:
As you can see, the final picture is much too orange… took the shot in some bad light. The fiber is more of an overall pinkish-red as the roving photo above shows better. The final yarn is about 4 oz, 368 yards, and about 18 wpi.
Day 4: Left, the plied results of the Day 3 spinning. Right, starting on some merino/Tussah silk from Dicentra Designs.
Day 5: Plied the Dicentra fiber from Day 4. I love how it turned out.
Day 6: Polwarth from Abstract Fiber. I think I’ll be working on this for several days. Have 4 oz. total to spin and am hoping to get at least fingering weight out of it.
Monday is a rest day… I need it!
Progress for days 2 & 3…
I took the drop spindle to a party on the 4th. My technique hasn’t improved much from last year, and here are my fug results:
Much happier with day 3:
2 oz of BFL spun into about 338 yards
I might sell this skein on Etsy. It came out pretty nice, I think!
Wow, time again already for Tour de Fleece. I had a good time last year (posts about last year’s event are here, here and here), so I’m jumping in again this year.
Here are some of the things I think I will spin. Maybe. I will probably change my mind a few times. It’s like I have a short attention span or something… weird!
"Margaritaville" from Dicentra Designs
"Aztec" from Dicentra Designs
Above, Merino & Tussah silk from Dicentra Designs.
"Mt. Hood Rose" and "Maleficent" from Asbstract Fiber
These two are BFL (the pink/red) and Polwarth (the black/red) from Abstract Fiber. I want to put the two of them together somehow.
Also need to dig through my stuff and find something I can spin on my drop spindle this year.
So, you know what the content here is going to be for the next couple of weeks! Ready, set, go… treadle, treadle, treadle…
Craftgawker
Etsy Mini
