Wrapping Up & Winding Down

It has been too hot to spin the last few days but I did remember to ply up bobbin-fulls of yarn I spun earlier in le Tour:

156 yd 2 ply

232 yd 2 ply

I think they came out quite well.  I might be done spinning for the season - I need to make a knitting deadline Sunday and the only thing in progress now is that tan/ gray yak laceweight.  I can finish that up after Quidditch for a class deadline.

Sad news: Peerie the rat died on Thursday afternoon.  I am very, very sad to lose him this early (18 months) but glad he did not have a long illness or horrible tumors or such.  I hope Rory is not too lonely.  I hesitate to get him a buddy as he is also in his middle age and I don't want to ruin the pet equilibrium that I have.  Of course he was teasing the dog under the gap of the door yesterday... too bad they can't be friends.

Stage 16 & Catching Up

Today is stage 16 of le Tour; we are getting close to the end now.  My spinning project for the last few days has been some yak fiber.  It is both fun and frustrating to rememeber how to spin fine using long draw / double draft. Practice for cotton, I suppose.

This weekend I spun the teal gradient; I will be leaving it as singles.  There's around 250 yards.  It might make a nice hat or scarf.

That is the same background... maybe someday I will learn how to use my camera properly for true colors.

Stage 12

Still spinning away for le Tour. Yesterday & today I turned this 2 oz pile of half felted fluff ...

... into lovely, fine yarn.

It will go on the rack to rest for a few days while I select the next puff of fiber.  Part of me can hardly believe how little I have managed to spin in 12 days and part of me can hardly believe that I have made so much spinning time in a schedule I thought was packed.

Stage 9

My spinning progress on the turquoise / purple merino / tencel blend:

 Just a few little puffs left to go... about 3/4 oz

I washed some previously completed skeins this weekend, too.  The purple / green / white came out terribly - the rinse water was deep purple and the finished skein looks sickly.

However the lavender angora from this spring fluffed up to a lovely soft yarn.

Spinning in Stages

I am still meeting my Tour de Fleece goal of spinning at least 30 minutes per day. Most days I have been able to exceed that time and the more I spin, the more I find it's the only think I want to do.  Next year's goal will have to be an hour per day.

Interestingly, the two piles of fluff I've worked on so far are neither of the pictures from the last post.  The first was some white/ purple? black? / green mystery fiber from 2004 (washed and pictures will be coming later).  I pretty much despised spinning it, but there is a nice empty space in the stash cabinet now.  The second is some merino / tencel (?) in turquoise, cherry and purple.  It has hopped from stash to stash but is now in its forever home; soon to be a pretty 2 ply skein.  It might make a nice hat someday.

If I were a more motivated spinner, I would take some fiber and explore the ratios on my Millie... maybe by the end of the tour I will feel the need to branch out but for now I am enjoying hours of spinning light fingering yarn.

Le Tour

The Tour de Fleece started Saturday last and I have been chugging along.  Above are two of the items in the "to spin" pile. There is also some lovely green-gold top and I am working now on finishing some white/ green / black roving from *cough* 2004.  It is ugly but I am powering through it.  About half of the last part is left.
My goal for the Tour this year is a time one (again): spin 30 minutes a day.  So far I have been above that mark but not trying to burn out.  Spinning strains the same muscles in my left hand and arm that knitting does.... I don't want to have a blow out.

Tour de Fleece - Finish Line!

Tour de Fleece 2011

Back in November of 2010, I picked up some dyed fiber at the So Cal Handweaver's show. This is a merino / silk blend dyed by Capistrano fiber arts. My plan for the fiber was to try and break out of my "rut" of using the same colors all the time. I wanted to ply two different colorways together and see what effect I got. I picked out one and Lori suggested the other.

Here is a picutre of the two colorways laid out in all their glory:

Then this July (2011) I decided to join the "Tour de Fleece" with the goal of spinning & plying these 4 oz into one fiinshed skein. It was a pretty respectable goal, as I done almost no spinning during the previous year, I wanted the project to be spun on a hand spindle and (not least) I began about a week into the tour, putting myself at the back of the pack. I started with the green / gold / purple first. I divided each colorway into 4 roughly equal sections to shorten the distance between color changes.

I managed to spin all of the darker colorway with no trouble and almost on schedule. Then I moved on to the sand / orange / purple. I did not enjoy this colorway as much, and it was quite difficult to stick with "the plan". The end of the tour came and went with this portion only about 1/4 complete. Into the project bag it went. I worked on it a little more later in November (a year from yarn purchase) when visiting with friends at this year's handweaver's show. Last weekend a friend hosted a spin-in and I brought it as my only project to try and get it finished at last. I almost made it, and finally finished the spinning Thursday afternoon.

I slid the two cops off onto knitting needles for storage and plied the yarns back onto the same spindle. After about 5 hours worth of work, here is approximately 4 oz of plied yarn. I wanted to make one skein with no breaks, and was successful. The spindle was quite heavy by the end, however.

The finished yarn, all skeined up. It needs a bath to set the twist and make it bloom, but the colors came out beautifully overall. Now I just need to figure out what project to make with it. Something knit, surely, and somewhat large. I may make a triangle shawl so that I can stop when I run out of yarn. A rectangle scarf would also be nice, or even a circular shawl. If I can't decide, I may get crazy and enter it into the county fair this summer.

I enjoyed spinning for the Tour and will do it again this year - hopefully with more planning and forethought. It feels good to finally finish a project and have a little more yarn in the "to knit" stash.

A Prize Day

I didn't hit my Tour de Fleece goal, but I feel good for participating and I was rewarded with my prize pack of fiber today when I arrived home from work.
There are three baggies of an alpaca / BFL blend and some postcards of London. I am tickled yellow, orange and brown!

I meant to post last night, but was just so tired and forgot to log back in to say something witty. This morning I went to work for a few hours, but tomorrow is gloriously empty and free! I estimated my hours for the second half of July (16-31) and it came to over 100. Even with a conservative guess on how much of that is overtime (they calculate it strangely), I should have a very respectable check coming ... which almost makes up for the fact that they pushed the pay date 3 days later than usual.

Different Night, Different Bowl

Went to the Redlands Bowl after work tonight to hear the symphony. They had a Beethoven program which was quite lovely, with the 5th piano concerto and 7th symphony.

I managed a little spinning on my Tour de Fleece project today, although I am hopelessly short of my goal. I thought I could catch up tonight and Saturday, but I got called in to work and I can always use the hours.

On that note, I think it is bedtime!

Saddle Sore

I am still spinning away on my Tour de Fleece project. I am on the last puff (12 gr) of the first colorway and can finish tonight if I log off the computer and get back to work.

I started the pink hat last night and am almost finished with the ribbing and ready to start the lace pattern.

WIP Crazy

WIP is work-in-progress and I am about at capacity! I took a bunch of pictures, but must finish charging the camera before I can post them. I feel like my whole life is knitting oriented and I like it very much - at least until my left thumb and wrist tell me it is time to take a break.

The yarn for the hat (the Bow Tie Cloche) and the fingerless mittens for Margaret came in today and it is all gorgeous! I am going to start the hat tonight as soon as I hit "post". I have an early bedtime tonight, but I think I can manage to cast on and knit a couple rows. I should be able to finish the hat this weekend and then start the mitts. We are short staffed at work and next week is going to be somewhat insane... I will either need lunchtime knitting to stay calm and centered, or put it aside entirely so I don't knit all that craziness into the projects. Maybe I can finally finish _The Two Towers_.

The yarn for the Camp Loopy project (mittens - or maybe gloves - with owls on them) has been balled up for quite some time, the pattern is printed, and I am allowed to cast on anytime now. The only hiccough there is that the pattern calls for size 1.5 needles, which I do not own and have actually never seen. I may fiddle with the pattern and make the largest size with a size 1, which should bring down the gauge. The yarn is so fine that I think that making the smallest size with a size 2 needle will not yield a dense enough fabric.

I am still spinning for my Tour de Fleece project - 3/8 done and 5/8 to go!

I added a few rows to Martha's sweater this morning and have about 2" to go until I can start decreasing for the fronts. Note to self - research "3 stitch buttonhole" or decide to leave the dang thing off.

She's Crafty

I made lots and lots of time for fiber projects today! I spun 25 gr of merino / silk top for my Tour de Fleece project. I had forgotten how much I love to spin (luckily my hands remember) and how lovely Bosworth spindles are. Good fiber + good tools + practice = beautiful yarn.

I knit a few rows on a washcloth, but that is hardly photo-worthy. More exciting is the progress on Martha's cardigan. Iwill be able to start the shaping for the V-neck in a few inches. I had an idea to work on row of Martha's, one row of mine and finish them concurrently, but it might eat too much into my fiber time. OTOH, I might not get mine done otherwise. OTOOH, I am making two different sizes, so I should probably not get them confused.

I watched far too many shows on Netflix while working, but it beats watching shows while not working and staring at the wall doing nothing. If only I could figure out a way to play World of Warcraft while knitting!

The new box of hat yarn is in the mail (shipping to my work, this time) and I hope to have it Friday for weekend knitting. There is a skein of yarn for a pair of fingerless gloves for my aunt stowed away in it also. To round out the knitting queue, the cast on date for Camp Loopy project II is on Friday and I am making mittens for myself. The pattern is for fingerless gloves, but that is outside the parameters of the project so I will just add a mitten top. It will match my muffin top. I might make them gloves instead... but that would require both learning how to add fingers and learning how to make fingers, which might be beyond my patience at this time.

Surprise!

I get to have a mini-vacation this week, as I am off work Wednesday, Thursday and half of Friday. So many projects to work on! I think I will put some serious time into my Tour de Fleece project as I am 9 days behind already. I also want to make a dent in Martha's sweater and get that to a good stopping point so I can whip up the hat when the reordered yarn comes in.

I am loaded up with projects, but not feeling overwhelmed. I am also not suffering from "startitis" - I actually want to make the items and be finished with them more than I want the excitement of starting something new. It is an unfamiliar feeling, but a good one.

Time to tour! My goal is to turn these 4 oz of merino / silk top into a nice fingering /sport weight yarn, one ply of each. Lori Lawson at Capistrano Fiber Arts recommended the color combo and I am going to give it a try.