I Amazed Myself

Yesterday was the great Tour de Fleece (and Tour de France) finish. And I must say that I really love my final yarn....it's the best I've spun yet.

I started with some corriedale from the Painted Tiger in Japanese Maple. I don't know how much there was....probably around 4 ounces.


After spinning and plying (two-ply), I had about 250 yards of this.....


Wanting to learn something new, I Navajo-plied the leftover singles into this....


There's not much (maybe 35 yards?) and it's a bit over-plied, but overall, I'm really happy with how it came out. I used this video, which I thought was great.

I'd wanted to spin more.....but there are only so many hours in a day.

We Have Yarn

I've been spinning away as part of the Tour de Fleece and am very proud of the first results -- yarn that actually looks like yarn! I started with 2 ounces of alpaca roving from flatland alpacas

and now have 80 yards of a DK-worsted weight alpaca yarn. It's extremely soft and fuzzy.


It was spun in double-drive mode, using a 13:1 whorl, two singles plied together, also in double-drive mode.

It's not perfect...the joins are a bit lumpy and it appears to be under-plied -- but spinning is a skill that improves with practice.

First Down

I finally finished by 4 ounce challenge entry and published the pattern. In the spirit of the season - and getting away from the baseball analogy - I named it First Down. This was not a spectacular run and catch first down. No, it was a foot by painful foot running first down. But it was fun and a challenge indeed. Spinning/plying the yarn, imagining something from that yarn, knitting the prototype, writing up the pattern, and publishing it on Ravelry -- quite a feeling of achievement, if I do say so myself. I really need help with some artistic photography (and a model!!). I wonder if I could trade a handknitted item for some artistic help/guidance??

I lost all the before fiber pictures in my hard drive crash. But here's the finished yarn and finished project. Plus the link to the finished pattern. download now


The fiber was Spunky Eclectic Corriedale in the color Winnipeg, spun thick/thin (not on purpose, of course), 2-ply, about 11-12 wpi (bulky weight), 104 grams, 133 yards.

Now I'm off to write up another pattern.................

Too Many WIPs

I really try to control my works in progress and not have too many projects ongoing simultaneously. But I'm not doing well right now. The reason is the 4 ounce challenge. That's spinning 4 ounces of yarn, designing and publishing a pattern to use the yarn, then knitting the project using the spun yarn (not necessarily in that order). I'm knitting my prototypes now. This might seem easy......but it's harder than you might think!


The blue in the middle and green above it are my prototypes (notice how the green has already been frogged at least once). The other projects (blue at the bottom and gray) are just two projects I've been working on, but that have been languishing. That's TOO many projects for me. The interesting part is that I'm using straight, double-pointed, and circular needles. It just depends on the project.

Treadle While They Pedal

Today kicked off the Tour de Fleece and, oh by the way, the Tour de France. We spin along with the race. The whole idea is to challenge yourself. I'm obviously a rookie spinner -- so my goals are to become more familiar with my wheel, spin more consistently, and learn about different wools by spinning several different types.

I'm on two different team - Schacht Spinners (my wheel is a Schacht Matchless) and Rookies 2010. Boy am I that!

I'm starting with 8 ounces of Corriedale from The Painted Tiger. The color is called Japanese Maple. After about an hour of spinning, I had almost half a bobbin's worth. The consistency is improving....but it's so easy for me to over-draft and spin thread rather than yarn! I'd love to have enough to knit a simple shawl.

Summertime...and the Living is Busy

There is just not enough time to get to all the things that need doing. I've been gardening, sewing (yes), spinning, and knitting. But there are so many other things that need doing -- like refinishing a chair, filing, painting........ And work (paid and volunteer) really consumes a lot of time!

My big knitting project is the Annis Shawl. The good news was that I'd finally finished the nupps and could pick up some speed. The bad news was that I saw a dropped stitch in a nupp just after I took this picture....so I have to rip out a few rows and reknit them (360+ stitches per row). There's just no way to fix a broken nupp several rows later.


And I've been spinning. It's a good thing I entered the Tour de Fleece to motivate me to spin everyday. My day runs out of time before I run out of projects! This is what's on my bobbin now....it looks a little better than the previous attempt.

Dark Side

What could hand cards, a niddy noddy, drop spindle, and roving mean?

Yes! I'm learning how to spin. I signed up for a spinning (wheel) class at Webs in May. This should be....interesting. Stay tuned for my journey to the dark side.