TdF2015 | Through The Yarny Curtain

Tour de Fleece 2015, Stage 10

My continuing mission is to ~~seek out new life and new civilizations~~ um, I mean spin one color of 3 Feet of Sheep each day. Today I spun through my one color and about 40% of the next color. Unfortunately, my Tour de Fleece will be cut even shorter than I expected. Chris’s uncle passed away early this morning and we will be going to the funeral. This means I now have at least three more days with no spinning. I do hope to finish 3 Feet of Sheep by the end of the month, even though it will be outside the usual Tour de Fleece time frame.

As usual, the picture on the left is my bobbin at the beginning of the day and the picture on the right is my bobbin at the end of the day.

I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far. This fiber continues to spin up faster and thicker than the cormo. I can’t wait to see it finished!

Tour de Fleece, Stage 7

Today I continued plying the cormo. While plying is faster than spinning, it still takes a long time when your singles are like thread! I finished the first bobbin and barely started on the second bobbin.

I haven’t mentioned this before, but I a towel under my spinning wheel to protect our hardwood floors. The small movements the wheel makes while I’m spinning scratched my floor the first couple times I used the wheel. I usually pick the towel up at night to keep it away from the cats. I forgot to pick up the towel last night and someone puked on it during the night, so I put a different towel on the floor today. Fortunately, the guilty feline missed my wheel and my bobbins of spun yarn. I would not have been happy to find dried up cat puke ruining my beautiful singles!

Tour de Fleece 2015, Stage 6

Since I only had 0.06 ounces of cormo left to spin, I finally finished it. Then I started plying. And plying. And plying some more. Plying is a lot quicker than spinning, but with yarn this fine it takes a long time. I’m about halfway through the first bobbin of finished yarn, or one-quarter the way through the singles.

My husband walked through the room just as I was getting set up to ply. He looked at the spinning and said, “Do you still call this yarn? It looks like thread to me!”

WIP Wednesday: July 8, 2015

I wasn’t sure if I would have anything for WIP Wednesday this week. I’ve been knitting a shawl, which I finished and blocked today. I do have an update on my Tour de Fleece spinning and I cast on a new project!

Tour de Fleece, Day 5

I really, really, really wanted to finish the cormo today. I didn’t quite make it. I have 0.09 ounces left to spin. That’s not a lot, but at the rate I’m spinning it’ll take at least 1/2 hour and it’s already 1 am. I’m throwing in the towel. I’ll finish it tomorrow.

Miranda Shawl

I cast on and knit the first 4 rows of a new shawl. This one is another test knit. Since it’s knit from the bottom up, I had to cast on 418 stitches!

Tour de Fleece 2015, Day 3

I didn’t spin yesterday as I was not feeling well. Walking around, even for a short time, made me feel nauseous and dizzy. I spent most of the day either napping or laying in the recliner and knitting. Sitting up to spin was totally out of the question. Chris took a vacation day today. I still wasn’t 100%, so we took it easy. A little hanging around, a few errands, a wee bit of housework. I had time to spin this evening while we watched American Ninja Warrior.

The picture on the left is my bobbin of cormo as of the end of Day 1. The picture on the right is my bobbin of cormo as of the end of Day 3. I spun 0.25 ounces of cormo today. I have just under 0.5 ounces left to spin. That’s just under 2 hours of spinning at the rate I’m going. I’m not sure if I’ll have time to finish all that spinning tomorrow, but certainly by Wednesday!