Spin, Span, Spun

This year I participated in the Tour de Fleece, which is a spinning challenge that runs during the Tour de France. Basically every day that the cyclists are competing, we spin. I looked forward to the opportunity to get through my fibre stash.

Day one I realized that I was going to have to learn to pace myself. My usual approach to spinning is to do a lot in a single sitting. See, my youngest is especially fascinated by the wheel, so I usually keep it in the craft room, out of the way. So when I do take it out I sit at it for hours, usually finishing up whatever I've decided to spin in one or two sessions.

If I kept that pace up for the entire tour...well...I would not make it.

I started with some gorgeous green silk and merino that I had picked up at Sunrise Mercantile last year. I had already spun half of the 1/2lb bag into a single well before the tour started so I spun the second half and then plied them.



In the end I had just over 300yards in about a dk weight. I did this in the first 2 days of the tour...and had a hard time walking after.

So when I chose my next fibre to tackle I decided that I'd spin during one episode of Doctor Who and then I'd stop for the night. But by the time I'd prepped the fibre and really got going my time was up so I decided to keep going, just a little bit longer. Next thing I know it's 1am and my heel is numb. But that single was done!

Next day I gave myself the limit of just the length of one Smodcast , but my ankle and back protested long before the ending. Over the next couple days I worked on the second single.



The fibre I bought from a local dyer/spinner/knitter/belly dancer extraordinaire. Merino top, in the colourways Rose Garden (on the left) and The Briar and the Rose (on the right)

Then I plied them together, finishing just before the day of rest (which my ankle was grateful for)



Final yardage was about 270yards in a heavy fingering.

After the break I started spinning up a FatCatKnits merino top. This was very slow going because both my ankle and my back were protesting any stretch of time at the wheel, and I had some issues with getting the fibre to behave itself. In the end though, it made a lovely soft yarn



About 360yards in heavy fingering weight.

Next to hit the wheel was a batt called "Starlight", superwash merino and angelina from Mandalinn. I've never spun from a batt before, so I used this for the challenge day which is when the cyclists are on the toughest part of the tour. My initial plan was to thread beads onto one of the singles, which I did, and then slide them into place as I plied. I started out ok, but then the beads hit a slub and the single snapped and beads went everywhere. So I abandoned that plan to try another day, and just made a lovely 2ply yarn



174 yards in a dk to worsted weight. The sparkle of the angelina doesn't show up well in pics, but it's very very pretty in person.

So, all tallied up I finished up 24oz of fibre from my stash.

The tour I participated in was held on Ravelry, and I spun with my rubberneckers on Team Hoar. In the Tour de Fleece group there was a daily progress thread where you post pics, and the posts are entered into a random draw. I won a prize on day four, and chose this lovely braid of merino and silk



Donated by All Spun Up. It's so soft and gorgeous, I cannot wait to spin this up.

And I may have had a little falling down when I saw that YarnPirate had put up a little shop update and bought this braid of awesome.

So...24oz out, 8oz brought in, bringing my total fibre out at 16oz. Not bad...not bad at all.

It's probably going to be a little while before I get back to my wheel, I'm a little spun out at the moment. At the same time though, I've hit my stride as a spinner so I'd hate to let too much time pass between spinning sessions and lose that progress I've made.

In the meantime...time to pick out some projects for these pretties