Tour de Fleece 2015 Results

The Tour de Fleece ended yesterday and these are all the yarns I spun in the past 3 weeks.
I spun almost 1.5kg/52oz (over 3 lbs) of fibre and ended up with 3,491 m/3818 yds (almost 2 miles) of finished yarn (with singles and plying that adds up to 13,858 m/15,155 yds of spinning!). I have enough yarn for knitting projects for the rest of the year.

I showed the sweater yarn last post and here is the rest of the yarn I spun -

The BFL I dyed a gradient (all these next yarns are ones I dyed too),

ended up being 54g, 366m (about 2oz and 400 yds) of lace weight yarn.

Dorset Down wool,

96g, 370m of fingering weight yarn.

This fibre I blended into rolags-

and spun into this yarn -

143g, 484m (about 5 oz and 530 yds) of fingering weight yarn.

 Black merino and pink BFL,

spun into - black merino - 53g, 170m, pink BFL - 55g, 126m of 3 ply fingering/sport weight yarn for a fair isle hat.

I couldn't resist dying another gradient, this time Polwarth wool,

it came out to 54g, 466m (about 2oz, 500yds) of lace weight yarn. Probably the finest yarn I have ever spun - I was thrilled with the results, it is so soft.

The last one is Shetland wool,

101g, 325m of fingering weight yarn.

The TdF was a good experience but I was glad to put my spinning wheel away yesterday! I will be glad to get back to some variety in my creative time.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎

Tour de Fleece 2015

Every summer, during le Tour de France, Ravelry hosts a different kind of spinning event - le Tour de Fleece. This year it runs from July 4th to 26th. There are many different groups/teams to join, some with prizes, but all for the joy of spinning.

Over a week ago I started spinning this fibre -

About 900g/32oz of natural light Merino (from Fibre Detours).

Spun up into 7 skeins of DK/Worsted weight yarn. Total is 883g/31oz and 1214m/1,328 yards. Ravelry project page here for more information.

The yarn is a 4 ply Cable yarn (two, 2ply yarns are plied together).

Sample

This makes a hard wearing yarn that is perfect for cables. The yarn is so soft.  I plan on making a cable sweater/cardigan.

After all that beige I am thrilled to be spinning some colour!

BFL wool that I dyed a gradient last week. About 60g/2oz.

first bobbin/ply

I am making a 2ply, lace weight yarn.
My goal for Tour de Fleece is to spin enough yarn that I can put my wheel away, and have enough yarn for several knitting projects in the fall.

I have to add some garden photos -

vegetable garden

San Marzano tomatoes starting

This past weekend we made a rhubarb leaf bird bath (tutorial link I used found here), it came out better than I hoped and was so easy.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎

Hand Spun Scarf

I finished knitting a scarf - 

The pattern is Braidsmaid by Martina Behm.

A lovely pattern - Martina's patterns are so creative. The garter stitch and ribbed cable make a reversible scarf.

The separated increases and decreases create slanted knitting. I am really pleased with how it came out. More details can be found on the project page on Ravelry.

I made this with yarn that I spun, the above photo is the original fibre - a 20% Silk, 80% Merino blend by Ashford, in the colour way Sunset from Fibre Detours.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥︎

Woven Tea Towels

I finished weaving some tea towels.

About 4 yards of fabric off the loom.

Fresh off the loom

After washing

The pattern made four tea towels. The pattern is 'Don't Get Bored Towels' from Handwoven magazine, issue Sept/Oct 2014. My first attempt at weaving with commercial yarn and a pattern.

Three of the towels were woven in plain 2/2 twill,

and one was woven in pattern #3 (a zig zag 2/2 twill).

I read an article that the most absorbent towels were woven in 2/2 twill, with 20 ends per inch, using 8/2 Cottolin - that is what I tried (these were all given as gifts, so I will weave some more for myself to see how they work).

Storm clouds on Saturday.

High winds and rain.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥