Tour de Fleece 2016

Every July during the Tour de France, Ravelry hosts another type of spinning event - the Tour de Fleece. We are challenged to spin everyday of the race, and this seems to be when I get the bulk of my spinning done for the year.

Here is what I spun this year -

I spun 1.3kg (almost 3lbs) of fibre into about 3.6km (2.25miles) of yarn!

More details can be found on my Ravelry page (here).

Here are lots of pictures showing fibre-to-yarn of all that I spun (with links to the Ravelry pages if you want more information about the yarn, and more pictures!) -

I dyed some silk, merino wool, angleline (sparkly stuff) and silk noils,

using a blending board, blended it to create these rolags,

and spun 330yds, 91g of fingering/sport weight yarn (Silk and Merino Blend).

I dyed a gradient of merino,

and spun it into 450 yds, 107g of fingering weight yarn (Rainbow Gradient).

More merino that I dyed,

and spun into two different yarns - one with short colour repeats and the other half with long colour repeats. This is a singles yarn that is fingering weight - over 500yds and 100g (Brights! Merino).

This next project was spun using the only commercially dyed fibre - the red at the top of the photo, I dyed the other half of the fibre (it was originally a gold colour), both merino,

and using a drum carder created a blend, that I dizzed (pulled the fibre through a hole on the button),

into the blend ready for spinning,

and spun into this yarn - 1,086m, and 458g of yarn (Drum Carded Merino).

This next one is a North Country Cheviot and Suffolk wool (from an eco friendly farm in Ontario),

that I dyed (some was left natural),

and blended on the drum carder (dizzed it too ready for spinning),

creating this art yarn - 70yds, 61g of worsted weight yarn (NCC&S Blend).

 

Some silk and merino,

that I spun,

and then dyed. 68g, 250yds of fingering weight yarn (Silk and Merino).

I tried a new fibre - Finn wool, that I dyed,

and spun into a DK weight yarn, 105g, 194yds (First Finn).

This is some natural dark merino that I dyed black,

to become 350 yds, 106g of fingering weight yarn (Dyed Black #2).

Some polwarth wool, silk, and silk noils that I dyed,

and blended into rolags on a blending board,

and spun into 525yds, 109g of light fingering weight yarn (Silk and Polwarth Blend).

I finished off the Tour de Fleece with a sample of hemp that I was given,

it was lovely to spin and made a little skein of 57 yds, 9g (Natural Hemp).

Most of these were spun with specific projects in mind, so now I need to decided what to knit first.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥

Finished Sweater

I finished knitting a sweater -

With wool that I spun -

From fibre that I dyed -

The wool is 100% Merino, and I designed the sweater pattern. More information and photos can be found on the sweater project page on Ravelry. I am really pleased with how the sweater turned out - it is very soft and a nice weight. Hopefully it will be quite a while before I need to wear a wool sweater though.

Grasses in the garden heavy with water after the rain.

 Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

Apple Core Quilt & Summer Garden Photos

My Mother and I recently finished a charity lap quilt -

It is an Apple Core quilt that I cut out with the GO!, my Mother pieced it, I quilted it and added the binding, and she stitched the binding down on the back.
The quilt is about 50"x60" - with a layout of 11x13 Apple Cores. The fabric is Ticklish by Me & My Sisters Designs for Moda. I bought a fat quarter pack and 1m for bias binding - we have made one lap quilt and 2 baby quilts.

I used a bright flannel for the backing. The batting is Hobbs Premium Wool batting (so it will shrink a bit when washed, and get nice and soft). The free motion quilting was done with Bottom Line thread (in the top and bottom). I chose a simple meander because I love stitching it, and it is all such a busy quilt needs.

I chose an odd numbered layout this time so all the corners would match when folded  (my Apple Core quilt has an even numbered layout and it bothers me that the edges don't line up).

Because it is summer time here are some garden photos!

the front flower bed

one side

the back 

the new part we did this summer

the back flower bed and herb garden

the vegetable garden - more flowers this year

the other side

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥