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!♥

London Vacation

Last week we had a family vacation to London. I lived in England a couple times when I was little, and 30 years ago I worked as a nanny in London. I have been wanting to take our sons for a while, and was so pleased that we had the opportunity.

Here are some photos- 

Great mix of old and new - Tower of London and the Gherkin

Millennium Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral in the distance

Piccadilly Circus

Trafalgar Square

Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace

Big Ben and the House of Parliament

Swans in Hyde Park

Of course we had to see 'the shops' -

Harrods

inside in the food halls - beautiful tiles

Liberty

inside Liberty - the building was amazing

our only brush with royalty was this life size Lego Queen at Hamley (a huge toy store)

Some train station sights -

King's Cross

St Pancras - this was huge

Paddington - this was tinier that I thought it would be

We went on a cable car ride across the Thames -

The view - the O2 arena

The museums in London are amazing -

British Museum

inside, in the Great Court

there were a few of these - I thought the drape of the fabric was amazingly sculpted 

Natural History Museum

the building was incredible

I know I come from one of the coldest places in the world (it was -30℃ the day we left, but it is a dry cold), but I was amazed how cold I was in London with temperatures above freezing. They are a hardy lot! Check out all the beautiful flowers (I was told that they had had a warm spell before we came and the blooms were early)-

We rented a 'flat' for the week in a quite neighbourhood

Of course I have to have some photos from the plane (just because I find them fascinating)-

Toronto - stop over on the way to London  - you can see the CN Tower

coming home

All these photos were taken with my cell phone - so easy to travel with!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥