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!♥

More Spinning and New Weaving

This week I finished spinning some more lace weight yarn.

It is silk and merino, 47g/1.6oz, 425m/465 yards.

I dyed the fibre a while ago, as part of a group of four (I still have one left to spin - the purple).

This yarn seems to be taking so long to spin, that I decided to have a break from such fine yarn.

the fibre after soaking

I dyed up some leftover merino wool and polwarth wool for other projects.

the dyed bundles ready for steaming

the dyed fibre

Since I was making a 3 ply yarn I divided the bundles into three different groups (I wanted each ply to be slightly different).

I used a blending board to mix the colours (I wanted yarn that was less stripy, more subtle variations). I also added some gold angelina for sparkle.

the blended rolags ready for spinning

the three bobbins ready for plying

The finished yarn is about DK weight (about 14 wraps per inch), 100g/3.5oz, 151m/166yards. I used long draw for spinning - I am always amazed how fast it is to spin this way.

I started a new weaving project this week too - dish towels, woven with cottolin (60% organic cotton and 40% linen, from Quebec). This is the first time that I have woven with commercial yarn, and following a pattern. It is interesting, and a good learning experience.

the first towel is almost finished, the warp will make 4 towels

I am so pleased to see the garden growing-

There was a little visitor this week - I think she was telling me to wash my windows! Yikes!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥