Tour de Fleece

Well, the Tour de Fleece is over with. My goal was to spin every day and rest for two as they did. Mananged to stick to it with the exception of one day. On the 25th I spun linen instead of ingeo. Not sure what the tour yardage total will be. I have yet to finish spinning enough merino to ply it.

Spinning in Nature

Spiders have been making these webs all over our lawn. Most are about 3" across but this one was the size of a large handkerchief. Reminded me of the gossamer lace weight spun scarf in "Spinning Rare Breeds" and Orenburg Shawls.

It's nap time for my buddy. He's hanging with his favorite inanimate buddy Orville. His fur is falling into "locks" in this photo. His undercoat is super soft and when I get low on fiber it's tempting.

Skeining Yarn

Does this remind you of anything? Say a summer camp project commonly constructed with popsicle sticks or twigs and yarn?





That's what I thought. So, of course, I decided I had to take a picture and...



The remaining yarn fell off of the swift! Yep, you know what I spent the next 20 minutes doing.




Close-up of the God's eye wrapping.

I did manage to get all of this measured and re-skeined and tagged. Now I have to go spin as I forgot that we are off to the movies this evening.

Monday with eggplant and fleece

It's Monday and we have eggplant! These are the first that I have grown. The large one at left is about 3" long. We are also growing tomatoes, peppers, runner beans and strawberries. Something keeps eating the strawberries as they ripen, but only half. Could be a bird or a chipmunk. The garden is enclosed with chicken wire, not sure what else could get in and out easily.

I also transplanted some bear berries and a highbush cranberry that have been waiting in pots for about a month. I had put them in the ground and then we had some arborvitae put in and had to dig them back up so they wouldn't get run over during the install. While planting I noticed a deer track on the hill. First I have seen on the property in the year we have lived here. We have seen deer in the neighboring cornfield and across the brook. I thought that they pretty much stuck to the woods. Our property is a pretty open space.

As you can see, I should have weeded today. Instead I washed fleece. I am reading "In Sheep's Clothing" by Nola and Jane Fournier. Tried their method of washing the Rambouillet. It works very well but is terribly time consuming if you have a fleece as dirty as the one I purchased. Note to self: Sign up for a fleece evaluating class and no more sight unseen purchases unless they are from a hand spinner. Missed the MA Sheep Show in Cummington again this year. I've bought several lovely fleeces there. Filled one mesh bag with clean rambo and filled the other with targhee or I would still be at it.

I finally finished filling the first bobbin of Australian merino for the tour de fleece. Took me several days but it is dreamy spinning. The fiber is very soft and lovely. It's spun pretty thinly so I am thinking 500 yds of more.

Tomorrow I will be spinning ingeo and going for thinness and consistency.

Friday I visited with Sue at Valley Vogue. We are going to be participating in the Glendi Festival and Mattoon Street Arts Fair in Springfield the first weekend in September. She is weaving some silk for shrugs and making woven rag totes.

I plyed the silk for her and decided to bite the bullet and buy an electric spinner. Since I tend toward the more traditional, this is a new and exciting prospect for me. Don't get me wrong, I love my Baynes. It just isn't very fast at plying and I would love to try very fine spinning at some point. I am hoping for speed and fineness with the electric.

Balloon Fest

Balloon Fest - Finally saw balloons at around 7 p.m. Had hoped to seee some up close. They were a pretty sight.

Working on spinning some Merino. I have one almost full bobbin. Handcombing seems to work best on this very fine fiber. Back to work.

Tour de Fleece

Last night I finished plying the first skein for the Tour de Fleece. This is a lousy picture the blue should be the same as on my wheel. The mohair slubs are light orange, and various shades of yellow. I'll have to take a better picture outside when it's light. Today we went to a wedding. Had to re-hem the front of my dress first as it was 1" longer in the front (nothing like waiting until the last minute!), so didn't get much spinning or carding done. Tomorrow we are off to a balloon festival. I'll take my drop spindle with me, I have some angora/merino roving to spin.

Sunflower- Tour de Fleece

Yesterday a volunteer sunflower in our yard bloomed. There are several side buds so we should have a long show. The white bells in the back are yucca blossoms.

Joined the Tour de Fleece. We are to spin every day of the Tour de France and rest (or Not) when they do. I love the discipline of spinning every day. When I first learned, I'd spin for two hours a day. I'm working on a wool and mohair combination. It should be somewhat similar to the brown that I spun for the triangle shawl. I'll ply it this afternoon. For the challenge day, I have ingeo (a corn product) roving that I hope to spin at DK weight or finer.

Bluebirds and House Wrens

Today the House Wren went into the bluebird nest box while the Bluebird parents were out foraging and speared each egg one at a time and dropped it out of the entrance hole. We lost all three. Took the box down. We have seen the wren on the other house as well, but the sparrows who inhabited it were good at chasing it off. The sparrow eggs were duds - laid on the 17th and the following few days, three weeks and counting no sign of life and the parents had given up visiting the nest box. They did make the eggs cozy with of all things -shredded cigarette filters! The eggs should have hatched 11 days after they were laid. They looked perfect-no holes. I discarded the nest Friday. The bluebirds have been checking the now empty box out so we put a "wren guard" over the entrance. Basically it's an awning that blocks the hole from view. Should probably have done that to the other box, but have not seen the wren near the box in weeks and thought they were safe. Don't know if the bluebirds will move in to the other box, it may be too late in the nesting season.
Unfortunately, house wrens have a territory larger than our property. They have been terrorizing the boxes next door as well. They need something like 230 feet of space. The bluebirds may be able to use the boxes in April and then we will have to plug them up, take them down, or leave the doors open to discourage the wrens. I am almost sorry we got the boxes to begin with.

Cast - On

Decided that there was no appropriate sock yarn in my stash so went to Marji's and bought some Dream in Color, 100% Superfine Australian Merino handpainted sock yarn in color 210-sea foam, blue, grey.
The color change is very subtle. Hopefully it will show up in my progress pics.
I was hoping that she carried farmhouse yarns, but she doesn't.
Cast on for Two Socks at Once from the Toes Up and knitted a few rows. Nice stretchy yarn. Have to stop now as this is my portable project and get back to spinning or working on these.
Can't be much further to the shoulder.

Summer of Socks

I'm not sure what the summer of socks is all about (someone fill me in please) but everyone seems to be knitting them. I just completed (well that might be stretching it, as I still need to weave the ends in and possibly redo the bind off looser) my first pair of two at once on circular needles from the toe up socks. Knitted in Austerman Step yarn. Sock pattern from http://www.knitpicks.com/ . It took awhile to get used to this method and there was much ripping out, but from this angle they look pretty good. The star (after thought) heel was fun to knit. Hmmm- I think I'll raid the stash and see if there's anything suitable for a second pair. I could use a portable project, keeps me sane in the car.

My main project is this:

Cable Cardigan by Svetlana Kudrevich, Vogue Knitting International Winter 2003-04

I am about 2/3rd's of the way done with the front's which I am knitting together. Requires concentration- or it would be further along. I am planning to finish it by November.

Photos, etc.

I took pictures of two of the triangle shawls for the bolg on Saturday but the disk I used had a miniscule scratch on it and I am attempting to "fix" it with our scratch doctor. Cross your fingers. No luck. I managed to salvage this one which is not great.

The horizontal slubs are mohair.