And She Knits Too!

Countdown to my vacation:

Spinning, Spinning, Keep on Spinning

I am loving my Tour de Fleece.

After the squooshy stuff, I moved on to one of my stashed Grafton/Dyak batts from their 2009 club offerings.

Gorgeous eh?

 

Fibre p*rn

I had good luck maintaining the striping on a previous batt in a complementary colourway and decided to spin this one up the same way to knit up one of those noro striped scarves.

Here's the first batt which I spun on last year's tour: 

Here's a not so great photo of the two bobbins.  (must stop 11pm photoshoots)

 

I plan to ply them this weekend.  I wanted them to rest a bit and also, I really wanted to start spinning up this:

 

 

It's 80 Merino/20 Silk and the dying is nifty--it goes from crazy purple to black. I'm spinning it thin-ish and will chain ply it into one long skein. Hopefully enough for a hat or cowl. I pre-drafted this one because I found the braid sticky. It's all arranged on my spinning chair and I'm at the mid-purple part now. Very nice to spin with.

Tour de Fleece 2011 Progress Report

My foray into the Tour de Fleece was such a success last year, I decided to jump in and spin again. The main reason I decided to take up the challenge was that I am not spinning enough. My two wheels stare at me forlornly from the corner and my yarn credenza (yes I have a piece of furniture in my living room dedicated to my crafts) is bulging with fibre that I want to spin. Also, I find that daily spinning is not only relaxing, it is also the best way to improve my technique.

I started easy by finishing up some fibre I started spinning in January. Eight soft squooshy ounces of Shetland/BFL lamb, first shearing in a lovely natural brown colour. I bought the fibre at the Knitter's Frolic in 2010 and wished there was more. It is super nice and easy to spin with and I decide to try for a woolen, soft and lofty yarn. That's what I got:

555m of two-ply worsted weight (ish) yarn. So squooshy. It's not a hardy yarn so I think I'll make the Hawthorne shawl with it. Mostly because being wrapped in this yarn is exactly what I want.

The farm where I purchased this fibre--Hopeful Shetlands--has great natural stuff for very reasonable prices. Great for beginners since shetland is easy to spin.

Next time I'll share what is on the wheel now (woot! I have blog content!  Must remember to come back and post!)