Day 2, 2 Skeins

Here's what I have to show at the end of Day 2...

The picture is a bit bigger than usual to ensure that the color shows. This was very vibrant fiber, but it contained strips of color running the length of the fiber, and it was VERY difficult to keep any of the colors separated, in addition to the white silk running through. I think I did better on the bottom skein.

I had planned on chain plying this, but I think I am going to stash it for a while and combine it with some other darker merino/silk blends I have for a very soft, if a bit scrappy, shawl at some point in the future.

This is what I was planning on combining it with. I got it at that fiber festival last year. It is spun, but apparently I don't have any finished photos of the yarn.

 

Here are the three fibers together. Looking at them together, I might change my mind. The festival fiber has great long jewel tone color sections, and today's is much more mottled. I was going to use the black and white and a buffer. It would certainly be scrappy... but I don't really know what else I would do with these yarns otherwise. It gives me 12 ounces with them all, and I have it in I would say roughly lace weight singles, but I haven't figured the WPI's.

 

Looking at it more, the festival fiber does bring out a lot of the colors in the new yarn...

I guess I have time to think about it as I certainly don't have time for a new knitting project between the TDF, the mitts that I am still trying to finish before the fair, and the Moscow Coat that I am making some progress on. Tiny has also requested a sweater for the fall, and I have been dying some merino for a pair of convertible mittens for a friend for Christmas. Yeah, I guess I have some time.

 

Day 1, Skein 1

Yay! Very happy to have finished 4 ounces in one day, granted doing a single helps.

It's the Wild Berry from Louet. I got it from the Paradise Fiber Fiber Club in April I think. I did this in Thick 'n Thin, it was interesting, but it did take a bit longer having to stop my wheel and "bite" more fibers for the thick sections. It's probably something I would get more used to as I did it more.

Yay; happy me! I am going to have to update the charts, but as I still have several hours left in the day, I think I hold off until later. 

Pre-Tour Nerdiness

So I guess I really am a massive nerd here. Though not enough to get all the formatting figured out...grrr. Anyway. The Tour de Fleece starts tomorrow and I wanted to make sure that I have some fiber stats so that I know how much I get done. This chart does not include my fleeces that may or may not get washed and spun during the Tour. 

Please indulge my nerdiness as I make a few more charts and graphs...

 

Below is the big one. I hope to update it daily, slowly replacing the blue with the red. I will be getting another shipment from the Fiber Club soon, so then charts will have to be adjusted, but I think I can handle that. 

I think tomorrow will begin with the Triple Berry Jam Wool I have. I'm going to try to do a Thick/Thin single, so that should be interesting. Yay!

Tour De Fleece Day -1

Swift!

Happy Independence Day for all those in America!

Yay, my swift is here! It actually came last Wednesday, but the whole basement thing kinda kept me off the computer.

Here it is all put together with it's own bag. I don't plan to carry the swift around much, but it's always nice to have another project bag.

It's a very nice swift. It moves well, Tiny can use it without any problem. I may let her skein up a few acrylic balls just for the fun of it. Of course it also works very well to make balls from skeins. Maybe one of these days I'll get a ball wonder too....

One of the things I really like is that the end pegs are adjustable. I may even mark a 2 yard skein or something and skip the Niddy Noddy on some of my spinning projects. It's just a thought, we'll see how that turns out.

That's about it for now. The plan for now is to get everything set for the TDF to start on the 5th! Part of the Tour on Revelry is to post daily updates online about progress. Not sure if I want to do daily posts here too, or just end up with some longer posts for a few weeks, I guess we'll see what kind of time Tiny leaves me with.

Reorganized

I've been a bit busy this week. My husband went out of town for work, so of course the rational thing to do while I have the 5 year old to myself for 4 days would be to rearrange the basement... right, who needs logic?

So, as I am not rational, I did decide to rearrange the basement, and I consolidated all my crafting stuff. I realize this is more applicable to the quilting/sewing world, but I moved my stash and wheel down here so it counts too.

I still have some final cleaning to do... and painting, but that is another story, but here is the general layout of the crafting space.

The whole project started because I wanted to condense the space our homeschooling was taking place in, so that is on one side of the basement, and my crafts and Tiny's toys are on the other. Of course the maps still need to be moved, but that's for another day as well.

It is a bit tight, but as my lovely wheel only weighs 9 labs, it is very easy to move to some of the more open space when I want to spin, which I did a bit of down here last night.

Just as a funny aside, you see those three storage totes under the table... that's my fiber/yarn stash, well about 95% of it. My husband thinks I have too much. Of course I do still have four bags of fleeces...

The Swift is on Its Way

Well, I finally did it. At about 9:30 this morning, I ordered a swift from Paradise Fibers. Still waiting on the ball wonder, but according to some Pinterest post, I can use my stand mixer and a toilet paper tube.



Not a whole lot else going on these days. Despite the gap in mitts, I've still got "second mitt syndrome." Maybe I should start a graph for that project too.



Anyway, until Thursday, here is a video about my new swift.

Fleece Time Again

I have these great friends who have a small family farm with small breeding herds of beef cattle and meat sheep. The thing about sheep is that even if you aren't going to do anything with the wool, try still need to be sheered. Lucky me!

 

These are the same friends I got the Bella wool from last year, but this year, I got 7 fleeces, so... sorry, I don't know the names for each fleece. But above we have a great close up of the locks on one of the fleeces. I think this one was the ram.

 

I'm not going to try to wash them all myself this year, maybe in the future, but not now. A spinning friend is going to pitch in on mill fees in exchange for some of the processed wool. Because I seriously don't need 7 fleeces, but maybe it'll be a head start for inventory for my Easy store.

 

I have decided to skirt them myself.  It has been raining lately, so I've only been able to get one done, but in the process I was able to try some of the wool. I grabbed a bit of left over fluff, washed it, and spun it from locks- just kind of fluffing it as I went- I think they call it hand carding, and got some interesting, and certainly thicker yarn out of it. I'll have to try some more of that and see if I can get some decent results.

 

Before skirting