Wednesday, July 25, 2007

A little off-track here, but.....

Well, I have gotten a little off track getting spinning done, but I do have a good reason! My baby boy decided he was in a big hurry to get in to this world and was born at 36.5 weeks, July 16th. He's healthy and not small (6lbs, 14oz) and he's a great sleeper so far. :) My girls were two weeks earlier than the due date as well.

I did finish one full bobbin of the Fiesta Targhee and untangling the soy and Merino to get it plied. There are two skeins (I really wish I had bigger bobbins!) of three ply (2 merino 1 soysilk)which have a total of 250yds and 6.7oz. There was a little leftover merino which I two plied and that little skein is 61yds and 1.1oz. I didn't get any spinning done in the hospital though and only managed to finish knitting three dishcloths.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Day 3 is finis!

Well- day three has come in gone in the tour de fleece. I felt like days one and two were really productive as I managed to get half of the felted merino teased and spun each day.

I wound both bobbins of merino and the bobbin of soysilk in to center pull balls and started to ply them all together. It didn't last long. All three balls got all tangled up because I wound them too tight and they collapsed on the inside almost immediately. Bummer. So today was spent untangling those balls and either re-winding or just adding something to the core to keep it from collapsing. I did get both balls of merino figured out, but the soysilk is just driving me mad! Tomorrow after my doctors appt will probably be spent on untangling more. Yuck. Well- I guess that begins the true challenge for me!!!

On another front- I managed to finally finish my brother's socks, but had to run as soon as I pulled them out of the dryer (they were superwash wool) so that I could give them to him when I saw him on the 4th. Alas- no picture- the bane of most of my FO's!
Hope everyone else is getting things going for their tour de fleece- peaceful and tangle free spinning to all!

Saturday, July 07, 2007

And so it begins

Today is the first day of le Tour de France and though I have no desire to watch it, it also signifies the beginning of le Tour de Fleece! I managed to find two blogs that are organizing one this year. I couldn't remember the one I signed up with last year and signed up for one here. Then I found the other that I had been in last year and forgot I had already signed up for the other one, so I signed up for this one too!
I guess that means I have double the challenge!?! Well- I'm going to try my best- seeing as how I am due Aug 3rd and have no intention of waiting that long- I may be in the hospital or have a little tyke to manage during the end of the tour. If that happens I have some silk that I started in November that I haven't done anything with since that I'll spindle in the hospital. At home I can work on my other stuff (will post below)- just maybe not as much .
My plans are this: I have some soysilk that is already spun. When I dyed this I also dyed some merino which, being the first time I tried to kettle dye instead of painting, is lightly felted. This will be interesting as I will have to tease like mad or tear into thin strips to spin. This is the first challenge. Then I want to finish up this pound of dyed Targhee in Fiesta (pic on right) from dyepot.com that I want to make a small throw from for a Christmas white elephant exchange we do at my husbands family's house.

After that, these three would be in-line for next to do. They are all from the Taos Wool Festival last year and are what I want to spin up for the yarn contest this year. I'll start with the purple/blue/green/gray wool, then move to the rosey wool/mohair, then on to the sun and sea wool. These are all provided I have enough time of course! This should be fun!!!!