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.

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!

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!!!!

Time for an update- I'm waaayy behind on that!

Things have been busy with the kiddos and all their respective stuff. In that- it's mostly my son because he has had baseball going on for a while now. He's got all-stars left so a couple more weeks of practices and games.
I said I would try to stress less- it's getting there. Spin more- definitely not as much as I would like for this one!!! I did finish up some fiber for Fiberswap. I blended up a mix of some Polypay roving I picked up in Taos year before last. It was a prize winning fleece in 2004 (but I can't find the card that says what prize right now :) ). It was 60% Polypay, 20% Angora, and 20% Soysilk. I had a little leftover wool and the other fibers so I did a 65/20/15 blend and kept it for me. Then I had something (just enough at 1.9oz) I could spin for the spindle spun yarn contest in Taos for this year. I did get that spun up- one of my resolutions! It ended up being a total of 433 yds. The contest requires it to be a single, but once that's over I will most likely ply it back on itself to be able to use (I don't have much love for using energized singles in knitting- I'm not that good to begin with!) I also did a demonstration on spinning in early May at our local Fiber Arts Museum. It went well and I got some soy silk spun up that I dyed the night before.
I have managed a few felted flowers and one pair of knitted calla lilies, but now I am done with the fiberswap stuff and spun up that single for Taos, I am back to work on my brother's birthday socks (waaaayyyy overdue!)
In other news, one of our mallards hatched her babies (about three weeks ago now) and has six little ducklings following her around everywhere now. They're cute and growing so fast- even faster than my little ducklings! Our male goose seems to think he's the dad though and makes sure that they are following mom and not getting into trouble. At least he does, our male mallard doesn't seem to care! Also, my daughter did get a new bed- yay! So now we are all set for the baby as far as that is concerned. Just waiting now! Not too long to go- my doc said 32 weeks on Monday, but according to the latest possible date of conception (yep I know exactly when now that I think back) I was closer to 33.5 weeks on Monday. Well- time to get the girls bathed and get dinner ready!
I will try to be posting more often, but no guarantee on that of course- I'm terrible with taking the time to do it!!!!

Happy fibering!