Monday, July 27, 2009

The Tour de Fleece

The Tour de Fleece is over, which I suppose means the Tour de France is over too (who won?), and I have some yarn to show you all!  I took pictures of my progress every day just so that I can see what I've done.  This post is full of pictures of my spindle, so feel free to scroll down to the bottom to see the actual yarn that I made.

My goal came in two parts: 1. to spin merino for the first time, and 2. to spin a yarn that wasn't so twisted that it felt like twine.

I was spinning merino top from J. Knits in the Boston colorway.  Here goes!

Day 1, July 4:

Day 2, July 5:
Day 3, July 6:
Day 4, July 7:
Day 5, July 8:
Day 6, July 9:
Day 7, July 10: This was the day we drove to our cabin
Day 8, July 11: Finished 1st single
Day 9, July 12: Prepped fiber for 2nd ply
Day 10 was a rest day

Day 11, July 14:
Day 12, July 15:
Day 13, July 16:
Day 14 I forgot to spin, days 15 and 16 I didn't bother taking pictures because I only spun about a foot of yarn on each day

Day 17, July 20: Technically a rest day, I made up for missing the day 14
Day 18, July 21:
Day 19, July 22:
Day 20, July 23:
Day 21, July 24: Finished 2nd ply...
Wound 2nd ply...
Re-wound singles, held double for ease of plying...
...and started plying.
Day 22, July 25: Finished plying and washed the skein
...there was a bit of color bleeding.
Last day!  Day 23, July 26: Re-skeined and measured the finished yarn





I ended up with about 388 yards of 2-ply, 11 wpi (roughly DK-weight), 4 oz.  It is super sproingy and really soft.  It may not be as much as some other people did, but I met my challenge and ended up with this great yarn too!

(I then unclimactically tossed it in the direction of my yarn stash where it will sit until I re-discover it at some point in the future.)

Thanks Cookie and Team CrankyPants!  I may have been silent, but I enjoyed the company.

10 comments:

  1. Woo Hoo!

    Well done!

    You're welcome and thank you for joining us. Even if we did scare you a little.

    xo

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  2. Dude, that yarn is purty.

    Also, I like your use of the word "unclimactically", just because you don't often use words that aren't really words.

    The end.

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  3. It looks great, and yippee for achieving your goal of soft and sproingy! I like the idea of the CD on the spindle to give it a bit more breadth too -- very clever!

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  4. Fantastic job! Goals met are a great thing, and your finished yarn looks really nice!

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  5. Wow, that yarn is like superawesome!! I love how your homespun looks really un-homespunny! It almost makes me want to start spinning!

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  6. It looks great!! Well done. Your dog seems to enjoy it as well:)

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  7. It looks great! nice yarn, nice pics.

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  8. Congratulations! Lovely work.

    Way more fun to follow than Lance.

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  9. I'm very impressed with how much you got done, and how even the yarn is. I can't wait to see what you make out of it. :)

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