Tour in Tahoe

We spent the weekend up at a friend's cabin near South Lake Tahoe, and although I didn't have a very large amount of time to spin, I did get a few things off the bobbins before we left and squeezed in some more spindle time while we were up there.

These got wound off and washed last night:



Here we have two singles yarns: the Ripe Olives Merino/Mohair from Hello Yarn, and 2 ounces of Dew BFL from Tactile Fiber Arts. They're both going to remain singles, so we've got 6 ounces of fiber to cross off the list! Since I've finished one spindle project, this got started up in the woods:



It's the 3.4 ounce batt from Aunt Janet's fiber mill, and I'm doing an airy, low-twist lumpy bumpy singles that will probably get navajo-plied for some bulk. No project in mind yet, it will depend on how rough the finished and washed yarn is. It was lots of fun to spin this out on the deck in the warm sunshine, and compare the greeny-blue of the fiber to the green of the pines and the blue of the sky. We had a great time hanging out with friends surrounded by nature. Some highlights:









Today I have lots of chores and unpacking to take care of, and it's officially a rest day for the Tour. However, I'm hoping to get at least one bobbin of Pigeonroof singles done so I can stay on target. I may need to convert one of my spinning projects from wheel to spindle so that I have enough to keep me spinning every day of the tour even when I'm not at home.

Quick Tour Update

So I still haven't gotten plying thread, but I've started spinning a bobbin of Hello Yarn Wool/Mohair in the "Ripe Olives" Colorway:



I got inspired by another Raveler's project, who knit a lovely lace shawl by splitting off individual colors from a multicolored roving and spun one long color transition. So over the weekend I spent a bit of time making these on my handcards:



I think I'll leave the yarn as a single, so I don't have to worry about one more thing to ply (or with splitting the fiber any more than I already have). I also got about halfway through the Tactile BFL on one of my drop spindles, and began the second half. I was a silly nilly and didn't read the Verdigris pattern too carefully before beginning to spin, and my singles are too thick to make a two-ply. On the other hand, I think this fiber will look pretty good as a single and in the pattern.

In knitting news, I've finished the Rainbow Brite socks. I haven't been able to accost the significant other to take my picture with them on, so we did it at knit night on Tuesday: check it out here on the Pink Viking's flickr. Plus, I am just about ready to start sewing up Halcyon! I think I'm going to baste the pieces together (hopefully this weekend) and decide if I want to add an extra cable repeat on the sleeves. I think I'll have enough yarn to do so, and if it's the difference between wearing the sweater more often, then it'll be worth the wait!

First Day Blues

Yesterday we had a big ol' 4th of July bash to attend in the afternoon, so I got up early to spin some and get myself off to a good start. I kinda hoped I'd be able to spin and blog the spinning before we left, but it was not to be (I'm sure nobody wanted to read the post that was forming in my brain around 1AM last night). So here's my first day's progress, the Arabian Nights wool silk all prepped:



And spun into thick-and-thin singles:



It only took me about an hour to spin both bobbins, and maybe half an hour of prep and wheel cleaning beforehand. It makes me think that perhaps my problem with spinning (or knitting, for that matter) is that I no longer have large chunks of time to devote to a single activity. By the time I got to the second bobbin, pulling a big tuft of fiber into the drafting zone every now and then was becoming second nature, and it was a real treat to get two whole bobbins worth of yarn in such a short time, when my last two spinning projects have been laceweight yarns!

Today we're visiting with family and probably not returning home until dinnertime, so it's a spindle grading day. I have a stack of homework that needs to get done, and I'm bargaining with myself that if I get through the whole pile before going home, then I can allow myself to spin all evening. I am also allowed to look for a beautiful shiny binding thread to ply the singles with while I'm out and about today.

Anticipation and More Tour Training

So I've got my 6 bobbins all emptied this morning, and I realized that I desperately need to blog/knit/do something to keep myself from starting my Tour de Fleece spinning too early! Yesterday I finished up one spinning project that I started a while ago, and am very excited about:



This is "The Silent Undergrowth" Falklands wool from the Verb fiber club. I'm very glad I didn't decide to make this project part of my Tour de Fleece goal, because it was a bit of a time suck and I wanted to take it slow with the spinning. I mentioned that I knew the color was perfect for Anne Hanson's latest Twist Collective shawl pattern, but when I spun up the first 3 ounces, I didn't really get enough yardage to do the full shawl. So I put the word out there on Ravelry that I was looking for more, and would trade another club shipment so I could spin a double-dose for Artichaut. Another awesome Raveler came through, and now I have just over 1,000 yards of yarn! The weight of my yarn is actually somewhere between the two weights the pattern calls for. It's written for either a fingering weight yarn at 100 yards per ounce with a size 7 needle, or a laceweight yarn at 312 yards per ounce with a size 3 needle. Mine worked out to be around 180 yards per ounce. So as far as the weight goes, I'm going to pretty much split the difference and knit in size 5 needles, and just knit until I run out of yarn. The second skein of yarn is drying as I type, so maybe I'll cast this on once the knitting on the Halcyon is finished.

In other news, I wanted to officially announce my intentions known for tomorrow's grand beginning. As per yesterday's preliminary rules, I have three categories of spinning that I will accomplish as part of this year's Tour De Fleece:



1. Spin for specific projects. I have earmarked 25.4 ounces of Pigeonroof Studios fiber in various wools (BFL, Merino, SW Merino, and Shetland) and various colorways (Millefiore, Circus, Calla, Persimmon, and Cornucopia), to be spun in a worsted/heavy worsted weight for the Danish Heather Shawl. Additionally, the Sanguine Gryphon wool/silk blend will become another thick & thin yarn so I can have a deliciously bouncy Morning Surf scarf all my own.

2. Spin on a spindle, so I can keep spinning every day of the tour even when I don't have my wheel. There are two projects here, one with a project in mind and the other without. I'll be spinning my 2 ounces of Tactile BFL (in "Dew") for the Verdigris pattern on my Cascade Ranier spindle, and the lovely 3.4-ounce jewel-colored batt from Aunt Janet's Fiber Mill on the good old dependable Maggie spindle.

3. Spin for the joy of spinning. Here my sub-goal is also to spin up more of my Hello Yarn fiber, so I've got three 4-ounce bundles to be spun as the mood takes me, without committing to a specific project. Two are club fiber shipments, and one is some merino/mohair blend that I was lucky enough to get during a shop update.

The overarching goal of all this is to reduce my stash, and this is where my declaration gets really scary. If I spin all this, I'm cutting the fiber stash in half. Yup. Half. Whew. Is it just me, or is it a little stuffy in here? Maybe I need to sit down. Pre-draft some fiber into little bundles for spinning tomorrow morning. See you in the morning, I kinda like this blogging every day thing!

Tour De Fleece 2009 Preparations

It's that time of year again, time for all spinners to race along with the athletes in the Tour de France, to complete their own fibery goals in the Tour de Fleece. Last year I set myself goals that I thought were achievable but not too stressful, being on vacation in Europe and knowing that I would be limited in the amount of fiber I could spin.

This year, the training wheels (ha-ha wheels, I kill me!) are coming off.

This year, I come home to my spinning wheel on almost every day of the tour. Interspersed are a couple of weekend trips that will necessitate some spindle spinning in order to truly meet the goal of spinning on race days along with the cyclists, but it's not like I'll be confined to the car nearly every day like last year.

This year, I have a METRIC TON of stash that I want to spin up. Okay, maybe not that much, but here's some stats from my Ravelry stash:

- 20 4-ounce bundles of combed top (80 ounces!)
- 14 ounces in other put-ups (some batts, some angora fluff, etc.)
- Some leftover gray fleece locks (maybe 6 or 7 ounces)
- About 7 pounds of dirty raw fleece (for you role-playing nerds out there, raw fleece carries a 2-point "fiber deliciousness" merit, but a 3-point "difficult prep" flaw.) There's a small pile of washed locks from the first batch, probably not more than 3 ounces.

Looking just at stuff that I could start spinning tomorrow, that's somewhere around 6 pounds of fiber. 6 pounds. Two years ago, I stashed sock yarn like it was on the endangered species list. It's been a big old fiber fest over here since then.

Now for some vendor statistics:

1. About 12% of the fiber stash is unspun Verb Fiber club fiber (I am very good about spinning this right away)

2. About 29% of the fiber stash is unspun Pigeonroof Studios fiber. I got a little carried away with my stashing rule for hard-to-find fibers. The rule is, if you normally see it less than once a month for sale, you are pretty much allowed to buy it whenever you do find it, even if you don't have a project in mind or are only mildly interested in the color.

3. About 45% of the fiber stash is unspun Hello Yarn fiber (28% club fibers, 17% from shop updates). This is what I hoard the most. With Adrian's colors, I still suffer from "I don't want to screw it up" syndrome so often found in new spinners. In fact, I have yet to actually knit with any of my Hello Yarn handspun! Clearly there are some issues I need to work through here, but until then, I have some very lovely stash to pet.

So here's what I'm going to do. I want to assign real, honest-to-goodness projects for a large chunk of the fiber stash, and spin for projects. There's already a couple I have in mind. I bought some Tactile BFL with the Verdigris pattern in mind, and there's my idea for the Danish Heather Shawl(Rav link) using Pigeonroof fiber. That one should take four or five bumps out of the running! I also have a bump of Sanguine Gryphon merino/silk roving that I'd like to spin to duplicate the Morning Surf Scarf I made last winter. Interspersed with this, I want to have a few skeins that I spin specifically without a really solid idea of what they will become. The idea is to balance planning with letting go of my need to control everything. On top of this, I need at least one spindle-appropriate project, singles will be done on the weekend of the 10th-13th, and to be plied at the end of the tour, the 24th-26th.

There's an awesome team called "Raw Power" who are all spinning a pound of fiber they've prepped from raw to spinnable form for the Tour. I'd love to do this if I wasn't working, and I think it would also be neat to see how much prep I could do during the tour on Blake's fleece. But the work schedule would just make me crazy, since it takes a few hours per washed batch of fiber, doing it the way I am now in my bins.

So I'm spindling, wheel spinning, spinning to reduce stash, spinning for projects, and spinning for fun. I nice side effect of the tour is that it keeps me blogging regularly. I did manage to get 4 posts in for the month of June, even though they were a little light on the knitting content. Today and tomorrow, I'll be clearing out the bobbins. Here we go! Vive la France!

Uh... what work?

SO. When I said I had 8 hours of driving to work on the Halcyon, it turns out I actually had 4 hours (gotta split the driving time with the guy) all of which got taken up with grading papers. I'm not sure if I like the summer gig, the class is great but it's so fast-paced (and the money is always welcome in these times). I'm finding it difficult to do anything else but crash after I get home on the days I teach, and then I'm playing grading catch-up on the weekends.

I promise, pictures of the sweater pieces soon. What do you all think: should I block the sleeves and front and back individually before sewing it together and knitting the neckband, or should I just wait and block the whole thing when it's done?

In the meantime, follow this link for cute kittens (yes I will do anything to distract from my lack of knitting progress).

Spinner's Day on the Farm and Blake

I can hardly believe that June is almost over! In between camping and the start of summer session, I managed to squeeze in some fiber fun at Spinner's Day on the Farm, an event put on by Sonoma County Fiber Trails and held at Westside Farms near Healdsburg. It was a great day of hanging out with spinners. I made a couple new friends, and saw some old ones too. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and the great company you expect from spinners.



This was the bench area at about half capacity, early in the morning. Nearly everyone there had a spindle or a wheel, and we saw some rather interesting ones. There was an amazing potluck lunch, and the main attraction for me:



fleeces.

In addition to a couple of smaller fiber goodies, I got this:









The thought has been rolling around in my head that I was able to take my Halcyon sweater project from unwashed fleece last August to a nearly completed sweater this June. So the question is, does this mean I can have one fleece a year? In other news, I have 8 hours of car ride on Monday in which to finish the knitting on the Halcyon sweater.

I managed to get one washing session in later that weekend. I am in love with the color just as much as I adore the grey of the corrie-merino cross. It's a very dark brown, nearly black, with lighter brown tips. Blopeep (a new spinning friend from the farm) and I were doing some shopping cross-enabling at the booths, and she described the color as a "dark, rich espresso" and that's exactly how it washed up. I can't wait to see what it turns into!