Tour de Fleece and sock

I have been able to stick to my goal of spinning every day of the Tour de Fleece including the rest days. It hasn't been difficult due to my total addiction to spinning anyway.

Here's the latest spinning in progress.

Spunky Eclectic "Selfish" shetland (June club fiber) being spun for navajo plied sock yarn. These are not really colors that I would have picked out but I'm enjoying spinning the fiber. Shetland is so easy to draft. It's fun to watch the colors pop on the bobbin.


BeeMiceElf "Daydream" merino. Yummy! It will be Navajo plied as well. I'm not sure what project it will be knit into yet.


Lakehouse Loft "Lavender Fields" Corriedale. This is also destined to become socks, 3 ply.


And I finished one sock of the pair that will be gifted to my wonderful friend and vet, Jo-Ann Liebe.
I used the BFL/nylon yarn that I dyed and then chain-plied to make it a heavier weight. The pattern is Van Dyke from Socks From the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson. Great pattern, love the sock! Now onto sock #2.

the hungry Moosie

My Moosie devours yarn! I have trouble putting it down. It's such a lovely spindle.

Tour de Fleece

I have been spinning for the Tour de Fleece. I have spun every day - some days a lot and other days a little. Here are some of the spinning projects from the first week.

SW Merino, Scenic colorway, from beemiceelf on Etsy. I split the fiber in half lengthwise and spun one half as it presented itself. I split the other half into thin strips and spun them for the second single. Plied together, one single has long color repeats and the other has very short color repeats. It was the first time I've tried using the fractal stripes prep for fiber. I don't think the striping patterns are very evident until the yarn is knit up. I'm planning to knit an EZ Baby Surprise sweater with it.

Some Romney top (Odysseus colorway, Sheepish Creations on Etsy)on the Golding spindle.

I dyed some BFL fingering weight yarn to knit socks for my friend and vet-extraordinaire, Jo-Ann Liebe, using her color choices. It's very pretty but I had a terrible time swatching it. It's very fine yarn and, to get a gauge swatch that I liked, I would have had to use 1.5mm needles or finer. So I decided to add twist to the yarn and ply the two 2-plied yarns together to make a cabled yarn. I'm much happier with it now.

And my Bosworth Moosie arrived in the mail! I've been on a waiting list for it. The spindle is made from shed moose antlers.
I raided my stash and found the perfect fiber for the Moosie's first spinning assignment. It's an Abby's Batt in the First Frost colorway - merino, baby alpaca, silk, and firestar - and it's the most beautiful batt I've ever seen! I bought it from someone destashing on Ravelry a while back. It's demanding to be spun laceweight.

Sunday at home

I cleaned off all three wheels the other day in preparation for the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry. I joined with the modest goal of spinning every day. I usually spin every day anyway so it's not a big challenge. My problem is usually stopping spinning once I get going. I spin until my body aches tell me to back away from the wheel.

Anyway, here are a couple of finished yarns off the wheels.

This is the Spunky Eclectic club Soul Windows, a SW Corriedale and nylon blend. I three-plied it for sock yarn - 23 wpi.

This is some more sheltie blend yarn. It's about 30% sheltie and 70% Cormo, two ply - 13 wpi. It's posing with one of peonies that's still blooming in the back yard.

I convinced Robbie to pose with it too. Cute, don't you think?

And on a completely unrelated note, one of my former grade 2 students posted on Facebook today that she was celebrating her 12th anniversary!! Egads! I can't possibly be that old, can I?!

Happy Canada Day!

The friendly neighborhood gargoyle is sporting his Canada hat today. We're glad to see him back after a serious accident beheaded him this winter. (Whoever is to blame for this act of vandalism, get a life!) We were wondering if he would be able to recover from this unfortunate incident. However, once the weather warmed up enough for the mending adhesive to work, he was back at his station as the neighborhood beacon. Love ya, gargoyle dude!

Happy 142nd birthday, Canada! I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.