Tour de Fleece - Day 12

...or, "How we freaked out the spinning muggles while waiting for the new Harry Potter movie to start.."

Yep. Three of us from the HPKCHC groupon Ravelry and some local knitters / spinners decided to brave the lines and hit the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

The plan was to show up at about 9:00pm with chairs, knitting and spinning to chat, craft and people watch. Much to our surprise, the theater was seating each group as earlier movies ended, so we weren't actually outside all that long after all! This actually worked out great though, since we were at the front of the line for our group and scored awesome seats in the first row up from the cross aisle, right under the house lights.

Onica borrowed my Cascade Little Si and passed her Louet boat anchor learning spindle on to a friend of hers who was visiting from Portland. In the end, there were four of us drop spindling front and center with another two knitting merrily alongside. Fun! The only down side? In 2.5 hours, this is all I got done!



This is a pretty light spindle and I am definitely starting to see the impact of the cop weight - a little less balanced, a little shorter spin time and it backspins right away now without the delay that it had when I first started. It is still spinning okay, so I think that I will shoot for 2x the original weight and wind off when I get there.

I am moving right along on the Autumn Leaves baby sweater now, but don't have a new photo to post today. Here is what the yoke looked like just before I put the arm stitches on holders.



I just finished the first ball of yarn last night and the sweater is about 7 1/8 inches long. It is looking pretty cute, but much smaller than I had hoped. It was supposed to be a 6-9 month size, but we tried it on a 10-week old baby at knit night and it was barely even big enough for her. (sigh...)

I'd probably rip it out and restart, but 1)I need to finish it by the end of the month and 2)The only sizing in the pattern is provided by changing yarn and needle size. This would mean abandoning "the perfect yarn in the perfect color" and trying to find some soft, superwash worsted weight wool or wool blend to use instead. Blech! Guess it'll just be a 0-3 month size...

Note to self - find some kind of standard size chart for babies! 6-9 months = ?

Tour de Fleece - Day 6

...or, "A plan is a good thing to have..."

Not that having a plan means you will actually accomplish what you set out to do, but it's definitely a start.

My plan for the day was to lick my wounds a little with some spindle spinning, then hit the wheel again with another run at woolen spinning. I made it through the first part at least, keeping my "spin every day" goal alive.



It may not be obvious at first glance, but the cop on this spindle really is bigger than it was on Day 4. Honest!

Spinning part two was postponed in favor of knitting part two. I started swatching for this baby sweater yesterday and was almost at gauge, but not really happy with the fabric I had produced. After a few hours of denial, I accepted the fact that I probably needed to go up a needle size (as usual). I knit another couple of inches with the larger needle and was much happier with the hand feel of the swatch. Gauge looks about 1/2 stitch off when measured over 2 inches, but spot on when measured over the full 4 inches. Go figure!

Tour de Fleece - Day 5

...or, "It started off okay..."

The day started off quite well. I finished up the Lollipop Cabin Rib Fantastic sample sock I had been working on, then wandered around the yard posing it on anything that didn't move and taking endless pictures. I really love the colors in this yarn, but they are tough to capture! Here are a couple of my favorites:





See the cool toe? It is basically a slip-stitch heel, at the front end of the sock. This is my biggest wear spot, so I was intrigued to see a pattern which incorporates a reinforced toe. I also thought that the way the slip-stitch ribs line up with the ribs in the lace pattern was pretty clever.

Ialiuxh seemed happy with the sock and it was one more thing that I could cross off of my "To Do" list, so I was feeling pretty good at this point.

Since this was Day 5 of the Tour de Fleece and I had just finished my active knitting project, I decided to bring my wheel to Knit Night and spin instead of knitting. That was where things started to go a little sideways...

My TDF plan was to finish up my sock singles (check!), spindle (check!) and work on my woolen spinning with using EKF batts. I started the first batt section at a spin-in on Monday and it went pretty well, lulling me into a sense of complacency. Tonight, I got my wake-up call.

Yep, I struggled all night long to get a consistent grist in my singles. Fending off comments from the peanut gallery about my sparkly batts and what on earth I was planning to do with the final yarn didn't help my spinning or my mood. I think I'll be taking next week off and spinning at home in peace, quiet, good light and my choice of music. Here's what I had on the bobbin at the end of the night:



I may have to back off to a 2ply to get a DK / Light Worsted weight final yarn, since my singles are looking a little thicker (at least in some places) than I had anticipated. I'll have to do some sampling to make sure, probably when I finish the first bobbin (so that I can adjust my color / batt management plan to get a heathered yarn).

Tour de Fleece - Day 4

Otherwise known as "barely there"...

Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but I only managed to squeeze in about an hour of spinning tonight since I opted to go to knit night. Had to do it though, 'cause the Lollipop Cabin sample sock needed to be finished and it had stalled out completely after I ripped out the toe last week. (grumble, grumble, unacknowledged errors in Interweave pattern, grumble, grumble...)

So, I raced home and picked up a fairly recent acquisition (Tracey Eichheim Spiders Ultra Light top whorl spindle) and some old roving (The Sheep Shed Studio Superwash Merino) and spindled for about an hour. The Spiders Ultra Light spun like a dream! I had no problem producing a fine even single and the hook worked out just fine. It was more rounded than I am used to and I had wondered if I would have a problem with the singles sliding out of it. Nope! It just may have to go to knit night with me tomorrow too!

Tour de Fleece - Days 1 - 3

Yep, I am skipping right over Black Sheep Gathering to the Tour de Fleece. I had a wonderful time at BSG, but if I pause to write it up and post it here, I will end up missing the TDF entirely. So... I will do a catch up post later on, if time allows.

Tour de Fleece is a spin along started by blogger Star Athena in 2006. Last year it straddled Blogger and Ravelry and this year it has pretty much moved over to Ravelry entirely. Participation has soared with the move to Ravelry, going from 400 spinners last year to 1150 spinners this year. Yikes! That's a lot of spinners!

Basically, every day that the Tour de France rides (July 4 - July 26), we spin. There are some standard teams that are just a part of the tour itself, then a whole host of wildcard teams, most of which are sponsored by dyers / fiber suppliers. Everyone sets their goals at the start of the tour and works towards them throughout the month.

My primary goal was to work on the woolen spinning techniques I learned at NwRSA Conference this year. Of course, after BSG I am also yearning to play with some silk and/or silk blends, but woolen spinning comes first, or actually, second...

Day 1

Grinding away on the third and final bobbin of Briar Rose BFL "Ply by Night" (sock) singles. So close! Quit at 11:30pm to take pictures, with about 24 inches of roving remaining.



Day 2

I was away from the house (and the wheel) for most of the day, so this was a spindle day. Spun up some Shetland/Alpaca roving on my Bosworth Featherweight.



Day 3

Woo hoo! Finally finished the Briar Rose singles...



...and moved on to the Enchanted Knoll Farm "Gold Dust Woman" batts!





The batts from EKF are farm-raised and contain Cotswold, Merino-Targhee X and Tussah Silk with Sari Silk & Angelina accents. I am spinning them long draw, semi-woolen and shooting for a heathered 3-ply DK to Light Worsted weight yarn suitable for a hat, mittens or a scarf.

I only got a chance to spin up about 1/8 of the first bobbin of singles today, so I am not sure yet if I am spinning fine enough to do a 3-ply or if I will have to back down to a 2-ply. I need to sample tomorrow and check.