Tour de Fleece

My goal was three skeins completed. I reached four. Good job!

I had hoped to spin every day, but knew it would be iffy, what with the vacation and all. I made a valiant attempt. I took the spindle and roving along, but it was not to be. Too much to do, too much to see. Very well.

Along the way, I learned from Maggie Casey’s book, Start Spinning, and feel more confident in teasing and carding the fleece, and in setting the final twist. Much more confident. Well done

(And thank you, Maggie, for selling me, Betsy, the Flying Lendrum, too!)

All in all, I feel I crossed the finished line, victorious, with only a scrape or two! I award myself ‘Le Maillot Jaune’! And the crowd goes wild…..

Next up…..Ravelympics! I play for Team Colorado, Event Baby Dressage.
You are dying to know, aren’t you?

Vacation Mode, Stage Three

How many stages are there? As many as I want! Gosh.

Our bags are packed. The food is bought. Gas is in the car. The route is plotted, more or less....

And there are no spiders in my sleeping bag. We may leave now. Or tomorrow morning, as our plans are.

This morning we had time to ride the Bandit to Estes Park, stopping in Glen Haven for the volunteer fire department's fundraising pancake feed. It was a nice ride, but got a bit warm on the way home. It's that time of year.

Tour de Fleece update time:

Skein C equals 293 yards at 3 ounces, and skein D equals 357 yards at 4 ounces, both with 18-19 wpi. Sweet!

Total of about 1460 yards.

Feels just like store-bought!

Tour de Fleece 2008 Update

Review of Goals: My goal is to have 3 skeins (2-ply) completed of the 'in-process' baby alpaca, my first raw fleece.


Progress: As of Day 9, July 13th, two skeins have been spun, plied, wrapped, and set.


Results: Skein one amounts to approximately 430 yards and 5 oz., skein 2 approximately 380 yards and 4 oz. Both wrap about 18-19 per inch, making it laceweight-ish.



Behold!

I have been anxious with this fleece. It's my first raw fleece, after all. I washed some of it. Then carded some. Then I spun some, all in the effort of making sure that I didn't screw up somewhere along the line, and destroying it all before realizing I was doing something wrong.

I followed Maggie Casey's advice in 'Learn To Spin' in setting the twist. No whacking after it's bath and rinse, but hanging (see the top photo).

When I checked on my yarn after drying, I was very pleased. This stuff is cloud-soft, squooshy, and yummy-licious, just like real baby alpaca! It's really clean, too, which is a pleasant surprise. I am inexperienced in levels of vegetable matter, but it seems this fleece had more than a fair share. But gone now! Or at least invisible mostly....

One more skein to go, and the singles are already in the works. She's a spinning machine, folks, a machine, I tell you!

I have joined...

..le Tour de Fleece! My goal is to have 3 skeins (2 ply) of my baby alpaca complete by the end of le Tour de France. There will have to be lots of spinning going on here at the old homestead for that to happen. This stuff has been slow going, but I am determined to set myself a challenge to meet, not just something I can do. Also, with the trip over the 4th, and a vacation to Yellowstone planned the week of the event, I can budget knitting time to traveling, and spinning time to my evenings.

So we are off tomorrow for four days, and I don't know about computer access. It will be what it will be, and maybe I will be in touch.

Happy 4th.