Tour de Fleece

I have been remiss.

I began spinning yarn for the Tour de Fleece at Ravelry with every intention of keeping a journal of that adventure here. The Tour de Fleece is a challenge to spin every day the Tour de France rides. It's can be as simple as that--there are also teams you can join for special purpsoes --art yarn, yarn made from fiber purchased from certain vendors, etc. While I've done the spinning, I haven't written about the process.

Let's fix that now.

I joined several teams. I have no idea if I can fulfill my desire to spin tangible amounts for each of those teams, but at least it gives me a variety of goals. The teams I joined?
Pelotron ~ everyone belongs here at some point
Rookies 2009 - I am both a rookie for this year and a novice spinner
Team Extreme Spinners - I have several purchases from her shop
Team Phat Fiber - I have purchased from a few vendors and have the May samples*
Team SOS ~ I hope to spin enough yarn to make a pair of socks from my own homespun
Team Snobby Spinners - I hope to try the silk caps again
Team Spin or Dye Swapping- again, I have lots of fiber from people in this group
Team Spindle (formerly known as Team Drop Spindle) - to use the spindles I own
* and since you ask, no, I have not yet run down the newest box. I give up. I'm just out $33 and some time--but greatly enriched with neighborhood gossip, as if I wanted that~

Some of the goals I've set myself:
To spin more evenly
To spin some art yarn
To get started on my Samhain yarn
To try some of the variety of fibers I have accumulated and make reference cards for them

The Tour began the 4th of July. So did my spinning.

4th of July
Spun a sample of 100% targhee from GLBLF (Girls Like Boys Like Fiber) sent to me by aquaknits ~owner of sKNITches yarns, and co-owner of a fiber line, GLBLF, over on etsy.

The sample looked like this (and for some reason, I didn't write down the mass):


And the finished single looked like this:


I loved working with the targhee, and will definitely get more of it. It drew nicely, spun a smooth solid yarn, and has a nice shine to the finished yarn.

Sunday July 5th
I worked a bit on a 1-lb bump of gray New Zealand I bought from Annie at Designs in Textiles

The bump, with it's lovely flow from dark to light gray:



And the yarn on the wheel. A bit fuzzier in the photo than it looks in hand, but about the thickness I was going for. I want this to be a sock yarn when it's finished.


It came out a bit stiffer than I hoped, but perhaps it will soften as I ply it and wash it. It's overspun in places. I was going to take it off the bobbin so I could work with something else tomorrow, but I think I will try improving the density of the yarn instead. While I have this prep on the bobbin, I may as well finish a bobbin anyway, so I can estimate how much yardage I'll get from X number of bobbins.

Speeaking of bobbins, I really need to get more bobbins. It is a serious nusisance to have to empty a bobbin every time I want to try something new. Or just spin oever a partially full bobbin.