TDF: Results

So I was too busy spinning to keep up with the daily posting for more than 2 days. But that's ok because the results are totally worth it!!!

By request (thanks Jenna!) before posting anything else I give you my TDF results:



Moving from left to right we start with a WIP that was finished in large part to clear up bobbins for more spinning. 62 yards in total I only kind of count it as TDF spinning.

Next up is 100% angora. Spun complete raw with no prep from the fold. I love this yarn so much and may start carrying it around to pet it all day. There is also some speculation that Bran may be allergic, hmmm. 142 yards from the 1.4 ounces.

The brown and white is Noah the alpaca. Prepped by hand from raw into roving. The two skeins have a total of 7.9 ounces and 366 yards.

Up next is the yarn I like to call Monet because of its colors. It's coopworth that I purchased dyed and prepared into roving at MDSW two years ago. The 4 ounces gave me 502 yards.

Next is the the uber-major-accomplishment of the tour. It's a 70/30 Merino/Tussah Top also purchased as roving from MDSW two years ago (it was a good year). There were many a moment when I wasn’t sure if I would survive this laceweight yarn. But ultimately I prevailed and came out with 1314 yards from the 4 ounces. I could barely believe it when I counted.

Next up was most fun project of the whole tour “taste the rainbow”. Having a different color to spin each day was such amazing motivation. And being able to spin my yellow on Sunday was perfect. All in all I started with 5.9 ounces of (hand prepared from raw Tunnis) fiber and got 401 yards of yarn. I’m already swatching for some kind of scarf or something fun.

And lastly is the crazy cloud art yarn (its a slub wool boucle from Sarah Andersen's The Spinners Book of Yarn Design, but I was mostly just trying to make it look like clouds). After a few failed attempts I wasn’t sure if I could do it but ultimately I am quite happy. The fiber used was the same as taste the rainbow. How amazing is it that those two projects are from the same supply. The product was more important than the yardage but for consistency sake I have 14 yards from .4 ounces.



In total I spun 1.475 pounds of fiber into 2801 yards or 1.59 miles of yarn.

If not for the fact that my hands/arms are tired and I've been pushing aside lots of other things that I enjoy doing I'd be pretty much ready for the next tour already.

Stay tuned to this space I would really like to do a few more things with this TDF crafting. I have progress pictures from just about every day. It's fun to see things change and progress. And then most all of these projects can be shared in more detail.

 

 

TDF: Stage 2

On stage two I once again needed to make a cherry pie and had plans to visit family. And then the boyfriend even wanted to spend time with me. But I am nothing if not persistent when it comes to my crafts so I still managed quite a bit of spinning:



I spun approximately 0.8 more ounces of Noah bringing me up to 1.1 ounces total. This is excellent progress, as was expected. Hooray.

The colorful mini-skein there is 20 yards/0.3 ounces of dyed Tunis. I have 20 different little colored strips of roving and I think I'll spread these out since they are so amazingly fun. Approximately one per day it shall be. Also I think I may call the project Taste the Rainbow because its fun.

And lastly we have Snapdragon on the trindle. As much as I love this project I think the laceweight may make me go crazy. I roughly timed how long it took me to spin through today's 0.15 ounces and found that it took me around 50 minutes of rather devoted spinning time. This seems pretty depressing at first but  when I do the math it is actually still do-able. Crazy, but doable.

Stage 3 will be my first TDF work day. Given how many other things seemed to 'get in the way' of spinning this weekend I'm actually thinking the regular routine of the day might be a boon to my spinning productivity.

TDF: Stage 1

TDF Stage 1:

I had decided not to set an alarm for Saturday morning but I woke up about an hour after tour coverage was scheduled to start. I went downstairs and when the streaming feed loaded up I was pleasantly suprised to find that I had tuned in just before the riders rolled off! Surely this was a good omen.

Rather than immediately beginning my spinning however I took care of a bunch of house keeping stuffs online and then taking my pre-tour fiber photos. Plus I also had to bake a pie.

Eventually I started spinning Noah (alpaca) to start. I know from past experience that alpaca that I have prepared this way really will just fly right through  my hands into yarn. It is wonderful and speedy. So I figured this would be a good way to start the TDF and rack up some fast yardage. Alas I didn't have much time with everything else that needed to be done that morning.


At some point I switched over to winding a WIP single off of my favorite trindle in preparation for outside of the house spinning later in the day. Disaster struck when I managed to pop the hook of of my favorite trindle and almost lost it under the couch:


But I figured I was prepared and could fix it:

Except that all 4 tubes were old and dried out. Ooops. Luckily I tried just pushing the hook back in and it was still a tight enough fit that all seems to be ok. Disaster averted :-)

The pie came out well. Hooray!


Later it was over to Bran's and then happily he drove his new fancy car and I got to do some car spinning!

Plus my family puts up with my constant need to be working on projects when everyone is sitting around chatting. And then there was even more spinning on  the drive back home.



In total I spun approximately 0.3 ounces of Noah and .3 ounces of Snapdragon. It feels like a bit of a slow start but it was a busy day. And really that snapdragon is VERY thin so I'll still get lots of yardage out of the smaller amounts.

TDF

So apparently everyone has been missing my eloquent and fascinating posts.

And when I say "everyone" I mostly just mean Bran and my family. Because they are obviously not biased at all.

But anyways today I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart. The TDF.



TDF is most widely recognizable as The Tour de France. The epic 21 day cycling race around France. I am probably, at best, a casual follower of pro-cycling. When talking to average Americans who know nothing about cycling I sound quite knowledgeable. When talking to average cycling fans I probably sound like I know nothing. But I like watching the race quite a bit. It's fun.

But more importantly TDF also stands for the Tour de Fleece! The Tour de Fleece is an annual spin-along during the Tour de France. Every day that they spin on the bikes, we spin yarn. This year marks my 4th year of TDF participation. Over those years my spinning abilities have grown by leaps and bounds. And that growth is probably in large part due to the goals and challenges I make for myself with TDF spinning.

This year I have the following projects in mind:



8 ounces of alpaca prepped and ready to be spun into a dk weight yarn. All of the fiber came from Noah the alpaca who lives with my friend back home. I prepared it entirely on my own which is kinda crazy but awesome.



1.4 ounces of angora. I purchased this fiber 2 years ago I think from a local, but not close enough to visit regularly, yarn/fiber shop. It was my prize from myself to myself for a successful TDF. I was on the fence about blending it with another fiber or not but I have finally decided just to spin it using a trindle entirely on its own as a super lux wonderful amazing lace weight yarn.



4 ounces of "Snapdragon". This tussah silk/merino blend was purchased last year at MDSW. I love the muted mixed colors and the fiber itself is incredibly soft and amazing. I'm aiming for a very fine lace weight that I can use to knit myself a shawl.



8 ounces of this dyed Coopworth. Another MDSW purchase I think from last year. I love the colors of this fiber. They make me think of a Monet painting. I'm aiming for a lace weight and likely will only spin up half of the fiber during this TDF. But eventually I think I ought to be able to stretch the fiber out enough to knit up a sweater.



5.7 ounces of Tunis. Believe it or not you have seen this fiber before on my blog! From the Tunis fleece I purchased in May at MDSW I have washed, flicked, hackled, and then finally dyed with food coloring each of these little balls of roving. The whole project has been tons of fun as I learn lots about dying. I can't wait to see how each of the colors spins up!

I have one last "art yarn" project in my head but I need to prep more fiber first so if it happens more on that later.

Today was in fact Day1 of the 2014 TDF but I'll be reporting on my progress tomorrow after I am able to take pictures of my spun fiber in the daylight.

Here's hoping the daily nature of things will keep me blogging this time!