7.22.2018

Tour de Fleece

For the past 16 days, I have been spinning, plying, unspinning, respinning, washing, skeining, and reskeining yarn as part of the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry.  Here's some of the stuff I've done:


This is Frabjous Fibers, superwash merino in Persephone.  I divided it into three parts and will make a 3-ply.  Am spinning pretty thin, hoping to get about 400 yards of fingering weight.  No idea how that will work out, because I've never made a real 3-ply before.   



This is the Nest superwash merino, One of a Kind #9.  It's a 2-ply, and I spun less thin, then plied on the looser side.  Then I got all grumpy, because I wanted it plied tighter, and I had lots of philosophical discussions with myself about where the sweet spot is for something being plied the right amount vs. overplied, and then I just went for it and ran it through the wheel again, and after washing (the picture was taken before washing), it hangs straight and it's so beautiful and soft and I loooooove it.  This is the kind of yarn that will probably become a nightmare to behold once it's knit up, but I don't care, I love it. 

567 yds

This is BMFA shetland in River Rocked.  I plied the daylights out of it and then it was all twisty and... super twisty, so I ran it through the wheel again to take twist out, and I washed it and then reskeined it and I now love it and this is exactly the sort of yarn I've been coveting.  Yay! 

528 yds

Okay, this is BMFA Mango Tango in Polwarth, fiber I've had for many years.  I had a bobbin of singles left over, plus a little more fiber that I'd put aside because I just couldn't PINKORANGEPINK anymore.  So I picked it back up, finished up the singles, and then Navajo plied it.  And then I realized I'd been overplying everything (noticing the theme here? this is the wheeee part of the learning curve)  and I took a bunch of twist out (painstakingly testing every single section and wondering if maybe I'm just not cut out for spinning) and it came out well and I'm happy with it.  

 
This is the Mayhem shawl, created entirely by following the written-out directions.  I didn't have to understand any of it, I just did what it said, and lo, here it is.  You can probably see in the picture how wavy gravy the overspunness made the finished shawl.  Ugh.  But also, oh well, I'll wear it and it will be fine.  I used nearly every bit of the yarn and stopped a few rows short of what the pattern called for, but I think it looks okay.  The finished edge doesn't look significantly narrower than the top edge, unless you're looking very closely, and if you are, the biasing will distract you. 

The baby quilt in progress that I posted a bit ago now is a finished top with borders, just waiting to be basted.  Perhaps I will do that tonight, unless the spinning bug won't let go.  

Happy crafting!