OK, finally a fibre related post here today! As most of you spinners know, the Tour de Fleece started on the weekend. For the non-spinners, the Tour de Fleece is the spinner's equivalent of the Tour de France--you set yourself personal challenges and try to spin every day of the 3-week race (taking off the 2 rest days that the riders get).
I picked 2 specific projects for my Tour this year, and then if I finish both of those I will spin some stash for the shop. I started with my biggest challenge--maybe not the wisest choice, but I was excited about it.
A while back I carded some batts of BFL & silk--in total, there are 6 batts, about 1.5 ounces each:
The sharp-eyed amongst you will note that there are only 5 there, that's because I had already started spinning when I took this picture.
I'm not the only one who likes these batts. Melody was keeping an eye on them for me the other day:
I divided the batts into rolags and started spinning long draw (trying to spin unsupported long draw as much as possible, although the silk is a bit "sticky" and doesn't always draft smoothly enough for this. I've also been doing a fair amount of double drafting, so I think I'm alternating between American and English long draw!) with the goal of a 2-ply laceweight in the end. My singles are super thin--I don't think this photo quite captures how thin they are, I managed to get the dime in under one of the thickest parts:
As you can imagine, this is not a quick project. Yesterday--day 4 of the Tour--I finished the first bobbin of singles and prepped all the rolags for the second:
I'm leaning towards just spinning 1 skein (3 of the batts) during the Tour, finishing it & seeing how much I have, and saving the other 3 batts for later, because I do want to get to some other spinning over the 3 weeks! Today I'm taking a little break and spinning some samples for my other project, which is merino/bamboo that will become a Tappan Zee. Next time I blog, I'll hopefully have pictures of those samples for you!
I picked 2 specific projects for my Tour this year, and then if I finish both of those I will spin some stash for the shop. I started with my biggest challenge--maybe not the wisest choice, but I was excited about it.
A while back I carded some batts of BFL & silk--in total, there are 6 batts, about 1.5 ounces each:
The sharp-eyed amongst you will note that there are only 5 there, that's because I had already started spinning when I took this picture.
I'm not the only one who likes these batts. Melody was keeping an eye on them for me the other day:
I divided the batts into rolags and started spinning long draw (trying to spin unsupported long draw as much as possible, although the silk is a bit "sticky" and doesn't always draft smoothly enough for this. I've also been doing a fair amount of double drafting, so I think I'm alternating between American and English long draw!) with the goal of a 2-ply laceweight in the end. My singles are super thin--I don't think this photo quite captures how thin they are, I managed to get the dime in under one of the thickest parts:
As you can imagine, this is not a quick project. Yesterday--day 4 of the Tour--I finished the first bobbin of singles and prepped all the rolags for the second:
I'm leaning towards just spinning 1 skein (3 of the batts) during the Tour, finishing it & seeing how much I have, and saving the other 3 batts for later, because I do want to get to some other spinning over the 3 weeks! Today I'm taking a little break and spinning some samples for my other project, which is merino/bamboo that will become a Tappan Zee. Next time I blog, I'll hopefully have pictures of those samples for you!
Comments
that was all Greek to me.
But pretty.
Fluffy.
Fleecy goodness.
That makes me want to learn more...
eventually. One day. Maybe in a year (post-PhD)
I read the link you sent me the other day about rolags from batts, but I just don't get it! You should do a tutorial too, and another about how to properly spin from rolags!
@Catt--I don't think I could do a better tutorial than what's up there, but I'm happy to show you in person! :-)