Le Tour II

So, I am running out of time to get things completed. I have 10,000 stitches left on my OWL jumper (and about 11 days) and still need to finish that pink, lacey, beaded sock (2 days). But instead, I've been spending my days playing Tour de Fleece. Here is the one I finished today

Kathy (from Kathy's Fibres) dyed this one especially for the Tour de Fleece 2012, because some of us (in the KathysFibres team) wanted Leader's Jersey Yellow. She called it "TdF Yellow". Very bright!

And here is the Kalila from the last post, all 2-plied up. Somebody remind me next time that, although I like the idea of fractal plying, I hate doing 2 ply. It never works out for me.

Fractal plying is where you have a length of fibre in which the color repeats, and you spin half of it as it is, then split the other half lengthways (see 'nests' in the background) so the spun yarn will have one ply with long color changes, and one ply with short color changes. Then you ply them together and see how the colors mix :)

I had a bit leftover, so I navajo-plied it (the little one at the bottom). I just like the look of n-ply better!

And my favorite :) is another one from Kathy's Fibres, except this one was white, and I dyed it.

spun it

and, of course, navajo-plied it to keep the colors separated. It's a superwash merino and nylon mix, so I'm making stripey socks. (I named the colorway "10nant". Ten Nerdpoints for anyone who can figure that out in 10 seconds :) hehehe)

I'm in a brown and blue mood at the moment. And this yarn, this was the first yarn I spun on my brand new (second hand) electric spinning wheel!

It is so teeny and so fast! Of course, the main trick with spinning is drawing it out evenly, and I still have to do that, but I don't have to pedal. It has a big flyer that fit the 120g of 10nant quite well. I have been spinning with it sitting on the kitchen table while the kids draw pictures or eat lunch around me :)

Thanks to Terri from the local knitting group. She found it in an antique store for $90, but didn't buy it because she already has an electric wheel. Instead, she passed on the info, and I took Byron, Jasmine and Zachary for a drive to Beaufort one morning to get it. The sneaky guy charged me $120, but I didn't complain. It works perfectly, and new ones are worth a bit more. Bargain.

Next spinning is half done, but it's another repeat of the Callington you've already seen. Sorry. I have 200g, and I wanted to spin them both up. It's taking a little while!! And that's on the "old" wheel, which is out of favor at the moment. Hehehe. I also washed and dyed and carded a handful of fleece I had from Barley (the now-deceased mum of our tame little lamb, Kissy) ready to spin if I have time!

I'm trying to get the OWL jumper, the Order of the Phoenix socks, and spinning for three more classes done by the 25th, so that I can then start Quidditch/ Ravellenics when the Olympics start. I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but that's not going to stop me from starting a NEWT on August 1.

*laughs maniacally*

More on that ... after Bendigo!!