Fiber Musings – Page 96 – Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast – mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

TdF – Results

On 26 Jul, 2010

Tour de Fleece 2010 Results

Here are the all the fibers that I spun during Tour de Fleece. Not too shabby. The final tally?

Breeds Spun: Merino, Targhee, Clun, Border Leicester, and Polwarth
Finished Yardage: 3,852 of assorted 2 and 3 ply.
Singles Spun: Over 5,000 yards of singles, without counting the Polwarth. There is likely to be another 1,500 yards of singles in there.
Weight: 40 oz. (2.5 lbs)

The Polwarth is the one still on the bobbin in the basket. Here’s what the other half looks like.

80/20 Polwarth/Silk

I am spinning it continuously from white to the dark brown. Â I am feathering in the last few inches of one color with the new to soften the transition. And with the inconsistency of the splitting the fiber into halves and spinning, that will soften the transition even more. The colors should more or less flow into each other.Â The singles are approximately 60-70 wpi. It’s slow going. I only just finished the white. It will take me the rest of the week to finish spinning the singles and ply it.

TdF – Last Day

By Ann

On 25 Jul, 2010

In Spin

Not a whole lot of progress over here. I’m still working on the Polwarth/Silk blend. I went camping for the past 3 days and forgot to load the mSpinner in the car, so I am far, far behind. I’ve only started the second bobbin this morning. The first bobbin had about 155 grams of fiber — about 5.5 oz. The single is coming in around 72 wpi.

This yarn would definitely qualify for the longest single in a single ounce, but I can’t prove that until the second bobbin is spun and the 2 plied together. I definitely can’t do that before end of today.

So, I will have a leisurely spinning day to wrap up the day.

TdF Stages 12,13

By Ann

On 18 Jul, 2010

In Spin

I finished the Border Leicester rug yarn, thank goodness. I must have left the roving marinate too long because the fiber was clumpy and difficult to draft. The fiber was so sticky (not tacky sticky, but felted sticky) in areas that it was really a pain in the neck. I am glad that it is done. 300 yards of 2-ply (almost 8 oz.)

To give myself a break from that rough scratchy rug yarn, I moved on to some 80/20 Polwarth/Silk from Rovings in natural colors. I had purchased 4 – 2 oz bits of combed top from Rovings 2 SOARs ago with the intention of spinning it from white to chocolate brown, with 2 other light browns in between. The resulting yarn will be knitted into a shawl of some sort with gradated colors. These 8 oz. in lace weight should take me through most of the rest of the Tour.

I may take a break from the Polwarth/Silk for some naturally dyed BFL from Tactile that’s been sitting around a while. It looks like my tally for breeds spun will be around 6. I might dig into my bins and card up a bit of CVM and/or California Red. There are a few batts of Romney in the stash too.