Tour de Fleece has ended for another year

Well I am totally disappointed with my achievement (or rather lack of) in this years TdF.

On race days my aim was to spin as much as possible of a BL cross fleece.  But even such a vague goal was set to disappoint.  I have had a very busy few weeks with work, website updates for my local church including photo shoots of the local area, trying to complete an online course (final assessment due this weekend :-o) and organising a teenage birthday party.  All I could manage was two small bobbins even though I spun a little just about every day and prepared fibre on rest days!

My challenge days weren’t too bad with about half of the cotton branch prepped and spun.

What do I think of spinning cotton?
Ugh!!  Cotton is so NOT my favourite fibre.  I know some spinners love spinning cotton but unfortunately I just do not understand them.  Despite the number of YouTube instructional videos I watched I found my fingers sore and my shoulders tense.

• I tried spinning slowly but extra peddles before I let it draw in.
• I tried spinning fast and found I had a death grip on the fibre.
• I ended up spinning 14:1 ratio with about a second per peddle (double peddle wheel).  At least I succeeded in spinning continuously with few fibre breaks.

I will finish the cotton I have but won’t be rushing out to buy more and don’t plan to grow it (I once dreamt of growing my own little patch of cotton).  Then to decide what to do with it.  Perhaps I will ply some of it with the BL cross that I have spun.  It might make an interesting yarn for a toddler beanie or two.  Cotton plus 25 micron BL fibre… sounds like a plan.

Where to from here?

• 2017 TdF – yes definitely and try not to enrol in an online course at the same time!
• Just like the cyclists and other spinners do, I will prepare for the race so I have a mini stash of fibre at the ready with the objective to complete the stash during the race.
• What about the BL fleece? – of course I need to finish spinning this fleece.  There are only another dozen or so fleeces in the shed to spin and I have a further 6 fleeces on their way back from the mill soon.  I will never admit to a fleece overload but storage is becoming a little challenging. 

Until next time,

Happy Spinning

 

 

2016 Tour de Fleece

So many things to do and places to be and so little time to do it all... :-(

I am currently trying to spin up a storm as part of the 2016 Tour de Fleece.  If you don't know what this is about, check out the SpinFoolish team (http://www.spinfoolish.com/tour-de-fleece/).  I think we are one of the biggest TdF teams with people from all over the world.

Basically the Tour de Fleece runs along the same lines as the Tour de France (the famous cycling race).  We have race days, challenge days and rest days (which are usually spent preparing fibre for the next day).  We don't' compete to spin more than the next person, it is rather about personal challenge and commitment.

This year the Tour de Fleece runs from 2 July to 24 July.  My goal is to spin as much as possible from one of my Border Leicester cross fleeces (left).  This is from Charlie and about 24 micron.

The fleece is unwashed, very clean and not a lot of grease. There is about 3-4 kilos.  In reality, I doubt I will get through it all but hey, that is part of the challenge.


On the challenge days I have started spinning cotton from the bolls.  I picked up a branch like the one on the right from a florist in the city.  They are using them in rustic flower arrangements.

I am lightly carding them into small punis which makes the small staple length easier to spin.

So pop back and visit soon and I will try to post some updates on how much I actually succeeded in spinning.

Happy Spinning :-)