TdF2014: Day 21

It's all over folks. Le Tour de Fleece 2014 is over. Let's look back at where we started, shall we?

From this we got 169.4yds of 3-ply sportish Wensleydale (508.2yds in singles):

195.4yds of 4-ply fingering Targhee (781.6yds in singles):

81.8yds of 2-ply lace BFL (163.6yds in singles):

And somewhere around 400yds in singles so far of Polwarth/Silk:

Which brings us to a total of 446.6yds of finished yarn, and around 1850yds of singles spun this tour. A good showing I say. And of course, the end of the Tour doesn't mean the end of spinning. This spinning will continue, as it always does. Hope you've enjoyed watching!

TdF2014: Day 20

If it looks like nothing happened yesterday, you'd be close to right. I only go through an itty-bitty white section. Not much happened on the knitting front either, but lots of chores got done, so that's something. 

TdF2014: Day 19

Progress. Mainly because the slow pace of it all was annoying me (and killing my mojo, as projects that take longer than they usually do should), so decided to crank it up a bit yesterday.

Not that you could tell that easily. That's the problem with spinning this as fine as I am.

TdF2014: Day 18

Not much spinning yesterday (more focus on sweater seaming - I have a collar!), but it did happen:

TdF2014: Day 17

And here we have the done Targhee: it's gorgeous, and going to be amazing knit up. I'm guessing it's going to look solid from far away, and the individual colors will pop out when you get closer. 

Taiga
~195yds of heavy fingering, 4-ply
100% Targhee
Colorway: Wilderness (Mountain Colors)

The Polwarth/Silk is getting there. Still focusing on sweater seaming more than this at the moment. Deadlines can be so irritating sometimes, but I don't think this sweater would get done without them. 

TdF2014: Day 16

So, when I started yesterday, I thought I had another day or two left on the Targhee. Not so:

Pretty skein pictures tomorrow. Which leaves the Polwarth/Silk as the last one standing:

Considering the Tour ends on Sunday, I feel like I've accomplished a ton. The Polwarth was thrown in there as a "Maybe I'll get to it, maybe not" project, so the fact that it's the only thing left at this point is astounding. If I didn't have a sweater and a birthday gift to finish before the end of the month, I would probably finish this before the end of the Tour. But alas, there is much deadline-knitting that needs doing. 

TdF2014: Day 15

Lots of spinning yesterday (I should have been seaming that sweater... oops). 

We have some plying:

And a finished skein of BFL:

White Russian
~82yds of lace, 2-ply
100% BFL
Colorway: Undyed/Natural

A quarter of the singles are done on the Polwarth/Silk. It looks like there's no way it's all going to fit on this spindle, but the shaft length is the same as my maple suspended, which I know can fit all of this, so it'll work.

TdF2014: Day 14

Some spinning yesterday, but more just a huge pile of seaming. So much seaming. Anyway, a little progress on the Targhee. I know, this plying is going to slowly, but it'll be done before the end of the Tour.

The BFL is done! It's still damp and drying, so pretty skein picture tomorrow. 

And a bit of progress on the Polwarth/Silk. Hope to finish that first quarter of singles today. 

TdF2014: Day 13

Aye, aye, aye. Today has been rough. One of the post-docs in the department got an associate professor position in New York, so last night was the last hurrah farewell outing. I didn't get to sleep until 3am, and had been up since 6:30. Today it was a struggle to fulfill my prior obligations to other people (largely involving taking care of animals while people are on vacation), especially since things were timed to happen at six hour intervals. Putting it mildly I'm exhausted and sort of a zombie. Today was supposed to be the Tour challenge day, but I'm swapping it for a rest day. 

Yesterday there was some plying:

And a little more plying: 

And a lot of work on the polwarth/silk, largely at the aforementioned bar:

I think I'm going to go to back to bed now. 

TdF2014: Day 12

We've got a bit more plying on the Targhee:

Lots of plying on the BFL - hope to finish that today:

Some more done on the singles for the Polwarth/Silk:

Remember how I mentioned a huge spinning project in the works? This is part of it:

That's samples for (L to R) Silk/BFL, Shetland, and Camel, all in a really fine, 2-ply lace, with huge amounts of halo. I've got 4oz of each - it's going to be a lot of spinning. 

TdF2014: Day 11

This morning, when I went out to the back porch to take pictures, it was... cold? I-wished-my-oversized-sweater-was-done cold? (Don't look at me like that - it was only a couple of ticks warmer than I keep my apartment in winter, really.) It felt like late September at least, even though it's mid-July. It's weird. 

Anyway, on to the spinning. The Targhee is chugging along:

The BFL singles are done, and plying should commence today:

And I brought the Polwarth/Silk out of hibernation:

The pace has slowed down a bit, but that's because the Wensleydale was on a deadline, and the singles for the Targhee were a time/feasibility trial for my crazy spinning ambitions over the next four months. Also, I have deadlines for various knitted things coming up, which is taking away my spinning time. 

Bonus: there's red among my tomatoes:

Here's the kind you were expecting:

TdF2014: Day 10

The Wensleydale is done! I had done the previous 2oz back in April, so have a big picture of the whole 4oz:

GIANT ROBOTS
~325yds of sport(ish), 3-ply chain ply
100% Wensleydale
Colorway: No Pulse (NGY FotM March 2014)

The Targhee is plying up in a really interesting way. It's alternating between a more obvious barber pole (seen here), and a more subtle color meld. I love it, but I only like barber poling in higher plies like this (it's usually just ugly in a 2-ply).  

The BFL is coming along well. One more day of spinning should finish off the singles. Today's a rest day though (going to work on seaming that sweater), so that'll happen tomorrow. 

TdF2014: Day 9

The Wensleydale is done - but still damp. Pretty skein shots will happen tomorrow. 

The first single on the BFL went really quickly. I don't know if it's that suddenly the speedy part of long draw clicked, or that I did the Targhee and now this feels like such a small amount of fiber in comparison. 

Speaking of the Targhee, that plying starts today, and I'm really excited for it!

TdF2014: Day 8

Halfway through the plying on the Wensleydale! That should get done today, and then tomorrow I move to plying the Targhee.

The BFL also saw action yesterday. I had yet another epiphany about woolen drafting - the combo of doing a lot of short draw to build up supported muscle memory and watching a lot of YouTube videos of various methods of long draw are what did it. Plus Abby Franquemont, in both book and blog. She's my spinning goddess. 

This one shouldn't last that long. Actually, rewinding might take longer than the spinning. 

Also, bonus sweater blocking:

Don't expect FO pictures in the next few days: just the sleeves are going to take 8-10 hours to sew up, because I'm anal like that.