Tour de Fleece week 2 + Camp

Week two begins with more of the red fiber. I am really enjoying spinning this.

I finished spinning the first single on day 9. I also started on the second single. Monday, July 11th is a rest day so I don't know if I will spin or not.

I was at Meg Swansen's Knitting Retreat 2.75 last weekend. I only spindled when I was there.

I was also working on a class sample while I was there. It is called 'Here Comes the Sun'. I just finished binding it off and wanted to show it in its non-blocked state. It is blocking that brings out the magic in lace and you'll see that when I post the blocked version.

A close-up of the stitch pattern follows but the color is off in the photo. It is more accurate in the photo above. The yarn is Madeline Tosh sock in Glazed Pecan.

Tour de Fleece week 1

I actually spun every day this week and I got a lot of spinning done.

I started with this lovely green BFL/Silk batt from Corgi Hill Farm. I spun it woolen long draw for the first time. You can see little pigtails hanging off the bobbin if you look carefully. This is my day 1 photo.

Single # 2. Much better. More even and no pigtails. Day # 2.

Day # 3 was devoted to spindle spinning. I am way past park and draft now.

I finished the second single on day 5. Work got in the way and there was no spinning on day 4.

I plied the singles on day 6. It is a lovely yarn and is hanging in the bathroom to dry now.

I am so in love with BFL/Silk that I began spinning this gorgeous red on day 7. Worsted spun so you can see and feel the luster of the silk.

I am posting this for the first time from my iPad. Next week I will be at Knitting Camp so I am practicing.

The Tour de Fleece

Those of you not on Ravelry or not into spinning are going to be completely amused and befuddled by this entry. The Tour de France (a bicycle race) starts tomorrow. Since many of us work on wheels of a different sort, someone came up with the idea of having a parallel contest for fun. It is for spinners, i.e. those who spin. The whole thing is a play on words but it is a way to challenge oneself, try something new and make a commitment to spinning for the duration of the Tour.

There are teams on Ravelry. You pick a team based on any or all of the following criteria: your friends, your tools, the fiber you want to spin, your goals and objectives, and potentially any other criteria that make sense to you. I am on a number of teams besides the big team of everyone who is doing the Tour de Fleece.

The first is for Spindlers. Spindlers are people who spin on a hand spindle. Here you can see my fiber - baby Icelandic roving that I got at Rhinebeck last year. The picture also has my new spindle that I am inaugurating for the Tour this year. It is also from Rhinebeck, from Golding.

I am also on Team Footloose, which is for people spinning on the Hansen mini-spinners. I will be spinning on the Hansen when I am home and on the spindle when I am on the road as I will be for part of the Tour.

The other team I'm on is Team Corgi Hill Farm, which is the source of the fiber I will be spinning on the Hansen. This is the luscious loveliness that I am going to be working on. I will start with the two green batts on the top left. They are wool/silk and I am going to teach myself to spin them woollen.

The top right fiber is a Blue-Faced Leicester/silk blend in a color called Poppy. The bottom right is yak/merino/silk in a color called Copper and the bottom left is camel/silk in Purple. I will be spinning in that order and we'll see how far I get.

Seasonal color

Looking out through the french doors in my family room, I see my backyard. There is a really good mix of greens at this time of year. There are blue-greens and yellow-greens and all together, it is the color of the season.

Maybe that is why I was drawn to this superwash merino top. I got it as a gift from Thérèse, the genius behind knitfinder, the easiest way to find patterns that meet a set of specifications. At the time I got it, I didn't think I could do it justice but it seemed just right for now.

This is what it looks like as top. I liked the colors but I didn't have any inkling of how it would spin up. This is what is left of the first half of the top which came in two balls.

This is what a single looks like. As you can see, it really reflects the colors out in the backyard. I will be doing a 2 ply. The superwash merino is a long stapled fiber and it drafts easily.

I am including a picture of my bobbin and flyer on the Tina as I have a question. How would you switch from hook to hook to even out how the single winds on to the bobbin? I have tried going up one side and down the other, going from the first on the right to the second on the right, then second on the left to third on the left, etc. and from the first on the right to the first on the left and then the second on the right to the second on the left. I like the first method best but the singles wind on in lumps. The other methods seem to make for an more even wind-on but are not as easy to actually execute.

A match made in heaven

Plane journeys and knitting are a match made in heaven. I had a couple of really long flights with the associated airport waits last week. I started Taygete at the airport when I began my trip. I finished it yesterday. The really boring part - the garter st section - was done at airports and while I was flying. I walked up and down on a long layover, people-watching and knitting.

I am really happy with the result. The colors are beautiful. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Pioneer and River. The River really brings out the colors in Pioneer.

Isn't that cool?

Pioneer never appealed to me till I put it next to River and now I love it.

There is the finished shawl as it might be worn. It is too warm here to model it right now.

I think it is back to the RLC after this. I don't have any other trips planned so I can finish it. I don't understand is why, no matter when I start a Bohus, I always end up with the sweater bulk in my lap in the summer time. I must really be bad at planning my Bohus knits.

A shawl kick

Here is Different Lines all done. 4 leftover balls of sockweight yarn used up. Still needs two ends darned in and blocking.

In the meantime, I started Taygete, in two colors of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn: one is Pioneer and the other River.

That is the striped section, the l-o-n-g striped section. I am done and have picked up for the lace section.

This is the main color - Pioneer. I really like it.

The tale of two shawls

I was traveling last week so I did a lot of knitting. I finished this shawl. It is a version of Stripe Study, made out of natural undyed alpaca. The black was leftover from a previous project so I used it till it was gone. Amazingly, it ended correctly at the end of a row. I then continued with the gray. Both are from local farms. I picked the black up at the NY Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck a few years ago. The gray is from Woodstock Knits. It is called Bare Alpaca. The hand is lovely.

The gauge on this is larger than the pattern calls for. I did it in a sport weight yarn instead of a sock weight yarn. But I adjusted the needle size and knitted it to the dimensions called for. Alpaca stretches so I made it a little smaller than I ordinarily would with wool.
Then I started another shawl. Garter stitch and sock yarn make great travel knitting. It is compact and easy. I took bits of leftover sock yarn and started this. It is almost done. I have 4 inches of the plain teal to knit and then I bind off. I like how it is turning out. If I run out of the teal, I will continue with the the green handpainted yarn. The two handpaints are Koigu Painter's Palette Merino, the camel is Stahl Socka and the teal is Lang Jawoll.
When I finish this, I am starting a Taygete in 2 colors of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the multis. Again, simple travel knitting. When I get to stay home, I will finish up the RLC sleeve. It is also mindless but the bulk of the sweater makes it difficult to carry around.

I will leave you with 2 photos of my hotel room from the last trip. The first is looking into the bedroom from the tub. Yes, that is a glass wall in the shower. There were electrically operated blinds in the shower but I didn't figure that out till the 3rd day. Thank goodness I was alone in the room. This next photo is from the bedroom looking into the bathroom. You can see the sink and the tub/shower. The toilet is behind the frosted glass doors on the far side of the bathroom. There are frosted glass sliding doors at the entry to the bathroom also.
It was a very nice hotel. Rather modern but comfortable. Not enough outlets and the lights next to the bed were dim. But otherwise quite comfortable.