Tour de Fleece Finish Line

The Tour de Fleece officially ended on Sunday,  and I finished spinning all my blue Alpaca wool just in time! I still have to ply and wash it, so I wouldn't call it yarn quite yet, but I'm still happy with the progress I made during the Tour.

I've got a couple of other craft projects going as well. Hopefully I wil have one of them done to show you next week. Happy crafting!

-Assunta

OC Fair Results!

This past Sunday, the husband and I decided to brave the opening-weekend crowds at the Orange County Fair. We shared a funnel cake, said "hi" to all the animals, and of course stopped by the fiber arts building to see how my entries did. What I didn't do was take any pictures, so I will make sure to do that next time we go.

I was pleased to see that my crocheted rose got 2nd Place and my crocheted cactuse got 3rd! The dress I sewed got Honorable Mention, which still isn't bad, but my knit lace shawl didn't place. I was surprised because I thought it was the best thing I entered, but there were a lot of knit shawls so the competition was pretty tough.

So that I don't sign off without showing you something pretty this week, here is my latest Tour de Fleece progress:

The Tour officially concludes on the 24th, but spinning updates will continue until this yarn is done. There's still a lot of fiber left in the bag!

-Assunta

Tour de Fleece Day 10 and a Cactus Pattern

Yesterday was Day 10 of Tour de Fleece and my yarn has come quite a long way since you saw it last week! In fact, I now have 126 yards of 2-ply purple goodness soaking and almost ready to knit!

This is after spinning all of the wool into a single strand of yarn.

And this is after plying it all.

Here it is stretched out on the niddy-noddy my friend Jill made for me out of PVC. That's right, I have a noddy-noddy now!

Now it's soaking to help set the color and the twist. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Also, for anyone interested in crocheting their own potted cactus, my pattern is now available on Etsy and Ravelry for $5.

Just keep spinning!

-Assunta

Tour de Fleece

Did you know even crafters have sporting events? I just found out myself. This year, a couple of my friends told me about the Tour de Fleece. It's a spinning event that takes place during the Tour de France, only instead of spinning on a bicycle, you work toward yarn spinning goals.

I have already made some progress spinning the beautiful wool that I recieved for Christmas. My goal is to have it all spun, plied, washed, and ready to knit by July 24th, when the Tour ends. The challenge for me will be plying, because so far the only two skeins I have spun have been single-ply. It will be fun to learn a new spinning skill as part of this experience.

Besides the joy of making my own yarn, part of the fun is joining a team. This is mostly because it's nice to have people with whom to share your work while you also admire theirs and you all support each other. In addition to my regular craft group, which fits all these categories, I have joined Team Tale Spinners on Ravelry. They have a fairy tale and fable theme, which is right up my alley!

The tour started on July 2nd, and I actually missed the first day. Here is my progress from the next two:

Ready to spin! Counterclockwise we have: the yarn I have spun from this batt so far, the wool I have left to spin, and my Ashford spindle, all ready to go!

Day 2: I spun for about 1 hour. It doesn't look like I did that much, but I'm hoping that's because I'm getting better at keeping my yarn from getting too bulky.

Day 3: 2 hours of spinning on top of  the one from the previous day. It's looking a little more impressive.

Stay tuned to see my progress, I'll need all your support when I get to plying!

-Assunta