FO Friday: the Tour de Fleece edition

Happy Friday!

I've been meaning to get this posted for awhile but it just hasn't happened. Sue me, things happened along the way.

Anyway, we're here because it's Friday and that means it's FO Friday.....and today's post is brought to you by Tour de Fleece, which ended July 23rd.....it's now August 4th......I've been a little lax, I suppose.

Tour de Fleece did not yield nearly as much handspun as last year......but I still accomplished a satisfactory amount (by my standards).

My first skein of yarn started out as a 4.2 oz braid of Sandy's Palette Merino/Silk roving (70/30 blend) that I had purchased at Wisconsin Sheep & Wool in 2011. It's been hanging out in my stash ever since.....

So, the basics: Sandy's Palette Merino/Silk Roving (1)

Bobbin 1: started & finished on July 1, 2017
Bobbin 2: started on July 1, 2017; finished on July 2, 2017
Two-Ply: started & finished on July 7, 2017

I wound up with about 406 yds, which makes this a fingering weight yarn...I'm kind of excited about that. However, it's my usual thick-n-thin so there are spots where it's almost cobweb and others where it's almost worsted. It works.

I still have a little bit left on one of the bobbins so I'll probably do an Andean Ply at some point or I might just do an epic chunky with all my random leftover bits on my bobbins.

My second skein of yarn also started out as a braid of Sandy's Palette Merino/Silk Roving (again, a 70/30 blend) in a slightly darker color (more purple, less white than the first one). It was also purchased at Wisconsin Sheep & Wool in 2011.

So, the basics on this one: Sandy's Palette Merino/Silk Roving (2) 

Bobbin 1: started July 2, 2017; finished July 3, 2017
Bobbin 2: started July 7, 2017; finished July 9, 2017
Two-Ply: started & finished on July 10, 2017

This one wound up a teensy bit heavier of a yarn, with about 348 yds, making it probably a sport weight but, again, thick-n-thin...

I was also left with a fair amount on one of the bobbins so, again, I'll either need to do an Andean Ply or some sort of "clear the bobbins" deal...I've not decided yet.

These last two started out two braids of Miss Babs BFL that I picked up in a destash a couple years ago (I want to say almost 3 years ago now). This came in two 4ish oz braids so I split it into two skeins (and four bobbins).

The basics on these: Miss Babs BFL

Bobbin 1: started July 11, 2017; finished July 12, 2017
Bobbin 2: started July 12, 2017; finished July 13, 2017
Bobbin 3: started & finished July 14, 2017
Bobbin 4: started & finished July 16, 2017
Two-Ply 1 (bobbins 3 & 4): started & finished July 19, 2017
Two-Ply 2 (bobbins 1 & 2): started & finished July 21, 2017


I had some leftovers on two of the bobbins so I'll probably have either two Andean Ply minis or I'll ply them together and then have another Andean Ply. Or not. I don't know.

The first two-ply had about 306 yds and the second one was about 322 yds. These were a bit heavier than the Sandy's Palette, probably a solid DK weight on both.



Sooooo, there's my FOs for Tour de Fleece. I expected to have double that but injury and life got in the way. I'm satisfied with what I finished.

Do I have any idea what these are going to grow up to be? Nooooope.....

I hope you're having a lovely Friday :)

FO Friday: The Tour de Fleece Edition

Happy Friday!

It's been awhile since I participated in FO Friday but with Tour de Fleece ending on Sunday and the pile of new handspun yarn.......I suppose I could bore you all to death with my Tour de Fleece handspun finishes :)

So, onward to the handspun.....

Link to Stash Page

Awhile ago, like when I first bought Viktor, my Majacraft Pioneer spinning wheel (February 2011), I picked up some of what I thought was absolutely lovely blue fiber. It was a Corriedale fiber, dyed "French Blue" and was sold under Louet. Now, whether Louet processes and dyes the fiber themselves or has someone else do it, I don't know. But it was probably 8 oz. of French Blue Corriedale from Louet. I had an absolutely awful time spinning it. I dubbed it the "Asshole Blue Corriedale" because it was so so difficult to spin. I had all these dreams of making a lovely yarn from this blue fiber.

It was not to be.

The good news is that I'm done with the Asshole Blue Corriedale. The other good news is that I learned a few things along the way. A couple weeks ago, a lovely woman that lives not too far from me, came up to the house with her spinning wheel and we had a lesson in plying and some other tips and tricks about spinning. One of the things I learned was that fiber that is sold under Louet is......not great. Sure, it looks pretty but spinning it is a total bastard. So, my intense dislike of Corriedale may actually be an intense dislike of Corriedale that is processed and dyed by/for Louet. But, having only worked with this particular fiber from Louet, I'm not sure......and I'm not crazy about spending money to find out.

But, back to the yarn shown above...

After I finished some things (which you'll see below), I was left with probably 100 yds of the Asshole Blue Corriedale singles, which became the photo above.

Fiber: French Blue Corriedale from Louet
Ply: Chain
Wraps Per Inch (WPI): 6
Yards: ~ 30
Skein Weight: 45 g/1.6 oz
Yarn Weight: Bulky

Moving along...

Link to Stash Page

Fiber: unknown multi-blue colored BFL and aforementioned Asshole Blue Corriedale
Ply: two
WPI: 11
Yards: ~ 112
Skein Weight: 85 g/3 oz
Yarn Weight: DK/Light Worsted

Around the same time I picked up the Asshole Blue Corriedale, I picked up a ball of multi-colored blue BFL, probably roving (I can't really remember). The singles were spun so very long ago and I'm sure I have some handspun hanging around that contains the same fiber but I've not found it yet. Someday. But, anyway, I had some of this multi-colored blue BFL hanging out on a bobbin (nowhere near full), taking up space. So, I plied it with the Asshole Blue Corriedale and wound up with this. It's not bad, considering the Asshole Blue Corriedale is half the yarn....but the ply was a little underspun, which works because both singles were horribly overspun. So, I have some yarn I may actually be able to work with.

Link to Stash Page

Fiber: unknown multi-colored blue BFL, unknown multi-colored purple & blue BFL, Asshole Blue Corriedale
Ply: two + single = three
WPI: 8
Yards: ~ 10
Skein Weight: 14 g/.5 oz
Yarn Weight: Aran

In an effort to clear off my bobbins, I made this. I had some unknown purple & blue multi-colored BFL hanging out on a bobbin (not much at all, seriously) and the recently two-plied multi-colored blue BFL and Asshole Blue Corriedale. Because the two-ply was a bit underspun and because the single was pretty well overspun, I plied them "Z" (which is how I did the two-ply, which is to make my wheel spin counter-clockwise) in an effort to further ply the two as well as take out some of the overspin in the single. The result is above. It worked out really well, actually, and it's kind of a shame that I only have 10 yds. of it. Because I had so little of the multi-colored purple & blue, I'm 95% sure there's a two-ply of some sort hanging out in one of my yarn bins. I'll have to find it.

And there ends the Asshole Blue Corriedale and some unknown multi-colored BFL that I had hanging about.

My only goal for Tour de Fleece was to finish spinning up some kelly green merino I had barely started.

And, behold!

Link to Stash Page

Fiber: 100% merino in kelly green
Ply: two
WPI: 7-8
Yards: 196 yds + 150 yds = 346 yds
Skein Weight: 96 g/3.4 oz + 57 g/1.9 oz = 153 g/5.3 oz
Yarn Weight: DK/Light Worsted

I expect that I started with either 6 or 8 oz of fiber (I'm leaning more toward 8 oz as I had some difficulty with some big balls of snaggy ick that would not come out and some broken singles while plying). I made the rolags that you may have seen previously and I was scared as hell to ply this yarn because I didn't want to screw it up. It's not perfect but it's a pretty good yarn, considering.

"But Renee?" you ask, "Why are there two skeins?" Good question. When I was plying, I had a single that was spun really thin and the bastard snapped. I tried to get it back together with a little knot and it was not happening sooooo.....I said, "Screw it," and broke both singles and called it good. That's the skein on the left (the bigger of the two).

Also, there's some green merino left on the bobbin so I expect I'll have another random skein of something at some point in the future (distant or not, who knows?).


So, there's all my Tour de Fleece handspun love. I'm surprised I got as much done as I did, with two small children wandering about and not a whole lot of time to spin :)

I hope you're all having a lovely Friday!

FO Friday...but not the usual kind :)

It's that time again: FO Friday!

Buuuuuuuuut........it's not going to be a "normal" FO Friday. First of all, I finished my Super Seeeeeeeeekrit Swap Project (well, one of them, anyway) but, since it's for a swap and I haven't sent it out, I can't exactly show you. You never know, my swapee might be stalking my blog.

Or not.

So, there's that finished.

Also, I've been doing some other things...like spinning. Okay, let's be honest: I haven't spun in at least a couple of weeks. However, with that said, I have some spinning to show you because I finally got around to soaking yarn and hanging my handspun yarn....and planning to soak more of my handspun yarn.

So, here it is...my great handspun soaking adventure (or some approximation thereof).

During the first soak

There's little to no chance you can tell what color this yarn is supposed to be. But, trust me, it's mostly blue...and some green...but mostly blue. The fiber was from Yarn Hollow that I picked up at the Madison Knitters' Guild Knit-In last year. I picked up a 4 oz braid in a color called Celtic something or other and another 4 oz braid in a color called Irish something or other (seriously, I can't remember off the top of my head and I can't seem to find the fiber bands for them - I know I still have them though). Anyway, I spun the first one on two bobbins, the second one on another two bobbins, then plied them together. Nothing fancy...I'm going to assume that I was spinning in the "worsted" style on my wheel but I don't really know.

Anyway, that was during the first soak. This is after four subsequent soaks. Yes, four...and I was still squeezing blueish-green dye out of it. Perhaps I'll use a vinegar rinse on the last one, just to try to help set the dyes. 

Approximately 310 yards...of something in the neighborhood of worsted weight...I'll know more once it's dry.

You can kind of see the actual color if you look toward the top of the above photograph but the next  photo is a more accurate representation of the colors.

This is a soaking photograph of my first handspun yarn. It's a superwash merino (I think) that was white and purple. Okay, mostly purple...I bought it the same day I bought my wheel which was about a year ago now. It was actually the fiber I learned to spin with and Susan gave me a deal on it for buying the rest of the bag to take home and practice with. Luckily, I was somewhat of a quick study so for a first-time handspun, it's actually pretty good. Yes, it has some problems...it's thick and thin, there are breaks in the plies that I had to *ahem* fix somehow but, really, it's pretty good.

Not that you can tell any of that from this photograph.

This one, too, was spun however I felt like (which was probably also worsted). It, too, took four soaks and rinses and it was still oozing purple dye.

If I remember correctly, this one is approximately 190 yards worth. I have a couple more skeins of this that need to be soaked and dried...at least one that was hanked on the same Niddy Noddy and one that was hanked on my smaller Niddy Noddy (I'll probably re-hank that one). The purple is also currently hanging in the bathroom but I didn't photograph it.

Oh well.

So, there you have it.....a FO Friday with something to show for it (even if it isn't a finished knitted object).

For more FO Friday love, visit Tami.

Things I should have written about awhile ago...

So, in February, I purchased a spinning wheel. It's a Majacraft Pioneer. I thought about the Majacraft Rose but I decided that the Pioneer was going to do the same job that the Rose would.

Anyway, I promised photographs...

Isn't it pretty? It's not huge, which is nice since there isn't a ton of room in my house (right now). It takes up less room than some of Little Man's toys (like his swing and bouncer).

With the above pictured wheel, I made yarn...

It's not perfect. The skein on the right has about 160 yards of approximately worsted weight yarn (2-ply). The one on the left is a bit....fluffier? It's only got around 112 yards, still of a worsted weight yarn. I have one bobbin that's half-filled but I'm out of roving so I'm going to ply it and it'll probably only wind up being around 50 yards. So, between the three skeins, I should be able to make something, right? It might wind up being a skinny scarf or a hat but it'll be grand because it'll be mine. 

Anyway, I'm also working on a swap package for One Skein Projects group on Ravelry. I've almost finished my package...just a couple more items to pick up and add to the collection. I also need to photograph it before I send it off :) I think she's going to be happy.....I hope she's going to be happy.

As for Little Man, he's continuing to improve...he's still not quite eating the way he was but he's still congested and coughing. I'm not really surprised. I'm still getting up at night to feed him, as well. I'm going to be doing that for awhile yet. That's okay, though.

Tomorrow, I'm taking two classes from Sally Melville. That should be interesting.

Anyway, that's about all I have for right now......I should have more to talk about after tomorrow. We shall see :)