Tour de Fleece: Day 8

Well, today has been fun and eventful. I continued working on the targhee that I have been spindling. The last I measured, I have spun approximately 0.6 oz. Oh, joy! The current plan is to get about an ounce per time I fill up the spindle, then ply to make two little skeins of whatever it will be. It's going great!

When I got home from work, I found a package waiting for me and... woo! Fiber! I got some gorgeous pima cotton from NO and, basically, raced over to my friend's house to use her charkha to spin a little of it and see how it went. The charkha experience was interesting, to say the very least. Once we figured out how to get the thing set up properly, everything went all right. I did start to pick it up, but honestly I'd prefer to use a support spindle like a takli rather than the charkha, I think, because the charkha just involves some really funny ways of moving. We will see. I'm hoping to have some time during TdF to play with the takli a little, so hopefully more on that later.

Please excuse the blurriness of that picture! 

... and my end product looked somewhat like a joint. Ha! It was a fun little experiment, though, and I think the charkha is something I could get used to, but I'm looking forward to trying various methods to see what I like best for spinning cotton roving.

Tour de Fleece Days 6 & 7

Well, I have some progress from the past two days! I didn't work too much with the rambouillet I've been working on yesterday, but today I decided to take a break and spin some of the Natural Obsessions fiber I have. So, I went up to Yarnivore and bought a new drop spindle. The particular one I bought was a Schacht Hi-Low. I like it because I really don't like top whorl spindles and it's hard to find bottom whorl sometimes. Anyway, I like it. It's a good spindle.

I spun up some sample fiber I bought at the shop and... it turned out okay, I guess.

I'm really surprised it turned out so well since I really haven't been spindling recently. Anyway,  I ran home and grabbed my targhee fiber from NO and brought it back. I'm pretty pleased with the result!

I can see the benefit of spindling. It's much simpler to transport and I really find it to be very soothing. It's not that I don't love my wheel and that's not relaxing, but spindling is just different. Anyway, I think I've managed to actually overspin a bit so I'm looking forward to plying this single to see how it turns out!

Tour de Fleece Day 5

Well, due to my plans for Independence Day today, I did not get much time to spin. I also spent quite a bit of time napping between work and my plans, so there goes an hour and a half or so down the drain. Lovely. I spun a bit after I got home, though, and there is progress. I'm feeling reasonably encouraged that I can finish up this bobbin tomorrow and start on the second half of this fiber.

It's not a huge improvement, but there is more there. I am having a lot of trouble with nepps in this fiber, but I have chosen to leave them in because spending the time to remove them would take forever and the sheer amount would probably be more than I'm interested in. I'm also a bit afraid this is more overspun than I usually do, but if I recall correctly it seems I worry about that every time and my yarn always comes out pretty balanced with minimal wash and thwack necessary. We will see.

I'm considering doing a 3-ply with this just to get some good practice with Navajo ply, but I haven't quite decided. The funny thing is I just came off spinning ridiculously fine and this is a much thicker single. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a 2-ply sportweight. I'll have to check the NPI when I am finished spinning. It isn't horribly even, but that's mostly due to nepps. Blah. I still like Rambouillet, though. It drafts like butter.

Tour de Fleece - Days 3 and 4

Well, I have been spinning like a madwoman of late! I have pictures of my progress from yesterday, July 2nd:

It's not too terribly much, as I did not have too terribly much time to spin with everything going on. Today, I had a lot more time. I spent quite some time spinning at our weekly knitting meetup at Panera. The managers are really nice and there's a back corner that's perfect for setting up the wheel and getting to work. I also went ahead and turned up the tension on the wheel, which has helped so, so much. I am now spinning much faster and I'm pleased with the drastic amount of progress, as a result.

It's really not too bad, considering I spent much of the night indulging in some excellent wine!

I... drank the entire bottle. Well, I'm actually in progress with the last glass. Anyway, it's good wine and it's the last I'll be having for quite a while as I was prescribed a medication this morning that does not do well with alcohol, so boo!

I'm looking forward to finishing up that bobbin hopefully tomorrow, though there will be some crazy festivities with the 4th of July. Perhaps there will be action shots involving BBQ!

D-Man Birthday Socks Completed!

Well, I finished the socks for Dax's ninth birthday. As I have said before, his birthday is in September, but with the Ravellenics coming up and Tour de Fleece right now and the smattering of baby stuff that's about to happen, I wanted to get a head start.

They are seriously fraternal twins and I'm really glad I had an awesome model for them!

Anyway, I'm glad the heat here is so bad that he didn't want to keep them on. It makes it a lot easier to sneak them into the present bag in my closet to wrap up in two months for his birthday. Here's to hoping his feet don't grow to enormous sizes before then!

(Also, good news, BSGFPB extended the deadline so this project actually qualified for points! Yay!)

Tour de Fleece Day 2

I have sadly not had too terribly much time to spin, today. I had work and came straight home to spin for a bit before having to go in for another shift. Oh, joy. I only got about an hour and change to spin at all, but that proved to be about enough to get something done.

This fiber has a ridiculous amount of nepps in it. I don't exactly dislike it enough to sit around trying to remove them as I go, but I've noticed that I'm not spinning as fine as I have been recently. It's still not too awful and I like it, so there is that. :)

Also! Surprise, my cousin came by. He's in town visiting with his son. He's a Marine so I don't see him except maybe once a year or so, so it was nice that he popped by today. Yay!

Spinner Study June 2012: Rambouillet -- Tour de Fleece Day 1

One of the beasts for the Spinner Study this month was Rambouillet. I know I'm kind of sneaking in under the line, but I wanted to work on this fiber first and foremost because it's something I am very excited to be working with. I purchased 8 oz of roving from Frisky Lam Farms. It is absolutely gorgeous and just drafts like butter. I've already gotten the spinning sort of down, though I haven't spun a whole bunch today. Sorry, I had to go get my car battery replaced. The heat really zapped the old one and it died! Anyway, I didn't spin oodles and gobs but I think it looks great so far!

 
Well, today was the beginning of the Tour de Fleece. So, this is my Day 1. I ended it pretty late and am actually going to head to bed here, soon. I doubt I will have more than 15 minutes to spin tomorrow, too, but I will keep you updated.