We're one week into Tour de Fleece 2011, and I have made some moderate progress on my goals:
- To spin every day
- And to use up some of my fiber stash
Before photo (that's vinyl pretending to be wood!).
After photo (before putting baseboards & appliances back).
We tiled our laundry room and kitchen floor (by ourselves) over the July 4th weekend, and we've been finishing it up over the past week. Hopefully I'll finally have a stove back later today!
But even though kitchen remodeling has been severely cutting into my spinning time, I've managed to finish up some Targhee top that I started spinning a month or so ago:
Singles on the bobbin.
Plied yarn on the bobbin.
Plied skein, before finishing.
The top is from Mountain Colors in the "Northern Lights" colorway, which I bought from The Loopy Ewe way back in July 2008, when I first started spinning. I wasn't very good at drafting back then, so I used to split up my rovings into relatively thin strips and predraft them to death. I apparently had intended to start spinning this Targhee awhile back, cause it was already split into strips. Without the splitting I could have made the colors more distinct, but I actually love the way the colors barberpoled in the final yarn.
I really can't believe I let this fiber sit around for so long before I started spinning it, cause it turns out that Targhee is really yummy--it's really soft, crimpy, and has a long enough staple that it's easy to spin. Bluefaced Leicester has, since I first started spinning, been my absolute favorite, but I think Targhee is now a close second (but not as readily available as BFL).
The finished yarn is squishy and soft and will make some kind of great winter accessory. I'm getting better at spinning somewhat finer yarns (vs. my default yarn, which is usually a heavy worsted-ish), so the finished yarn is approximately sport weight. I'm thinking of making the Honey Cowl, with some possible adjustments to make sure I get close enough to gauge (given that the pattern calls for DK weight). I'll have to wait until the yarn is actually dry to swatch and see if it looks as good as I hope!
The Yarny Details
Wheel: | Spinolution Hopper |
Spinning Ratio: | 6.5 |
Singles WPI: | ~28 |
Draw: | Short, semi-worsted |
Plying Ratio: | 4.25 |
Finished plies: | 2 |
Plied WPI: | ~12 (sport weight) |
Weight: | ~4 oz. |
Approx. Yardage: | 408 yds. |
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