Like the Yarn Harlot, I may have bit off more than I can chew.
After much internal wrestling, I decided to join the Tour de Fleece. Between the heat and the Mobile One,
spinning time has been non-existent of late, and the TdF was a good excuse to get back to it.
For my challenge, I wanted to choose something that would push me (ergo, challenge), but something do-able, and useful.
I considered spinning a sweater's worth of yarn out of a beautiful colored Corriedale fleece I had washed, which is high on my list of spinning dreams right now:
But when I considered:
- the fleece was only partially washed, and
- I had not sampled, and
- I did not have time to sample or wash more fleece AND spin; and furthermore,
- I didn't know which sweater from A Fine Fleece I would spin for (because that much was a certainty) and sweater choice would affect the type of yarn I would need to spin,
I nixed that idea.
I nixed several other ideas, but finally settled on:
Clearing the bobbins. The Schacht bobbins. All 8 of them.
Certainly challenging, but most likely do-able, and very useful. Besides, one bobbin was clear, 2 bobbins were full and ready to be plied, and one had a very small amount of fiber on it. Totally do-able, right?
I also decided to add a second challenge:
Spin every day, for at least 15 minutes, but shoot for an hour.
That would get me in the right mindset, and perhaps back on track with this whole spinning business.
So. Crazy? Do-able?
The ready-to-be-plied bobbins are 5.4 oz Handspun by Stefania Corriedale/Silk roving in osage and indigo, purchased at MDSW this year. It's difficult to capture the blue/greens and gold tones:
So much fiber sits around waiting it's turn so I put this on the wheel almost as soon as we got home.
It's mostly plied already.
Next, 8 oz of A Touch of Twist Rambouillet/Silk roving that I bought at Rhinebeck last Fall:
and started spinning at Spa in February:
I finished spinning it tonight! Only about 1.5 oz of it was previously spun at fingering weight, so it was quite a bit of work. There's still the plying, though...
And here's where it starts to get a bit hairy.
5 oz of Lorna's Laces Sheperd Top in Glenwood, to be chain-plied for self-striping socks:
Half is done, so 2.5 oz to spin. Thin.
Foxfire Fiber & Designs Camel/Silk in gorgeous Honeysuckle. So soft and yummy, but a tough spin with the long silk fibers and short camel fibers.
2 oz already spun, 2 oz to be spun. Thin. Lace weight. Hmmm.
And perhaps the home stretch:
9 oz of Hello Yarn Shetland:
Half already spun:
to match 4 oz of this Hello Yarn Shetland:
that you previously saw as this 2-ply (my latest favorite skein):
...
Two weeks to go...
...
Crazy, right?
...
Dare I tell you... the final bobbin, the one I laughingly said had only a small bit on it... it's 4 oz Susan's Spinning Bunny Merino/Tencel in Tamarack & Spruce:
Beautiful, isn't it? There's only a very small amount spun up. Technically, it could just be "spinning a sample". (Right?)
Or...
Maybe it will be my TdF "Bonus Round"...
