Part Trois - Tour de Fleece 2010

Here's the last installment of photographs of what I got done during the Tour de Fleece 2010.



The green is my 3rd and 5th attempts at chain plying. Feel better about the 5th attempt, still need more practice to feel really comfortable with the process. The purply grey is the 80/20 Merino/Silk single, that I will make my shawl from to wear to Erin's wedding.

Part Deux - Tour de Fleece 2010

Here tis, the end of the race. All in all, the challenge to myself was incredibly helpful and fulfilling as I really concentrated on my consistency and learned to chain ply (Navajo Ply) better. My last two skeins of two ply yarns also were more balanced they my two plies have been in the past. So little by slow, I am getting better at this still new to me pleasure. I have only be spinning with this wheel for little over a year.

There are a few stray pictures that need to be rounded up as yet to complete the collection of what I did spin-wise this month during the Tour de France. There are also 2 skeins of 80/20 merino/silk drying and therefore still setting twist that I need to photograph as well.

I also have started spinning some cinnamon alpaca. This may be the last alpaca I ever spin as it is the grubbiest fiber I have ever spun. Not as dirty as the last alpaca I spun back in the Fall, but full of vegetable matter (VM) and foxtails. It's going to take me ages to get it all out before I can spin it, if I continue to hand card it. Going to check into borrowing a drum carder tomorrow in hopes of speeding that process up.

Spinning for Tour de Fleece

Here's some of my spinning. The Tour de Fleece is going well. Still have lot's to learn about Navajo or chain plying, tho. Below is my second attempt at chain plying, it's better than my first attempt but I still need to get better at consistency and not get my finger caught in a loop, OUCHERS!

No Pictures but Something At the Least

"Are ye traveling your neighborhood? Do you have plans to go somewhere soon?

Yes, I am travelling my neighbouhood. Currently, I am in Broomfield, dog sitting for the Labs. Will head to Elizabeth for the Celtic Festival, Saturday evening and judge the Bonny Knees contest. Home to spend the night with the doggies and then back again for Sunday in garb to be a Ren Scot. Then it's home for a few until the Rocky Mountain Highland Games and Festival.

Sew Expo - I Actually Sewed Something

Today I met my friend, Judy Wisehart in Denver for lunch and to attend the Rocky Mountain Sew Expo. It's become a regular thing for us to meet up there and walk through and view what the vendors are flogging. Normally, when we go, it's too crowded and hectic to really see anything due to the crowds. We usually attend on Friday, however, this time we both able to attend today and it was perfect timing on our part. We ate lunch without waiting forever in line and actually got to see what the vendors had to offer. Judy scored some trims and tulle for making dresses for her granddaughters along with a super duper spiffy ironing board cover.

I also ran into my friend and customer from Great American Quilt Factory where I worked for 3 years. It was kinda of odd tho as she was the only person I ran into today, unlike past shows where I would get lost from Judy because I was talking to yet someone else I knew. That's Sharlene and me.

I also did a Make and Take of a table runner on gridded iron on backing. It was really simple to use. I definitely think I will buy more of the grid to make some table runners as gifts. The other picture is of the few goodies I bought. Mulberry silk yarn for Erin to dye up along with silk sari waste to spin into some woolen yarn for a novelty. The photo includes the table runner top and some cherry pins. I also scored some hook and loop tape to close some 1700s period jackets that I intend to make later on. I found yardage of one of the fabrics in the table runner but there wasn't enough for the size of napkins I want to make to go with the runner, so I will order it from the website of Contemporary Fibers.

The strawberry buttons and the novelty hooks and eyes came from Denver Fabrics where I stopped on my way out of town. I need to find a warm grey fabric to make my Mother of the Bride dress and thought I might luck out there, but alas no. The one fabric I found that was the right colour and weight was very short on yardage, sadly and there was no more to be had. The strawberry buttons are for an Outlander Swap over on Ravelry. Strawberries being one of the symbols of the Fraser Clan, which is the clan of the main male character in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.



I did actually spin today as well for the Tour de Fleece... Again more shall be revealed...

Tour de Fleece 2010

Every year fellow Ravelers do various projects for the Tour de Fleece. The goal is to spin every day during the Tour de France bicycle race. We get to rest on the rider's rest days and spin more or challenge ourselves on the hard mountain days.

I have been spinning everyday and my challenge has been to learn to be a better spinner and also to get better at plying my resultant singles. I am practicing chain plying, which is also called Navajo plying and also double plying with more balance to the twist.

This is the result of spinning a henna hand dyed Corridale and a natural coloured Corri and then plying them together. This yarn is called Fort Yellowstone in honour of the natural single being spun at Fort Lupton, CO during Heritage Days and the dyed single being spun at the Yellowstone Highland Games in Billings, MT.

This is a Corridale sheep in Natural. This other one is a Blue Face.

More shall be revealed. I am waiting on a chain plied dyed Blue Face Leicester to dry as well as some custom dyed pink merino.

Missed a Day Cuz I Wasn't Saved by the Bell

Got to talking to my friend, Katte's cousin, Clint today about music and such. We talked about our love of the high seas and how he wants a Ship's Bell.

I told him about my favorite Celtic Rock bands, which includes Great Big Sea. The band is from Saint John's, Newfoundland and they perform a fair number of seafaring songs due to their proximity to the North Atlantic. They perform John Barbour, which one of my favorite songs.

This photo was taken during the Uprooted Tour's stop in Vail. Our wildest dream come true as three of our favourite bands were touring together that summer. They were Seven Nations, The Young Dubliners and the aforementioned GBS.

Happy 4th of July

These flags are courtesy of Bryn Hughes, an Urban Sketcher of my interwebs acquaintance. I so hope to meet him this year when he comes to visit his daughter, Anna here in CO.

We girls had a small celebration here at the house. I made oven roasted sausage sandwiches and my famous potato salad with blueberry/strawberry shortcakes with REAL whipped creme for the dessert. Geek that I am, the shortcakes were cut in the shape of the contiguous United States. I also gave Jes a lesson in biscuit making as she was having some serious fails in that department. I think I got her on the right track now.

We also had our own stitch and bitch. Mimi, Erin and Jes each started a new project. Erin's making a scarf in Field of Poppies from Fresh from the Cauldron to go with her Gretel. Mimi is making the Multnomah and Jes is learning to crochet by making a baby blanket. As for me, I tried out one of the new bobbins I just got for my spinning wheel. It's a different ratio than I am use to but I think I am spinning with it just fine.





Happy Fourth of July to all, be safe.

Saved - Garden Lovelies

Chocolate Iris and Dianthus from the McWilliams Parish house garden. We, the Grace Gardeners are trying to save as many heritage plants as possible from the garden in preparation for the restoration work about to begin there. We were awarded a grant to repair the facade and the work commences shortly. Hopefully the heritage roses can be rescued as well.

Saved - Where am I in the Numerical Sequence, I Wonder?

Post #2 for July, maybe I can get back on track... Saved - the needlework skills handed down from my mother, Jeanine. In this picture: Last month's block of the month for the quilt guild and a summer-weight Ishbel which I am wearing and a felted wool messenger bag on the table.

Saved - My Blogging Reputation, Maybe?

Saved As Well - The skills from the Past.

This is a wagon train spotted on I -25 heading north in Wyoming near the Oregon Trail tracks as we were heading to Billings, Montana for the Yellowstone Highland Games. Where I was going to demo spinning which is also a skill we are trying to save from the past. On the bobbin, a lovely glitzy fibre that my dear friend, Gina sent me from the New Hampshire Fiber Festival. Thanks again!