Tour de Fleece 2007

[vanillaxlight]

Craftster was down all last night because of the errors and there are a few threads about it 'round here somewhere. I think leahs got it working now, though

[bixby2]

So this is what I finished last night and today.  I got the Nightshade plied up last night.  It actually came out mostly laceweight!!



I then jumped into some Tulip.  It is certainly laceweight and is taking FOREVER to spin 

[anneadeline]

fyberduck - I love that picture!  It captures the true nature of a spinner.  Trees?  Who needs trees when a spindle is handy? 

I haven't spun anything yet today, but I will after checking in.  I'm working on some green superwash.  Gosh, it is so easy to draft with superwash!
 

[betzi]

Well ladies and gents I am having a wonderful time with my new Lendrum!  So wonderful in fact that I spun about 12 ounces yesterday!  thats quite a lot for me!  Enough with the exclamation points already, Betzi!  Sheesh!

The following skien came from my first hand-dyed roving.  I wasn't too crazy about the outcome, but hey, its a learning experience, right?

Here is Johnny Jump-up, about 150 ish yards of dk weight.  I haven't measured WPIs yet, i'm just guessing:



The other 8 ounces I spun up yesterday aren't plied yet.  I'll get a pic when it is, its some nice dark green Ashland bay roving hubby got me as a present a while back.

All of the yarns so far fo the tour are absolutely stunning!  Bixby, i can't wait to see tulip in skein form, i love the colors! 

[eatmoreplants]

eatmoreplants - I use my ashford niddy noddy.

WAIT! I have an ashford niddy noddy! How many yards does that make for each strand? And whats this business about a skein winder? I have never heard of that and I want one badly!

Everyone's yarns look so amazing. I have a request- for those of you spinning with fibers other than wool- could you breifly talk about how it spins- I am trying to get into alternative fibers. I spun some bamboo this week and I found it pretty difficult. It kept slipping apart on me.

So I haven't posted pictures all tour- but now I have three days worth of pictures. I got a whole skein finished on the first two days- but last night when I went to spin and my wheel fell apart. It was really sad. A screw had come out. My boyfriend spent a long time trying to fix it- but something was wrong with the screw so he fashioned something  out of a paper clip that won't last long- luckily he's in the screw business so he'll bring one home from work. So I didn't get to spin for very long last night.

Here's some of the roving I am working with- both are 4 oz of hand painted bamboo- yummy

Here is the skein from day one- 4 oz 100% bamboo. This was my first attempt at spinning bamboo. It is amazingly soft! I navajo plyed it. I learned to navajo ply this week and now I am totally obsessed!

The next is from some merino/mohair that I handpainted with acid dyes. It was my first attempt working with acid dyes and I LOVE them! I'm really happy with the way it turned out- it's like autumn!

Lastly, I have my sad little unfinished bamboo singles still on the bobbin that I did last night. I have a final paper due tomorrow- but I really hope I can finish them tonight!


**Any Suggestions for what to knit with my single skeins of lucious bamboo?**

[Star217]

Here's what I did last night. My wheel and I were finally reunited yipee! Its 2oz (1/2 of the Spunky eclectic fotm "Tulips") of BFL spun laceweight. I'm trying to spin this up using the fractal strip method from the recent issue of Spin-Off

[laminathegreat]

eatmoreplants - I use my ashford niddy noddy.

WAIT! I have an ashford niddy noddy! How many yards does that make for each strand? And whats this business about a skein winder? I have never heard of that and I want one badly!

The ashford niddy noddy makes a 5 foot 'loop'- so when you wind your skein- count how many times you went around (you know,just count all the strands), and then multiply by five. Thats your total feet. I then usually divide by three to get the total yards.
And a skin winder is like a niddy noddy- they both wind skeins.  But I think lots of skein winders are adjustable and are more for making pretty skeins.

[eatmoreplants]

thank you thank you thank you!!!! Now I can estimate how much I need to spin better for projects!!!!! YAY!

[Soth]

OMG eatmoreplants the bamboo looks sooooo great! so soft and silky. I think, I have to buy some....

Everybodys yarns look fabulous.

During the last 3 days I spun up a braid of superwash wool, the last of my handdeyed ones.





Today I finally plied it



The result is not really as I imagined    I think it's a bit boring. But anyway, it's nearly laceweight 300 yards and maybe a nice pattern will do the trick...

[bixby2]

eatmoreplants - The sparkle off that bamboo is practicaly blinding!!  They look fantastic

Star - it's great to see somebody else working on the same fiber using a different technique

Soth - I don't think it looks boring!  I love the color variations