Tour de Fleece - the finishing line!

A very spinny update today, because Tour de Fleece 2011 finished this week! For those who haven't come across it, TdF runs on Ravelry during the Tour de France. You spin every day, setting personal goals and challenges. This was my first year, and I really enjoyed it. Spinning a bit every day was great - sometimes it was just 10 minutes before bed. Sometimes it was several hours. There were no hard and fast rules about it.

I had a few things I wanted to achieve, but my main project took a lot longer than I'd anticipated. This was Daring To Shine - a stunning woad dyed merino braid from My Heart Exposed. I have been suffering from bad wrists so wanted to spin long draw rather than worsted, but I don’t have much experience. I practised spinning long draw straight from top but didn’t get on with it very well. So I dusted off my very neglected hand carders and for the first time ever made rolags. I loved spinning this way - I think I’ve finally found my ideal style after a year of spinning! And the result was possibly the nicest yarn I’ve ever produced. Can you tell how pleased I am with it? :-) I can't wait to knit with it, but it will have to be a very special project.


This was quite a time consuming project, so I did sneak a couple of others in to break it up a bit. This was some Blue Faced Leicester mixed with sparkly nylon, 2 ply and about DK weight. I have a weaving project in mind for this one!


And this was a low spun single spun from a textured batt. It was a very quick project, but I'm pleased with the results. It brings a whole new meaning to the word "soft"!


Here they are in all their glory! I did also want to get to grips with core-spinning, but that is going to have to wait for another time. I'm really pleased with what I achieved during the Tour though, and already looking forward to next year! I feel like I've refound my spinning mojo. :-)


Now... where did I put those knitting needles?