Fiber Arts Friday: Tour de Fleece 2010, part 2

I give you my Tour de Fleece progress from this week.  If you're interested in comparing to last week's progress, go here.

Friday, July 9th:
I started this week with just a little bit of the Bamboo/Merino roving remaining.

I finished spinning the four ounces of hand-painted lusciousness.  This is the most full my bobbin has ever been.  :-)

I skeined it.

What do you think of my teeny-tiny niddy-noddy? I should really get a bigger one. One wrap is 30 1/2 inches, so what you see here is 219 yards of unknown gauge.

While I was skeining the yarn I was able to evaluate my work over the last seven days.  The gauge is consistent but a few sections are over spun.  I'm super excited about this yarn and am looking forward to working on my BFF hat once the Tour de Fleece (Ravelry Link) is complete.

I decided to spin the Jacob wool next.

Saturday, July 10th:

Sunday, July 11th:

103 yards

The Jacob wool is squishy,  fuzzy and soft.  I have an end project in mind for this yarn but will have to share that later.  ;-)

While I am travelling the rest of this week and will be working on my drop spindle with the wool/mohair I prepared last week, I had to start spinning the Navajo-Churro.

These sheep are prized for their guard hair, which is an unusual trait for a fleece producing animal.  Guard hair makes the yarn scratchy but I think it also makes it more durable.  Navajo-Churro is the primary wool used in the beautiful Rio Grande and Navajo style rugs.

I was really curious how these two rovings would compare since both the Jacob and Navajo-Churro are old world sheep and the Jacob was much softer than I expected it to be.

The Navajo-Churro feels more like twine than yarn.  It spins very easily and is producing a smooth yarn.  I love the way it smells... just like a freshly dry-cleaned wool sweater.

Monday, July 12th:
Rest and Travel Day

Tuesday, July 13th:
My first day with only a drop spindle and a bag of prepared wool/mohair roving.

I'm having a difficult time spinning a consistent yarn, let alone drafting and spinning at the same time.  The good news is that the little bit of yarn I've made so far is soft and fluffy.  It makes me think that my usual spinning is a bit tight.

Wednesday, July 14th:
I've taken to spinning, parking, drafting and then letting the twist into the yarn.  I assume one day I will be able to spin, draft and release twist all at once but I think I need more practice than this week will give me.

The wrapped yarn seems to be sliding down the post, so I've started to wrap it more tightly.

Thursday, July 15th:

Friday, July 16th:

This point marks two of my goals as achieved.  I spun all of the roving for my BFF hat and used a drop spindle for four days.  One goal remains, which is to spin every day the tour rides... so far, I'm achieving that goal too.

Take a look at the other fun stuff going on for Fiber Arts Friday.