Fiber Arts Friday: Tour de Fleece 2010, part 3

Welcome to the third installment of my Tour de Fleece progress.  Here are parts one and two for comparison.

Saturday, July 17th:
Even though I completed my goal of using a drop spindle for four days last week, I finished spinning the prepared wool-mohair roving.

59 yards

I spun some more of the Navajo-Churro I started last week.  This wool is quite scratchy which was causing my finger tips to get sore.

Since I was really most interested in comparing it to the Jacob and I don't have a plan for this yarn, I stopped spinning, Navajo plied and skeined it.  I'll have a finished photo for you next week.

Sunday, July 18th:
Huacaya Alpaca pencil roving.

Monday, July 19th:

Tuesday, July 20th:

Wednesday, July 21st:
Rest Day

Thursday, July 22nd:
Challenge Day

While my challenge was nothing like climbing through the mountains on a bike in a rain storm avoiding sheep, I did challenge myself.

I attempted to spin lace weight, green cotton on a drop spindle.

This cotton is naturally colored so the staple length is very short.  I wish the color showed better in the photo... it's a soft yellow-green. 

I was able to get pretty thin for a while, but then I started having issues with the yarn breaking. I increased the gauge and twist and got a bunch of thick and thin yarn.  I finally stabilized into a relatively thin yarn, but thicker than I was originally going for.  I don’t think any of it is over spun though, which is a big step forward for me.

There are only a few more days of the tour.  The Team of Wonder is primarily an alpaca team and I have more alpaca from earlier this week, so I think it's appropriate to finish the tour spinning alpaca.

In the meantime, please head over to the Wonder Why blog where it's Fiber Arts Friday and you're sure to see some awesome spinning and other fibery goodness.