Fiber Arts Friday: Spinning Suri Alpaca, White

I started spinning this Suri Alpaca in March 2016.  It rested a lot, but then got a lot of attention as I tried to finish it before the Tour de Fleece in 2017.

It was not finished.

Then I worked on it some more, trying to finish it before the 2018 Tour de Fleece.

It was not finished.

There it waited on the bobbin storage rack for another window....

with only 3/4 of an ounce to go.

Finally, in June, as I was preparing for the 2020 Tour de Fleece and I was able to finish the last 3/4 oz.  :-)

668 yards, 24 wpi

Some yarns just take longer than others... kind of like some stories.  ;-)

Happy Fiber Arts Friday.

Fiber Arts Friday: Tour de Fleece 2020, part 6

Day 21 - Friday, July 17
Chiengora - Gold Tibetan Mastiff: 32 Minutes

I have some clockwise Gunnar singles that are unfinished.

I've been working on this drop spindle for a while (2019) and know that it does not have a continuous single.  So I wound each of them off by hand for a total of 22 grams or ~3/4 oz of prior-completed singles.

I will add these to the single I started spinning last Wednesday for a 3-ply yarn, hopefully to be completed on the last day of this Tour.

SE2SE - Shropshire: 39 Minutes

Podcasts/Timekeeping:

Wise Traditions by the Westin A Price Foundation - 1/2 episode

Total Time: 1 hour 11 minutes

Day 22 - Saturday, July 18
Chiengora - Gold Tibetan Mastiff: 36 Minutes

SE2SE - Shropshire: 92 Minutes

Podcasts/Timekeeping:

Wise Traditions by the Westin A Price Foundation - 1 3/4 episodes

Total Time: 2 hours 7 minutes

Day 23 - Sunday, July 19
Chiengora - Gold Tibetan Mastiff: 49 Minutes

Today is the last day of the Tour.  So I organized the Gold TM singles by weight and started plying them... heaviest (and theoretically longest) first.

The 5 small singles to the left and the large cake finished out at exactly the same time, so I have a tiny bit of the largest ball to the right remaining.... 48 yards of 3-ply.

SE2SE - Shropshire: 64 Minutes

I have a bit more of this single to complete, but I feel good about my progress on this yarn... 78 g spun, 36 g remain.

Podcasts/Timekeeping:

Wise Traditions by the Westin A Price Foundation - 2 1/2 episodes

Total Time: 1 hour 53 minutes

1 yarns completed and 5 hrs 11 minutes of spinning for the week

For a total of 8 yarns completed and 31 hrs 7 minutes of spinning for the Tour.

Epilogue
For me, spinning is very much a solitary activity.  I use the time to listen to music, the news, podcasts, or just quietly think.

What I love about the Tour de Fleece, is that it makes the solitary activity of spinning more of a community event.  There's a daily (or so) check in with the team who are there to cheer each other on, to offer advice, and inspiration.

As an introvert, this is the best part.... I have the benefits of extroverting without spending the energy of being in a crowd.  And often the members of the team are located all across the country and sometimes in other countries, which adds to the richness of the experience.

My goal for this Tour was to spend at least an hour each day, dividing that between my two wheels.  I definitely achieved that goal.  :-D  I learned that like having two yarns going at the same time because helps to keep from getting bored, even if it might be harder to follow in a daily tracking blog post.

This has been the most productive Tour for me in quite some time and I made great progress on my SE2SE project.  Which I'll post more about later.

The 8 completed yarns constitute 646.9 yards and 495 grams (17.46 oz).

SE2SE: across the top, L-R

• Leicester Longwool:
• 144 yd, 2-ply, 14 wpi, 119 g / 4 1/4 oz
• Cotswold
• 111 yd, 2-ply, 10 wpi, 106 g / 3 3/4 oz
• Shropshire
• 78 grams in a single

Chiengora: across the bottom, L-R

• Mill-ends Roving, Tibetan Mastiff + Huacaya Alpaca + Shetland Wool:
• 105 yards, 2-ply, 13 wpi, 65 grams (2 1/4 oz)... 42 grams spun during this TdF
• Core Spun - Gold Tibetan Mastiff:
• 71 yards, variable wpi, 61 grams
• 50:50 Roving, Tibetan Mastiff + Huacaya Alpaca:
• 156 yards, 12 wpi, 88 grams, 2-ply
• Core Spun - Gold Tibetan Mastiff:
• 3.9 yards, variable wpi, 8 grams
• 8 yards, variable wpi, 16 grams, 2-ply
• Gold Tibetan Mastiff Only:
• 48 yards 12 wpi, 32 grams, 3-ply

Podcasts/Timekeeping:

While I did make progress on my Podcast backlog, I spent most of my spinning time listening to the news or music.

• Wise Traditions by the Westin A Price Foundation - I began this Tour with a 2 year and 1 week backlog of episodes.   I ended this tour with a 1 year and 6.5 month backlog.  So I gained about 6 months on the backlog.
• Professional Weaver -  I began this Tour with a 2 episode backlog, listened to 2 episodes, and finish with a 3 episode backlog.

The actual Tour de France is still planned to begin at the end of August.  So a second Tour de Fleece is  planned to follow the re-scheduled Tour de France, August 29-September 20.  I already have my fibers set aside for round two!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Sourdough, part 2

After a week or so of daily feeding the reserved portion of my first starter, I had another 3 cups of prepared sourdough starter... 2 cups for a second loaf and reserving the remainder for the next batch of starter.

Last time I took the idea of "soft dough" as the outside texture.... I am a fiber artist.  So while the texture was smooth, soft, and therefore not sticky, the resulting bread was tough.

So this time, I spent less time kneading and was more mindful about the flour I added.... I do think this is a "softer" dough, in that it's a bit sticky, but not tough.

I also put it through two rounds of proofing.  The first in an oiled bowl overnight that was covered in both plastic wrap and a towel.  I think this helped to keep the dough from getting too dry.

The second in loaf form... also oiled and covered in plastic wrap and a towel.

I slashed the loaf after 2 hours,

and baked for about 45 minutes at 350F.

I tried to take extra care in the shaping step this time around, but I need more practice to ensure any remaining creases are on the underside of the loaf.

This definitely a better loaf.... in crumb, texture, and taste.  Even if it is a little flat.  The final bowl rise photo shows the dough loosing it's shape.  So I think it needs to knead longer, but probably not much more flour.  So round 3 should be even better, right?  :-)

Happy Baking!

Fiber Arts Friday: Tour de Fleece 2020, part 5

Day 14 - Friday, July 10
Continuing with the TM+Huacaya and Shropshire from last week...

Chiengora - TM+Huacaya: 33:18 Minutes

This single will definitely be finished tomorrow.

SE2SE - Shropshire: 33:18 Minutes

I could not have matched the durations so precisely if I tried.  :-)

Podcasts/Timekeeping: none

Total Time: 1 hour 6 minutes

Day 15 - Saturday, July 11
Chiengora - TM+Huacaya: 32 Minutes

This single is now finished.

SE2SE - Shropshire: 38 Minutes

Podcasts/Timekeeping:

Wise Traditions by the Westin A Price Foundation - 1 1/2 episodes

Total Time: 1 hr 10 minutes

Day 16 - Sunday, July 12
Chiengora - TM+Huacaya: 32 Minutes

Began plying today.

SE2SE - Shropshire: 34 Minutes

Podcasts/Timekeeping:

Wise Traditions by the Westin A Price Foundation - 1/2 episode

Total Time: 1 hour 6 minutes

Day 17 - Monday, July 13 - Rest

Today is supposed to be a rest day, but I've built a habit of spinning while drinking morning coffee, so ...

SE2SE - Shropshire: 15 Minutes

Podcasts/Timekeeping: none

Total Time: 15 minutes

Day 18 - Tuesday, July 14
Chiengora - TM+Huacaya: 31 Minutes

I think I'll be done plying tomorrow.

SE2SE - Shropshire: 31 Minutes

I'm concerned I won't finish this single by the end of the tour, so I might try to spend more time in the coming days.

Podcasts/Timekeeping: none

Total Time: 1 hour 2 minutes

Day 19 - Wednesday, July 15
Chiengora - TM+Huacaya: 17 Minutes

I finished plying today.

This is a lovely balanced yarn.  I'm looking forward to seeing it after washing.

SE2SE - Shropshire: 48 Minutes

I am spinning this at about 10 grams per 1/2 hour and had ~77 grams to go this morning.  So that's about 8 - 1/2 hour increments and 5 days remaining in this Tour de Fleece.

I have a reasonable plan to finish the single by the end of this Tour, but one of our alpacas threw me yesterday when I was trimming her toenails.  I have a minor sprain in my right hand+wrist+forearm, so I'll have to take it easy and hope for the best.  :-)

Chiengora - Gold Tibetan Mastiff: 13 Minutes

Podcasts/Timekeeping: none

Total Time: 1 hour 18 minutes

Day 20 - Thursday, July 16 - Challenge
Chiengora - Gold Tibetan Mastiff: 48 Minutes

I fell in love with my first-ever core-spun yarn from Day 9.  So today for the Mountain Range Challenge, I plan to make a more refined core-spun yarn and then use it to make coils.

As I mentioned on Day 9, these are the suggestions that one of our team members put together:

• First Challenge = The One Mountain Challenge.  Try a Single-step Textured Yarn, such as wolf yarn, thick-n-think, core spun, spiral, pigtails, or coils.
• The second Challenge Day = The Mountain Range Challenge.  This time is to try a Multi-step Textured Yarn, such as silk glazing, crep, bullion, boucle, coils, and pigtails.

These are the same example videos I posted last week:

Silk Glazing Video
Wolf Yarn Video

I would not say this yarn is refined, but it is less wild than my first core-spun yarn.  ;-)

The yarn on the left was taking the clockwise core-spun and wrapping over the same cotton core in the clockwise direction.  This yielded an extremely excited yarn.

So I decided to make the right right, which is taking the clockwise core-spun yarn and plying it to itself, trying to wrap one leg around the other.

I don't think either of these represents a very good coiled yarn, but it's fun to try something new and gives me something to work on for the next TdF challenge.

SE2SE - Shropshire: 39 Minutes

Podcasts/Timekeeping:

Wise Traditions by the Westin A Price Foundation - 1 episode

Total Time: 1 hr 27 minutes

***

3 yarns completed and 7 hrs 24 minutes of spinning for this week.  For a total of 7 yarns completed and 25 hrs 56 minutes of spinning in the Tour thus far.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Garden 2020, part 11

Since my last post, our harvests have continued to trickle in.

We've eaten the garlic, shallots, and remaining onions.  I definitely want to plant more of these next year.

We're still getting rainbow chard and I'm letting the spinach go to seed.

The winter squash have started to flower(!) ...

... and spread out.

The corn and tomatoes continue to hang on and give me hope.

My tiny herb garden is doing well.

I extremely happy with this variety of Basil, and plan to grow more next time.

With the exception of the herbs, everything I've been able to harvest was grown from directly-sowed seed.  None of the indoor starts survived transplanting.  :-/

We have about 3 months until our first freeze.  So while it's quite hot right now, I'm starting to think about planting cooler-season/fall veggies.  Not sure if/what I'll do yet.

I hope your garden adventures have gone better than mine this summer.  :-)