Friday, July 24, 2020

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!

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