Fiber Arts Friday: Tour de Fleece 2020, part 8

Tour de Fleece 2020 v2.0

As I mentioned last week, I have been working on this Hog Island since early August.  So here's a before photo.... more than half of the single is complete, with 44g remaining.

Day 1 - Saturday, August 29
Chiengora - Tibetan Mastiff: 88 Minutes

Beginning the first single today...

My goal is to average one batt per day.  Today I completed two batts and started on a third.

SE2SE - Hog Island: 16 Minutes

My intent with the Shave 'Em to Save 'Em (SE2SE) breeds for this Tour is to spend about 15 minutes after I complete the first batt of TM each day, if time allows.

Day 2 - Sunday, August 30
Chiengora - Tibetan Mastiff: 61 Minutes

Batt #3 finished and #4 started.

SE2SE - Hog Island: 15 Minutes

Day 3 - Monday, August 31
Chiengora - Tibetan Mastiff: 51 Minutes

Batt #4 finished.

SE2SE - Hog Island: 15 Minutes

Day 4 - Tuesday, September 1
Chiengora - Tibetan Mastiff: 10 Minutes

I didn't have much time for spinning this morning.  I have started Batt #5.

Day 5 - Wednesday, September 2
Chiengora - Tibetan Mastiff: TBD Minutes

Still in the midst of Batt #5.

Day 6 - Thursday, September 3
Chiengora - Tibetan Mastiff: 12 Minutes

Somehow it's already Thursday.  This week flew by.

I did not have time for spinning this morning, but got a few minutes in this afternoon.  I'm still working on Batt #5.

Total minutes:  282 (4 hrs 42 mins)

Completed Singles:  None Yet.  I was hoping to finish the three singles in less than a week each.  The first one will be complete once I finish Batt #6.

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!

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!

Fiber Arts Friday: Tour de Fleece 2020, part 4

Day 7 - Friday, July 3
Chiengora - TM+Huacaya: 32 Minutes

SE2SE - Cotswold: 57 Minutes

Starting a new yarn for the SE2SE project this morning, I decided to continue with the longwool sheep so I can keep working on adaptability.... going back and forth between 5 inches of the long wool and 2.5 inches of the TM+Alpaca blend on two different wheels is good practice...

... and boy, I don't know if there's anything more opposite than Cotswold and Tibetan Mastiff... This Cotswold is very toothy, where the TM+Alpaca is very slippery.  So much that the outside of the Cotswold roving bump is felted.  I'm hoping that this improves as I move to the inner layers of the bump, but I have tossed out several sections so far.  :-(

Podcasts/Timekeeping:
Wise Traditions by the Westin A Price Foundation - 1/2 + 3/4 episodes

Total Time: 1 hr 29 minutes

Day 8 - Saturday, July 4
Chiengora - TM+Huacaya: 43 Minutes

SE2SE - Cotswold: 111+27 Minutes

I was trying to get the Cotswold single completed today, so I could start plying after the challenge tomorrow, but it's just not quite going to happen.

Then I got a second wind after dinner and finished this single and wound it off.

Podcasts/Timekeeping:

Wise Traditions by the Westin A Price Foundation - 2 episodes

Total Time: 3 hr 1 minute

Day 9 - Sunday, July 5 - Challenge
Chiengora - Gold Tibetan Mastiff: 69 Minutes

Normally I try drop spindling on the fly, or ignore the Challenge Days all together.  But this year, I have time during the day and space in my mind.  So I decided to do it.

We had a team member pull together some suggestions:

• 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.

I didn't know what some of these were, so I went to YouTube:

Silk Glazing Video
Wolf Yarn Video

I decided to do a core spun yarn for the first day and coils for the second day.  The Silk Glazing video shows how to do both.

I have wanted to do a core spun yarn for quite some time and I have always thought that coils were interesting, but have never tried making either.

I'm using some left-over carded Gold Tibetan Mastiff from my Twined Mittens project and a cotton twine as the core.

Typically I am spinning for a specific project.  So it's been a long time since I was just spinning to learn a technique.

It's quite freeing to be spinning and not caring too much about the final yarn.  This feeling reminds of painting with oils.  I have very few things in my life where the end result is less important than the process.  Painting pictures was one of those things.

This yarn certainly looks like a mess. lol

But looks much better after being wound off.

and even better once skeined.

I am struck by how soft this yarn is.

I've been making a lot of 2-ply recently, which is my least favorite.  I generally prefer 3-plies and singles because they are smoother yarns.  But this core spun is quite interesting.  I'll have to play around with this technique more.

I started with 111g (including the bag) and finished with 73 g.... so this yarn took 38 g of TM to make a 61 grams and 71 yards of varying gauge core-spun yarn.

I also spent about 10 minutes on my TM+Huacaya blend after other weekend projects were finished.

Podcasts/Timekeeping:

Wise Traditions by the Westin A Price Foundation - 1 episode

Total Time: 1 hr 19 minutes

Day 10 - Monday, July 6 - Rest
I am so enjoying this Tour de Fleece.  It's wonderful being able to spend more time than usual working on this skill.

I am especially enjoying my TM+Huacaya roving, so I spent some time with it today, even though it is supposed to be a rest day.

Podcasts/Timekeeping: None

Total Time: 32 minutes

Day 11 - Tuesday, July 7
Chiengora - TM+Huacaya: 30 Minutes

SE2SE - Cotswold: 35 Minutes

I began plying the Cotswold singles finished on Day 8.

Podcasts/Timekeeping:

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

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Day 12 - Wednesday, July 8
Chiengora - TM+Huacaya: 34 Minutes

I think I have a couple more days until this single is completed.

I've been containing my rovings in a lovely yarn bowl.

It helps to keep them from picking up any extra dog hair or lint and looks beautiful waiting for the next day.

This bowl was a gift from a friend and made by a local potter.  Isn't it pretty?

SE2SE - Cotswold: 35 Minutes

I finished plying the Cotswold this afternoon, which went quite smoothly.

Podcasts/Timekeeping:
Wise Traditions by the Westin A Price Foundation - 1 episode

Total Time: 1 hour 9 minutes

Day 13 - Thursday, July 9
Chiengora - TM+Huacaya: 34 Minutes

SE2SE - Shropshire: 30 Minutes

I began the Shropshire today.  Very fun and spongy.

Podcasts/Timekeeping: none

Total Time: 1 hour 4 minutes

Totals for the Week:

2 yarns completed and 9 hrs 39 minutes of spinning for the week.

For a total of 4 yarns completed and 18 hrs and 32 minutes of spinning in this tour thus far.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!