Tour de Fleece Day 19 and 20

Day 19
July 21
Day of rest
1.5 hours spinning

I knew it was a day of rest - my interpretation - relax and spin - no photos, no posting.


I went with my co-workers kayaking yesterday afternoon and then to the local pub.  I had a feeling I'd have a chance to spin - so I continued to work on my Golding spindle of llama fiber at the pub.  Then I went home - did my library work :) and then watched an episode of *True Blood* to make my hubby happy.  I continued to spin the milk, silk, bamboo.

Day 20
July 22
3.5 hours spinning

Challenge day!

So today was the day to spin my Natchwoolie natural color cotton on the great wheel.  There were two issues with this challenge.  First - it was really hot in that room and second it wasn't that challenging.  Fibers were slipping beautifully.



So after about 10 minutes I decided to adapt my challenge.  I moved down to the cool basement and spun the cotton on my Louet - doable but more challenging than the great wheel.  I wasn't quite done with the fiber that I'm spinning on my high speed bobbin so I emptied one of my regular bobbins.  Perhaps that would have been a better use of my time on a rest day - clear the bobbins!  I attached the short fibers to my leader and laced up my flyer and I was off!  New goal to spin as long as I could drafting with my left hand (like I would have with the great wheel) making a consistent yarn that will make a nice two ply.  Even with all that time - my bobbin is only about 1/4 full.



But I'm happy with the yarn and I was able to watch 4 episodes of *Bones* while I spun.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to finish the milk, silk, bamboo and the Golding drop spindle.  Then the rest of the tour is dedicated to plying!

To all of you still working on your challenge - you can do it!

Go Team Phat!

Tour de Fleece Day 18

Day 18
July 20
5.5 hours

I swapped my volunteer day this week with the Tour so I'll work on the library website tomorrow during the day of rest :)

Spincerely and I spun together via Skype tonight!



What fun! Nearly all our families were involved.  Even her cat Snickerdoodle got into it!  Of course Agent J is helping. Sure is lonely around here without (insert whimper) Agent J.



I'm not quite done with my Natchwoolie Blue Hawaii (Yum)



And I'm sure that Paco had nothing to do with it taking so long . . .



I watched a replay of the last 40 or so km of the race today.  Lance was soooooo close to winning this stage.  I liked the way when he realized he wasn't going to take it he let his teammate come in before him.  I was a little sad to find out I am older than Lance though.

Oh and I've been promising exciting fiber news - I'll be attending The Northeast Handspinner's Association's Gathering in November and I got my first choice (and only choice) class!  1.5 days with Deb Menz!  I can't wait - this is going to be amazing :)

Tomorrow July 21 is a day of rest!

Go Team Phat!

Tour de Fleece Day 17

Day 17
July 19
1.5 hours


What a wonderful day!  Very productive at work and I got to see some of my favorite people after work!  A group of my friends - we call ourselves the Lunar Ladies as we used to meet once a month and it happened around the full moon.  Now we still try to meet once a month but anywhere in the lunar cycle is is fine.  It is hard juggling 5 hectic schedules and we make a point not to meet on guild nights as that group is very important to us all to.  


We celebrated two birthdays--one belated May birthday and a very recent July birthday (note the lovely birthday crown)  In the picture below we are oohing and aahing over June's PhatFiber box!  This is very exciting to me as all the people that needed to see the box intact now have.  I can and will start spinning it very very soon!  





Spincerely was represented there - Jenny bought Leslie yarn for her birthday from my sister.  Now, I saw my Spincerely just yesterday and it must have been killing her not to tell me about what she did for and with my friends!  Of course, Spincerely did what she does best and put extra goodies in the package :)

My Olympus is still not quite functional but Leslie was good enough to take some shots with my iPhone.  She had fun taking pictures so I had a lot to choose from.  I selected this one of me spinning as I think it captures the way I feel around my friends - very very happy :)  This picture also embodies just how difficult it was for me to not smile for an entire week!



When I came home my husband and I watched the second show of the second season of *True Blood* and I continued to spin my Natchwoolie Blue Hawaii.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish it tomorrow or not - I hope so - it is my volunteer night and I have much to do for updates on Brooks Memorial Library's website that I maintain.  I will get some spinning in and I'm enjoying it soooooo much!  I'm spinning this milk/bamboo blend from the fold and it is coming out soooooo very smooth.



I love reading about my teammates projects - you ladies are such inspiration.

Go Team Phat!

Tour de Fleece Day 16

Day 16
July 18
3 hours


What a great day - my spinning started on the river with Spincerely.  I had some short llama fibers left from when I was color blending with my english combs and diz on the Spincerely dyed dehaired llama.   Since I was on the river I thought it was best not to use my Golding spindle project and I brought my louet drop spindle and worked on my Navajo ply on the fly spinning.  I'm still not much faster but it will take time to get used to this technique.  Especially since I don't normally spin "live" singles to boot.

So my waterproof (not water resistant) camera did not fair well as the day progressed.  Lots of really great shots lost and can't show my improvement on my Blue Hawaii right now - I'm enjoying this Natchwoolie blend quite a bit.  I imagine I'll be done with the singles by Monday evening.  Despite my frustration I will try again in the morning.

Here is one image that you will have to use your imagination with a bit to see around the fog.



Go Team Phat!

Tour de Fleece Day 15

Day 15
July 17
4.5 hours spinning

What a productive day!

This morning my niece assisted me in putting my loom back together.  A few months ago I totally dissembled it to move it from one floor to another.  The braking system came to me rusted and I really wanted to tackle that before putting it entirely back together.  So armed with steel wool and bands we went to work on the breaking system.


Before


After

Then we worked on aligning the harnesses and treadles - I can tweak it some more when the warp is on it but I'm ready to weave again - well as soon as the TDF is over anyways.



We went kayaking and saw:

• 2 geese
• 2 ducks
• Lots of fish, dragonflies, damselflies, red winged blackbirds
• 1 swan
• 1 turtle
• 1 great blue heron that startled us both and we both jumped in our kayaks when if dropped out of a tree right in front of us and made its hideous call has it flew away from us.  In all fairness we probably startled it as much as it startled us.

We even found time to garden.

I spun while we were watching episodes of her new favorite show, Bones - second only to NCIS.

I finished the singles of the dehaired llama :)



 I'm now spinning Natchwoolie's Blue Hawaii Indigo dyed milk/bamboo blend!  I'm so happy :)

Go Team Phat!

Tour de Fleece Day 14

Day 14
July 16
2 hours

Still working on the Spincerely dyed dehaired llama fibers.  Was a little careless in my spinning yesterday so it will be interesting to see how this bobbin comes out.  I feel icky (why I didn't post yesterday) and it was most definitely reflected.



On the bright side the basket is almost empty - which will mean I can move on to my new Natchwoolie Indigo dyed milk blend - I'm so excited.  I should feel better by the time I get to that :)



Although I spun yesterday I took the pictures today and am keeping this brief as I'm taking my niece kayaking and I want to make it back early enough to spin :)

Oh - but wait - I wanted to share one more thing.  The high school I work at actually teaches fiber arts and the Fiber Arts Teacher brought over a piece of work from one of the summer programs students - Melissa, the instructor, plied copper wire and the student wove the piece of fabric below.  It is going to be made into a book bag.  The picture was taken yesterday on my iPhone and it doesn't even come close to capturing the beauty of the piece.



Go Team Phat!

Tour de Fleece Day 13

Day 13
July 15
2 hours

Did more work on the Spincerely dyed!  Bobbin is getting much closer to full.

at the River Spinners Guild Social tonight.  It was hosted by my very good friend Jenna of Dye Flower Farm in her dye barn.  It was too late to take pictures of her beautiful gardens which are especially amazing given that she spends all her time tending to other peoples gardens.

Oh and I had soooo much fun sharing my Phat Fiber box!  I think it was new to everyone.  Two more people to show how pretty it is and then I can start playing with it.

Here is one of my very dear friends, Leslie, having a good time looking at all the pretty samples. Thanks again Tamara and Phatfiberlady



My niece did some spinning too - gosh my hands were so buy spinning for the tour I should have stopped and photographed that too.  Darn.

Oh and I got some really good fiber news today - can't wait to share!  I'm just bursting!

Tour de Fleece Day 12

Day 12
July 14
2 hours 20 minutes

The twenty minutes was on the drop spindle at Webs - waiting for a very special package from Spincerely's husband.  Photographer in Spincerely's latest post.



A dear friend commented on my blog that I was spinning with a Golding spindle over cement - well - this time I'm over pavement!  lol - luckily it did not drop either time.  I usually am more careful but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do to keep up with the Tour right?

The other two hours was watching a movie Independence Day with the special package (my lovely niece) and my wonderful husband.  They, of course, thought it was funny that I fell asleep - right at the good part.



Making progress on the basket of nectarine fiber too!  I'll take a better photo with my camera tomorrow the above is just a quick shot before bed with my iPhone.

I'm so giddy about sharing (viewing only) my PhatFiber goodies with my guild tomorrow night!

Go Team Phat!

Tour de Fleece Days 10 and 11

Day 10
July 12, Day of rest :)

Day 11
July 13
2.40 hours spinning

After the first hour I decided to have a piece of fruit - I was holding it for all of two seconds and just as I took the knife to it and wow did that nectarine look like my fiber or what?



Most of my spinning time we were watching a netflix movie, *My Fake Fiancée* that was, well a good spinning movie - didn't require much attention at all!



Here is my progress by the end of the night - not a dent in the basket of fiber!

Hope you all enjoyed the day of rest!  I just love reading about everyone's progress.

Go Team Phat!

Tour de Fleece Day 9

Day 9! (stage 8 - I'm a little confused)

July 11
Time 2 hours spinning




Finished the first 4.5 oz batt from Spincerely's Merino/Bamboo/Nylon roving.

I'm not quite sure what happened but my ball winder was not cooperating and I took my own spill (3 times) I spent two hours (not counting above) emptying the bobbin! What a mess. I wish I could have just fixed it without spending so much time being frustrated. You know it's not like I spent two hours handling something course or worse smelly. This was soft and smooth but still I couldn't help thinking that I could be plying right now!


I spent two hours doing fiber prep which I know doesn't count but it made me happy!

Tour de Fleece Fiber Prep

Color Blending on English combs. 

Since I don't have a hackle and I needed to blend some of these intense colors that Spincerely dyed for me to my specifications - I had alwasy intended to blend them but on a drum carder with naturally colored fibers.  I was playing with my diz and thinking that I would much rather have a blend that would produce a more worsted vs. woolen yarn so I went up to my studio and got out my deadly English Combs.


I lashed on several of the warm colors, brought the ends down to a point.  Jenny Bakriges always refered to this as a goats beard.  Pocked it through one of the larger slots in my diz. and . . .

gradually pulled the fibers through alternating my hand position when pulling from top to bottom to side to side.

I then made a basketful of pretty little bird nests.

Can't wait to start spinning this!  I believe Monday is a day of rest for the race so I'll start in on this basket on Tuesday.  If I can hold off on testing one . . .

Tour de Fleece Day 8

Team Phat
July 10, Day 8
Time spinning 3.25 hours


Holy Phat Fiber, Batman!


First off [Spincerely](/people/Spincerely) and I spun together while watching the Tour de France in her living room :)  Where I did 15 minutes on my drop spindle.  This is the first time I have ever seen Tour de France ever!


Then Spincerely gave me another early birthday present - more of her Spincerely Natural organic line!    Yum! and she also gave me . . . .





My very first, very own Phat Fiber Box!  Ok [Phatfiberlady](/people/PhatFiberlady) I'm hooked!


Then I went next door and spun for two hours while hanging out with my dad with the brand new fiber I just bought from Spincerely - 60% sw merino/30% bamboo/10% nylon.   I bought the entire 1++ lbs if this "to be named" color way.  I'm hoping to come up with a creative name for it to help her out.  I figured if I bought it all, that would buy me some more time!  I love that there are so many different ways to spin a space dyed roving - this time I decided it would be fun to use the method that [PhatFiberLady] (person) used in her day 1 video.  I didn't strip down the little sections as much as I typically do a long draw and I get mesmerized watching the fibers fall into the drafting triangle - but it is a cool technique.




It will end up being a two ply yarn that I will likely weave with.  Spincerely would really like to see it become a sweater but I don't thing that is likely.



Our dad came back with me to Spincerely's house where he watched me spin some more and Spincerely joined in when she wasn't preparing dinner.  When I called to let him know I was back in my home state later that evening he made a point to tell me how much he enjoyed watching us spin together.


Finally, when I got back home I was ecstatic to find my purchase from Natchwoolie - Which was just as beautiful as I anticipated.





All but the bamboo mix will be remaining in it's packaging and untouched until my Thursday River Spinners guild meeting where I plan to show off all of it's fibery goodness and make everyone drool.  The only problem with this is I will create more competition in getting future  Phat Fiber boxes.


It was an excellent day on the Tour!  Hope it was for you too!


Go Team Phat!

Tour de Fleece Day 7

Team Phat
July 9, Day 7
Time spinning 5 minutes

Busy busy day - I hope Friday was the least amount of spinning I will do during the entire Tour - but so worth it - after a full day of work  I drove to meet Spincerely pick her up and go see Jack Johnson! How awesome is that. I met her at Subways and that is where I fit in 10 minutes of spindle spinning. Same llama fiber dyed by Spincerely

I found my wrist distaff the other day when I was looking for my wpi tool. I’m sure it is in a bag with a project somewhere… .

Looking forward to getting caught up on reading teammate’s progress!

Go Team Phat!

Tour de Fleece Day 6

Team Phat
July 8, Day 6
Time spinning 2 hours

Bobbin is almost full.

 

Go Team Phat!

Tour de Fleece Day 5

Team Phat
July 7, Day 5
Time spinning .5 hours

I was able to spin for 1/2 hour today - had a hard time sitting still. Came home and needed to clean. By the time I was ready to spin I was ready for bed. I spun for about a half hour and then I fell asleep - not a spin while you sleep kind of sleep - a fall over dead to the world for a couple of hours sleep.  Now, I’m awake again after running around the house looking for my wpi tool. I never did find it, which makes me sad, as it was a gift from Celia Quinn. I’m pretty sure it will show up and on the positive note I found my fringe maker which was missing while I was l looking for the wpi tool.  (note to self - stop moving your studio to different spaces and use up your stash)

Regardless, I have a ruler, so I measured my two current spinning projects - both are Spincerely dyed dehaired llama from the late Milagra

34 wraps per inch

28 wraps per inch

Funny, I would have guessed my spindle spinning was thinner as I was spinning it - such and optical illusion.

Hope you all had a great day!

Go Team Phat! 
Ladee Sunshine

Tour de Fleece Day 4

Team Phat
July 6, Day 4
Time spinning 3 hours


I was going to do an hour on the drop spindle but when I got home from work my dogs were hot so I gave Paco (the long haired Chihuahua) a bath to help him cool off. Cider is the short haired Chihuahua and she was panting - but she didn’t need a bath - she was still sun bathing even with the heat.

 for more on this adventure …

Oh, there is an barred owl calling outside my window right now.

We finished up the Lord of the Rings Trilogy tonight so it allowed me a good 3 hours of wheel spinning done.

 
So this is more of the same Spincerely dyed dehaired llama.

Still thinking about what to do with the other 1.8 lbs …

Had so much fun chatting with my team mates last night - but I’ve got to get some zzz’s tonight. I only feel asleep 4 or 5 times at the wheel before the movie was over.

Go Team Phat! 
Ladee Sunshine

Tour de Fleece Day 3

Team Phat

July 5, Day 3

Time spinning 2.5 hours

Today is my Spiniversary! I had my first lesson from Jenny Bakriges on this day 7 years ago with my husband!  Pretty sure that was the end of spinning for him - but I was another story.

So happy to be celebrating it with Team Phat! As part of my celebration I purchased some lovely cotton and some milk blend fibers from Natchwoolie! Spincerely was very helpful in hooking me up with a PhatFiber with cotton so I could spin it during the tour. I love cotton! I can’t wait to get it!

So tonight I spent 1 lovely hour spinning on my golding drop spindle 

I like to use my feet to keep the spindle going - trick I picked up from Barbara Clorite-Ventura’s dvd Spindles around the World.

Here are the results of today’s spindle spinning over yesterday’s.

Then I started my quest to find my Spincerely dyed dehaired llama fibers. It was in about the 7th box I opened - so only about 1/2 hour lost to locating and weighing it. 2 lbs of luscious fibers. 

Hmmm, I had lots of plans to blend this fiber with other things - I’m going to have to give this some thought about what I want to do with it.

I cleared my bobbins in preparation

 
Day 1 spinning superwash BFL

 
Day 2 spinning dehaired llama

In the meantime the green was calling to me and I have plenty so I just spun for about another 1.5 hours 

Hope you all had a great day! Go Team Phat! 
Ladee Sunshine

Tour de Fleece Day 2

Team Phat

July 4, Day 2

Time spinning 3 hours

So a few photos to show for what I did during my 3 hours of Lord of the Rings spinning tonight. Did you ever notice how some of the elfin jewelry looks like a ply back? 

Above is what I started with tonight. Natural dehaired llama fibers (The late Bailey and Milagra) along with yummy Spincerely dyed that I carded. I packaged them up together years ago - but have not been able to spin it (long story.) I'm grateful for these positive circumstances to allow me this opportunity :)

So my plan was to spin the natural brown in worsted weight singles - high energy on the Louet.

This is Paco laying next to me as I spin this from the fold. I finished all the brown in about 1 hour - bobbin was quite full.

A lot of color was shoved in that bag … 

I spent the next two hours spinning it on my favorite Golding Spindle. 

Plan of attack for tomorrow - Go to work, then locate more Spincerely fiber in my stash - do some shopping from PhatFiberLady contributors for next week’s spinning and for the challenging day. Continue to spin the Spincerely llama on the Golding Ring Drop Spindle.

Go Team Phat!
Ladee Sunshine