Well, that didn't go as planned...

I had high hopes for the Tour de Fleece this year. Unrealistically high. I know in the past I've found a minute here and a bit of time there to spin while off on vacation. And of course, I have never been out of town for the Tour until this year. But I completely didn't reckon in the amount of pure fun we'd be having off with the Grandparents.

The Chicago area clocked in at high-90 to 100+ degree temps for the Fourth of July week. It was a huge shock to our systems coming out of the 65-70s of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Even today the temps haven't yet cracked 60. So when I eyed the lovely batts and silk I had brought along to spin, I can't say that they were very tempting.

But the kite was!

Furthermore, it's awfully hard to want to distract yourself from the pure fun of Disney World in Orlando (also high-90s weather makes you want to grab that nice, frosty glass of lemonade-slurpy and not drag the spindle out of your bag to get the fiber all matted, wet and messy).

And as lovely as the beach vistas are, they also don't do much to inspire pulling out wool and silk.

So, while I had a lovely two weeks away from home, I finished very little spinning. And I'm good with that.

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TdF 2012 - day seven

Here's a little more silk in the last light of the day. We spent most of the day at a water park (not so conducive to spinning, I have to say). I seem to have escaped without sunburn, but tomorrow will tell for sure.

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TdF 2012 - day six

Did I spin today? Yes. Did I get a picture of it? Nope! I went swimming and had an all around wonderful vacationing time.

Hope you are having a good summer, too!

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TdF 2012 - day five

 

Day five. Happy fourth of July, everyone! I hope you had as busy and as wonderful of a day as I did. I spun a wee bit of silk when I had the chance, but spent the rest of the day dodging the heat and enjoying family.

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TdF 2012 - day four

Snuck in the last of four ounces this morning, then headed out the door and spent the whole day traveling. Now, it's time for bed.

Hope you all have a happy 4th tomorrow!

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TdF 2012 - day three

Day three! Still working on this braid. I'm hoping to finish the four ounces tonight, since this project will have to wait for me to get back home to my wheel to finish the other braid!

I also broke out my spindle and worked through a little bit of dyed Polwarth top for variety. It is just so very springy! I love it.

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TdF - day two

Day two. Weekends are busy for us, but I found 15 minutes (it is the Tour de Fleece after all) to sit down and work from one end of the bobbin to the other.

You might notice that I am "cross lacing" my single across the flyer arm. This was an amazing take-away from a class I had with Judith MacKenzie. You often cross-lace the single on antique wheels, but I had never considered how to do it on my Lendrum wheel. Many antique wheel are double-drive, which can be more difficult to adjust for very light tension. Cross-lacing allows you to reduce the take-up which in turn lets you spin much thinner yarn. On the Lendrum wheel, not only does it reduce that take-up tension, but because there are no hooks or guides on the opposite arm it lets the yarn move around a bit more. This means more even filling of the bobbin with less stopping to move the year guide. It's a win-win.

 

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TdF 2012 - day one

Tour de Fleece, day one, and we are going to try an experiment. Because I'll be out and about for most of this Tour, I'm going to attempt to blog it from my iPad, pictures and all!

Above is my first day of work. I'm better than half-way into four ounces of Julie Spins in a lovely blend of Merino/yak/silk. It is wonderfully saturated in deep shades of pink, aqua and blue. I have two braids of this that I will be plying together, but as it won't be traveling with me, I probably won't complete it until near the end of the Tour.

In the meantime, I will be traveling with two AbbyBatts and a couple ounces of tussah silk from Silk and Shine (I'm really looking forward to these, too).

I'll keep you updated as I can, and in the middle I have a few queued posts that may go up. Happy Tour spinning to you!

 

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(Here's the unspun fiber, from a photo I snapped a while back.)