Tour de Fleece

I mentioned a few days ago that I was joining the Tour de Fleece. The idea behind this is that during the Tour de France (July 5-27) each participant would take on a spinning challenge, something that would start and end on those days and that would also use stash roving. Since I've been so bad about spinning in the past few months, I set myself an easy goal: To spin the Shetland that I dyed with Tomo back in May. It's only 2 oz and seemed like a very manageable goal.

I think I need to backtrack a little. In the past few months, the months where I showed nothing that I'd spun, I actually had something on my wheel. I had been feeling gutsy (or overly confident) about my spinning abilities and I had started spinning the 2 oz of Bombyx silk/wool that Christopher gave me for Christmas. In theory this is was a great idea, a challenge for my beginner skills and something very different. The silk was really slippery though, and since it's also lighter and less dense than wool, there was a lot more of it to spin. It also is undyed, which offers lots of possibilities (like, I could dye it this summer when I do my big dyeing spree) but it also made it really unsatisfying to spin.

And so this stuff just took forever to finish. I think I've been working on it for months, and I'm pretty sick of it. But I only have one spinning wheel and 3 bobbins, so it had to get finished before I could move on to another thing of roving. The lure of spinning the Shetland for the Tour de Fleece was the kick in the butt I needed to finish the silk/wool, and I finished plying and washing it on Friday. Voila!I actually like it a lot and am still thinking of what to make with it. (I managed to get 211 yards, which is a personal best. :)

On Friday evening, while my silk/wool was drying, I started spinning the Shetland.Yeah, my spinning mojo is back! This stuff isn't as soft, but it is so much easier to spin. And I love the colors. (Kool Aid, baby!) In fact, it's so much more fun to spin that I finished spinning the first half of it yesterday morning. I'm clearly not getting the yardage (or fine weight) that I got with the silk, but I am still totally thrilled with how it's coming, and I keep wondering what I can make with it. (2 oz of somewhat scratchy and probably worsted Shetland, hm. A hat??)

But there's a hitch. At this rate I'll be done with my Tour de Fleece challenge in a day or two. I think I made the challenge too easy.