Tour de Fleece

Hi everyone,

As many of you may be aware the Tour de Fleece has commenced and spinners everywhere are digging out their fibre and fluff and deciding what their goals will be for this tour.

It is the first year I have taken part and I have not yet discussed it on the podcast as I am trying to keep it a bit low key due to moving house etc...however I have taken part in the past 2 days and I have to say I m enjoying it immensely. I will discuss it in the next podcast and for ease (and solidarity to all podcasters) I joined Team Sasquatch.

Day 1 was a busy day, knitting group, catching up with friends and packing up the house so I decided the best way to spin was on my drop spindle, I am not sure how much I got spun up but I did get some done which is all that matters plus I got to watch Harry Potter whilst doing so! Here is what I have so far:

This is a hand dyed shetland braid which has tones of oranges, yellows, browns and peaches. It is spinning up to look like an almost tweedy/marled yarn and I am really happy with how it is looking.

Day 2 has been a little more sedate, except for the car boot sale this morning, so I managed to get my wheel out and work on some of the fleece I still have to spin for my Sheep Heid hat. This is what I had left to spin:

Clockwise from the top we have oatmeal bluefaced leicester, Black Welsh Mountain, Masham and Moorit Shetland. At the moment I am trying to spin up just enough to make the hat (I am too impatient) and I am keeping the rest to spin and make the blanket at a later date.

Today I managed to spin up the Masham so now I only have 3 different breeds left to spin before I can cast on the hat :)

I spun 22g and plied the singles into a 2ply yarn which had a yardage of around 64m, just enough and the perfect weight I need for the hat. Masham is nice to spin with, it feels nice in the skein and I think will work well with the rest of the yarns I have spun up.

Here it is:

As I am ever the optimist I also hope to get some of this lot spun up too:

There is a mix of Polwarth, Polwarth/Seacell and Merino/silk in that colourful bunch and it is calling me but not until I finish the natural fluff!

I will put a thread on the Ravelry group for anyone interested in sharing their progress on the tour and I better leave it at that as there is a mischievous looking bunny hopping around my feet.