Today is the start of Tour de Fleece! This is my first year participating since I’m still a pretty new spinner. My goals for the Tour de Fleece are to: spin at least an hour per day, spin up at least one braid worth of fiber (no idea how “fast” I am at that), and to get better at spinning. I’ve already found that the more I spin, the better I am getting, but drafting is still the hardest part for me.
I wasn’t sure what I’d start with at first, but decided on a braid of BFL I purchased from Zarzuela’s Fibers in her “Thinking of Fall” colorway. I’ve never spun BFL and I absolutely adore this colorway. I had been “saving” it for when I was a better spinner, but decided that’s just silly and I will love my yarn regardless of how it comes out. Besides, I can always get more 😉
Fiber and wheel at the ready!
This morning I was up around 8 am and after showering and settling into the day I figured there’s no better time then now to get going on my spinning for the day. At 9:25 am I got out my wheel, drafted some fiber, and got to spinning.
Look at me go! Hehe🙂
I spun for an hour and 5 minutes today and the end result was about half a bobbin full of yarn.
I made yarn!
It started out a bit on the bulky side, but as I went along, I got better at being able to draft a bit more as I was spinning. Just two months ago I thought I’d never get to that point, so it was really good to start to see my spinning coming together a bit more 🙂
Day 1 of the Tour de Fleece down and 21 more to go!
Are you participating in the Tour de Fleece this year? What are you working on for it? I’d love to know, so feel free to share in the comments 🙂
Today is the 4th of July here in the US. Do you have anything fun planned? We’re headed out with Matt’s mom to some get together with her family. Hoping the rain holds off, but it’s already started sprinkling here. We’ll see how it goes. Happy (and safe) 4th of July to everyone!
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I’m a thirty-something who lives in Cincinnati, OH.
Crafting, for me, started young - I can’t even recall a time I wasn’t crafty in some way. My first foray into yarn was doing plastic canvas embroidery and making Barbie doll furniture. Not long after that I learned to crochet from a book my grandmother gave me after asking to learn what she was doing (she crochets, afghans mostly these days). After that, I took up counted cross stitch and then came sewing when I took two fashion design classes in high school. My mom had a sewing machine from my great grandmother and I taught myself to sew from patterns on it. I still use this same sewing machine today!
I started knitting in 2004 when a co-worker was pregnant with her first child and I wanted to make something for her. I bought a “learn to knit kit” from Lion Brand for a baby hat and booties set. I did make the baby hat and booties (with very few problems) and ended up gifting them to the co-worker. I wanted to make a blanket, but I wasn’t quite able to get that done in time since it took a lot longer then I’d imagined! It wasn’t until the end of 2004/early 2005 that knitting really took a hold of me. Now I love knitting and almost always have a project with me, even if it’s just something small when I’m out and about. I like a wide range of projects depending on my mood. Sometimes I like a good challenge knit and other times I enjoy a lot of stockinette or garter stitch. I love Ravelry for keeping track of my projects and for finding new things to knit - I feel like I’m always spending time on there! It’s also a great place for getting to know other knitters, crocheters, and various fiber enthusiasts.
In the fall of 2008, I purchased a spinning wheel from someone on Craigslist. It’s a Babe Fiber Starter, single treadle wheel and after a bit of trouble getting used to it, I’ve managed to spin up some fiber. In January of 2012, I found someone local that was selling their Lendrum DT and it came to live with me! The Babe now lives with Jen (aka piddleloop) and she’s learning to spin. I’m still trying to find time to spin along with knitting, crocheting (occasionally), and whatever else is going on, but I work it in here and there.
I’m sure there’s something I might have left out here, so if there’s anything else you want to know about me, just ask :o)
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Ms Lindz - My little corner of the internet 
Love those colors, Lindsey! You’re doing great!! I too signed up for the Tour de Fleece on Team Plurk, and I actually did some spinning yesterday. Well, technically… no. I am working on getting a fleece ready to send to the mill, so fluffing and picking out VM and putting it in a box. Also, I was plying what I had on the bobbins already. 😉
I was going to go and post my “progress,” but being at home with dial-up and seeing how many posts were already on there….. I didn’t. Bad Dani girl! I should go and vote for my girl Lindsey though!!!
Keep up the great work! Hugs!
pre-draft. i do an ass metric ton of it and it really does help. i wonder about those people at MDSW. how you can hand some roving and they hardly draft and automatically have a nice line of laceweight yarn coming from it.
but i will assume that that will only come with practice. As of right now, if I were to give you any advice it would be to get some roving about 18 inch long, pull about five lines out and predraft and then spin. 🙂