TdeF

1spindle4 006a
Originally uploaded by Jam_mam.

My tour spinning is complete, but I have decided to add a final challenge, spinning laceweight on a spindle.

If you remember my first spindle spinning



it was soooo good (not) that I was doubtful about the wisdom of trying again. But, spurred on by the craving to take spinning on holiday, undaunted by the sending back of Julia (for repair - sob!), I decided to have another go. What had I got to loose? Natalie at theyarnyard is doing spindle kits so I sent for a new spindle. I was so impressed by my last attempt at spindling that I gave my spindle from Claire away. Ho hum.

Having had a wheel for a while I have learnt to predraft and this time I did much better with the spindle because of that.


I wound the centre pull ball

and plied this single on my spindle too

and I finished off with this

So my tour spinning has wheel spun on the Julia, spindle spun and plied and the yellow and green were spun on the Ashford Traditional.

Ravelry is a great resource and the support and encouragement there meant I decided to try a little finer spinning with the 'packing' which came with my spindle and, ta da, I made this



still a little thicker and thinner in places :) but lush and so very satisfying, and this means I can take fibre on holiday. Another thing Ravelry is great for is sharing your success. The non-spinners in my house just think I have really gone bonkers now and managed a patronising "yeh, well done, Mum" between the rolling eyes heavenwards and the 'what's the big deal' shrugs, but within minutes of putting the last photo on Ravelry the phone rang and Natalie was there to say 'well done' properly. Isn't the internet wonderful?

Meanwhile all of everything I post has already been on Ravelry these days and I am beginning to wonder if the blog is superfluous? What do you think? Did Ravelry kill the blog?

Linking

Today I am sending you to read The Yarn Harlot's post on spinning - she says it so much more eloquently than I could!

My own productivity has ground to a halt as I have to send Julia back to whence she came for a little TLC :( this has rather taken the sparkle off my spinning but I lurve it still and we will be reunited once her wobble is fixed, hopefully.

Meanwhile I am cracking on with the wedding Stole and (tempting fate) still on target. This was greatly helped by having to spend hours and hours hanging around the RVI whilst DD1 had minor surgery on Monday. Hospitals have their own time zone where everything lasts longer and the clock ticks slower than in the rest of reality. But never mind it worked in favour of the stole and DD is fine :) I did manage to make it back for DD2's first ever parent's evening. She's in year 1 next year, I'm sure you already know this because she has made it her personal mission in life to tell everyone this fact whether they are interested or not :)

I went to my first Stitch 'n' Bitch last night and it was lovely. Starbucks in Borders at Silverlink, North Shields, good company and good coffee, and knitting. I rashly risked taking the wedding stole with me but it survived my inattention (I talk too much, don't I, I know I do, sorry?) despite a missed YO and a lack of k2tog which I found when I got home. A quarter of the way there now, roughly and my holiday knitting to come I am (foolishly?) confident LOL

School summer holidays begin today due to the council workers strike knocking 2 very valuable days off the end of the term, ah well!

This

1aspin 037a
Originally uploaded by Jam_mam.

turned into

this



and I also spun this



and this



and this



and DD1 wanted a skirt so I made her this



Phew! I must blog more regularly, how about you?

Ravelry has eaten my blogging!

1woolfest 003
Originally uploaded by Jam_mam.

Can't believe I haven't introduced you to Julia yet! You see I went to Woolfest and she came home with me LOL I also bought this little lot

so, as you can see, it was a good day out and I will be going again next year. Next time with more of a plan, I can't tell you how many stalls I made a mental note to go back and look at later but then didn't get time for. It was great, I needed longer, there was too much choice :)

Catching up with the morning surf

1morningsurf 001
Originally uploaded by Jam_mam.

Did I show you my first 'mine' project?

I didn't feed or shear the sheep LOL but I dyed, spun (span?) and knitted the yarn. The pattern is in the current Spin Off magazine, Morning Surf, 200ish yards.

I'm keeping this one, it's all 'mine'.

spinning for Tour de Fleece

spinning 010
Originally uploaded by Jam_mam.

Natalie at theyarnyard dyed us a special colourway for the Tour. Here's my asphalt spun to 4ply weight about 300yds and 150g 2 ply. Just need a great project now as I'm very happy with how it came out. I hope n will add this colour to her stock colours range as it is very satisfying to spin with and a good staple for male members of the family - I see scarves, gloves, socks and more all made from this fibre :)

1TdeF KAL

1TdeF 003a
Originally uploaded by Jam_mam.

Progress thus far.

Do you think it will be finished by the 29th August? Because that's the day I am getting married :)

Tour de France & Tour de Fleece

Bonjour!

Yesterday was the beginning of the real tour and the knitting/spinning ouns run (or cycle) along side). I watched the tour on ITV4 and was annoyed by the adverts every 2 minutes (or so it seemed) so for the rest of the tour will be watching the highlights :)

On the spinning front the fabulous fibre from theyarnyard arrived right on time and it's great. I had been planning to combine both challenges by spinning enough fibre to then knit a BSJ but the fibre changed my plans as I see it, especially the grey/back as a laceweight which will be a challenge in itself. So that is my project for the Tour de Fleece to spin a consistent laceweight.

I didn't want to knit BSJ in black or in laceweight so I thought I'd change my challenge for the Tour de France KAL. I have a project which could do with a serious boost as I am finally getting married at the end of August. I have a stole on the needles using the pink sampler pattern from VLT. It's in cream Cecilia form Posh Yarn and I need to knit at least 10 rows a day to stay on target for getting it finished. Easy enough you might think but I am already days behind LOL so I am using the KAL to get cracking on the stole. Climbing my own mountain as I am the Queen of WIP - if I do manage to get in finished during the tour I will move on to other WIP.

I'll add some photographs later today, baby wants me now :)

Hugs to all Tour Knitters and Spinners and 'Bon Chance'

Flowers in the Rain?

The latest issue of Yarn Forward has my first published design in it.

There are two errors in the magazine.

the symbols in the key are reversed for the knit and sl2, k1, psso.

The empty squares are knit and the

_ symbol is the sl2, k1, psso

also in the mesh chart box it should read

lace charts are read from right to left on the right side rows and from left to right on wrong side rows

The design was originally intended for an earlier issue and has been renamed by YF. It was originally named 'Flowers in Sunshine and Snow' or FiSS

If anyone needs pattern support please do contact me here or on Ravelry as I would be very happy to help. :)