Final Tour de Fleece 2025 figures.

I knew that I wouldn't spin as much as usual this year as we were away for nearly half of it. I've not included any half bobbins that are hanging around, just full skeins.

I had prepped around 1300gm of fibre, some is still in the bag but we have another trip or two planned so at least I have something to take with me.

All waiting to be washed, total 1.097Kg or 2.418 pounds, breeds.. Cheviot, Ryeland, Romney, Jacob, Shetland, North Country Mule.

The Cheviot and Jacob are from the Isle of Skye and will return there. The rest will probably join my knitting stash in the van.

I now need to continue washing and prepping fleece both fine and coarse for both of the e-spinners.

Tour de Fleece day , eighteen and nineteen.

 We've been busy since we got back, mainly washing and packing, a few medical appointments for both of us, some shopping and most importantly planning our next tour of Scotland.

In-between all this I grabbed the chance to ply the Shetland and spin the North Country Mule. 

This is looking like the least productive TDF for me for a while but it started by the coast, continued back at the coast las week and the last two days include  a summer bobbin lace day and yet another travel day.

Still, I have plenty of time in August to continue to spin down the stash so I'm not disheartened.

Tour de Fleece day twelve and thirteen.....minimal spinning

 I think these may have to count as rest days, On day twelve, after packing and housework, I finally managed to sit at the wheel for a few minutes. North Country Mule, an easy spin and hopefully I will be able to finish it sometime next week.

Day thirteen and we are back on the road again, heading east for the Bridlington Coble Festival.

 More about the Festival in a few days but again in means minimal spinning but tomorrow I will be out and about dodging rain showers with my nano so will have more to report,

But I did briefly get a spindle out and play with some Shetland so technically I did spin both days even if rather minimal amounts.

By the way, a coble is a type of boat ........................

Tour de Fleece day nine, spinning and some gentle lace making.

Day nine (Sunday 13 July) was a home alone day. Ian is over in Wales for a couple of days so I was up early as he made an early start.

First challenge was to spin the final bobbin of the Ryeland and ply the four bobbins. Two, two ply skeins completed ahead of some gentle housework and fleece washing.

Sunday also tends to be bobbin lace day as I have a zoom chat in the afternoon with other lace makers. I carried on with my Downton lace strip whilst we decided which patterns to tackle next.

I also spun a bobbin of Jacob ( 55gm) and made a start on the second one

Tour de Fleece day eight , some spinning but not a lot

 Another warm day but we went out for a drive and ended up at Papplewick Pumping station, a favourite place to while away a couple of hours.

The cloud making machine was working

The brass was gleaming

and there were a lot of steampunks about :-)

 and this is definitely not a Lambretta however at £40 it will be a bargain for someone.

As for the spinning its still Ryeland on the wheel but this is the total so far.

Tour de Fleece day seven , I get to leave the house

  Day seven and having spent two of the last three days in a dental chair I'm looking a bit like a hamster 😁 still I was brave and headed out for a coffee and and some clothes shopping as my dark summer tops are several years old, mostly dark grey and too big.

Success on the tops front, I found two in the right size and one slightly different necked one which I try on once it gets cooler.

I followed this up with a pot of tea and some spinning

followed by a mug of coffee and some spinning, this bobbin is now complete for this project.

Meanwhile at home, I've finished the second bobbin of Ryeland and I am pressing on with  the third but its getting a bit too hot to be playing with fibre at home.

On another note, there was a cardboard box waiting for me when I got back so it looks like I will be fleece washing on Sunday ( I will have the house to myself for a couple of days)

Tour de Fleece day six, here we go again

Order of the day, painkillers, phone dentist, finish spinning the Romney and hopefully at some point go out for a coffee or I will have to buy a proper coffee machine for home.

later,

Ok not the day I planned but I've finished and plyed the Romney and mad a start on the next batch of Ryeland. At this rate I may have to start processing a bit more fleece nut not a problem as I have a bag of washed fleece that I picked up at the last guild meeting. This time its Beulah Speckled face, a welsh breed that I haven't spun before so I will be able to tick it off the list.

I realise that these posts are a bit boring, I still didn't manage to leave the house for coffee but hopefully I will take the Nano out in the next day or so before I go stir crazy !!

Tour de Fleece day four, spinning but not a good day for other things,

 So yesterday, day four, started really well. I finished the last bobbin of Cheviot.

Plyed them together and they are now in the wash bag as I intend washing yarn at some point at the weekend.

I had intended this to be all my spinning for the day as I had a dental appointment later in the day. However I ended up having a very difficult tooth extraction and the only way to distract my mind from the pain was to do something with both my hands and brain so I ended up spinning again, 120gm Ryeland.

This morning, the pain is not so bad but I'm sat with a coffee and painkillers debating what to spin next, watch this space.

a random day in the life of a fibre crafter

 Well, that was the plan but the clocks changed and its 8am and I've only just got up. So its coffee time !!

 The weather is overcast and windy so other than the usual clothes wash I'm going to wash some fleece, prep fleece, work on a hat, take part in a bobbin lace zoom and I'm not really sure what else although at the moment its coffee, Facebook and YouTube for the next 10 mins whilst I wake up properly.

Whilst on Skye, I was given a bag of fleece, not a big bag due to being in a small car with all our gear but we got a lot of fleece stuffed into it!! Jacob, Dutch spotted and Cheviot, I'll hopefully get a skein or two from each.

Jacob having a soak in very hot water and detergent. In-between the timed soaks/washes I usually challenge myself to get on with the house work so I'm hunting round all the rooms for dirty washing and dirty mugs :-)

Why the mad fleece washing? two reasons really.

1 I have a lot of fleece to clear out, I'd ideally like to empty the shed ready for fresh fleece at some point.

2 I have a couple of road trips planned so need fibre to spin whilst away along with yarn to knit

3 Since I no longer have a single 100gm skein of yarn, only oddments, I'm getting a bit desperate. 

Midday and I'm having a drink. three bags of Jacob on the line, two bags of Ryeland in their final rinse, kitchen tidied, dinner in slow cooker so I deserve a break for a few mins.I have my Sunday YouTube vid to watch now. During lockdown I followed quite a few knitters and crossstitchers on YT, I now only regularly watch one channel. MommalovesyouGB mainly because I like her presentation style, she's a teacher in real life and she has an interest in historical samplers especially welsh ones.

Next, whilst watching the vid, I start plying the two bobbins of Shetland that were spun on my nano during the week.

and make a skein using my niddy noddy before giving it a good wash.

The big question now is do I comb fibre or spin for the next hour ? I think I'll comb the remainder of the Ryeland  which I washed a few days ago. That will give me an empty pillow case for the fleece that is on the line. Its turned into a windy and sunny day so I'm hopeful of getting things dry.

I managed to get the Shetland washed and dried, 60 gm , lovely and soft, destined to be part of a hat.

The Jacob is actually really fine, may try it on the nano at knit on Monday.

and the oddments of Ryeland are now combed and on the wheel, sort of :-)

The day finished with a 2 1/2 hour lace chat zoom, I actually got some lace made amongst the chat.

Alas, no knitting was undertaken !

spinning, quick bfl / texel cross update

 Much of my spinning recently has been on the Nano but the Ashford E-spinner has been in use behind the scenes.

Anyone else had a problem with the foot control? I'm now about to start using my third one !! in six years.

Sill, the dye bag is filling up, ready for a run of reasonable weather.

This is 600 plus gm of the bfl x texel

and this is 200gm border leicester cross and 100gm ish of ryeland sitting in the middle.

I have a lot more washed fleece to work through and hopefully by the beginning of March I will have it all dyed up.

and so it starts.... raw fleece inventory

 I had hoped to get much more fleece washed but its been a lousy summer and when the weather has been good we were generally at the other end of the country!.

I will still wash over the winter if we get some sunny windy days but otherwise the fleece list will stay pretty much the same for the time being.

So ( mainly for my records) the outhouse currently contains a black box of oddments and the following.

Saxony merino   1/2 fleece, more about this in the next post.

bfl/texel    part fleece, a little less than 1/2

jacob 'scrumpy' full fleece

jacob 'okey'  part fleece

ryeland (white) 1-2 fleece

Border leicester cross 1-2 fleece

Shetland  assortment small amounts

Bowmont  about 400 gm

grey romney 3/4 fleece

small bag alpaca

I've seen longer lists over the years !

Indoor fleece washed fleece stash currently unlisted but amount to several pillowcases full waiting to be carded or combed.

The general plan is to process and spin these before bringing more into the workroom.

TDF Day 21 and 22, over and out !

 I've spent the last two days washing yarn, dying yarn, labelling yarn as well as finishing my knitting. 

Result is that I declare 2024 TDF well and truly over for me. All bobbins empty and fibre bags waiting to be refilled .

Its been fun but I need to pick up my lace making and embroidery for a few days.

Thanks to everyone who has commented either here or on Facebook, blog posts will return to the usual weekly round up.

Days 18 & 19 busy, busy, busy

 Hi, I've been busy over the last couple of days, some spinning has occurred on both days.

The bowmont on the Nano yesterday and some more LLeyn on the Ashford today.

Have you ever been asked for handspun yarn that looks handspun? Yep, apparently mine can be too consistant for people looking for 'proper' hand spun . So I'm spinning a couple of hundred grams at lightning speed as a result.

I find I can spin thick , thin, whatever but being asked to leave in the lumps, bumps and vegetation really stumps me.

I have also been washing fleece and even picking up random fleece from doorsteps. long story, but one of the two looks really nice.

                                                  larger bag is ryeland, the other is north country mule

TDF Day 17 Is this shetland worth saving and wash day.

 As the sun briefly made an appearance I decided to get all the TDF spinning washed and on the line, three of the skeins had a detour via the dyepot.

Once dry I bought them in and here they are showing just how much difference washing yarn can make to the original yardage. They are all hanging from a pole across a bookcase and all the skeins were made on my Amish style swift on the same settings.

The blue skeins are LLeyn, the green is NCM, the four cream ones are Ryeland, the white one is bowmont and the black at the end is the wensleydale cross. You can see a very dramatic difference in length between the green and the cream ones.

This is the Shetland that I'm not sure whether to rescue, It was purchased by a friend in 2019 and passed on to me around 2021 as he felt that he wasn't going to bother with it. I've washed some of it, it looks like it has a natural break/rise in places and may need another wash depending on how sticky it is.

After washing, look at those curls, I think that this may take some time to process :-)

I'm going to comb some then spin a sample to see what I think.

Verdict, spins up soft but a lot of effort for a little fibre, one for the 'life's too short' pile I'm afraid.

TDF Day 7, short and sweet

 Quickie post today, yesterday (day 7) was a spinning day, the last of the prepared Ryeland is now spun making the Ryeland total so far 400gm ish.

I took my Nano to knit and natter and finished the 25 ish gm of Bowmont. I have another knitting group later today which I rarely get chance to show my face at and will take either the Nano or my knitting. Depends on how I feel and if its raining I may not bother fighting my way into town.

Last night I settled down with the scrappy shawl, this is all oddments of Shetland spun on the Nano and left over from other projects.

last night I sorted through the bag of the Lleyn cross, this is the last of the fleece from last year. Again around 400 gm to spin.

Back to the spinning wheel :-)