TDF - homework and training

Hi,

First a note to anyone who doesn't spin or knit. This blog may get a little boring for you over the next couple of months.

For everyone else.....

The TDF prep continues but the weather has turned and I'm waiting for it to get dry again before washing any more fleece. I did manage to wash the Jacob and most of the zwartbles last week and spun a sample of each to see how they behave.

It's looking promising :-) the zwartbles is soft and very dark so will be useful in my fairisle knitting when I pick that up again. the same with the Jacob which, as you can see, is a very light grey.

I spun up a couple of skeins of the BFL/Swaledale mule and they are waiting for a wash and soak.

Both skeins are around 115 g and will probably be dyed over the summer so that I have some nice and easy hat/mitten knitting for when we are away. If the campsites reopen and things have settled down , we plan to get back in the van for some more adventures.

On the wheel is the last of the dark Shetland, at least I think it's the last ! Every time I get to the end of a bag I discover another :-)

In the evenings I have been prepping fibre for the start of the TDF, so far Jacob, Shetland, Portland, Balwen x texel . I'm trying to have a around 120g of each prepared either on the combs or the drum carder. I don't have a specific amount as a target for the TDF, I'm just aiming to spin every day.

Other than that I've been busy with housework and starting to sift through years of accumulated work related stuff that I need to shred, maybe not a huge amount but enough to keep me busy for a while. I'm still baking, still losing the odd pound in weight, still binge watching stuff whilst spinning etc.

My terrible mandolin playing is probably driving the neighbours crazy! but check out the handwoven strap :-) and ignore the background of bags of fleece.

 And I may have found out why we no longer get many birds in the garden, someone thinks he's found a new dinner table.

That's about it for this weeks round up, take care everyone, speak soon xx

Its June and time to prepare !! Tour de Fleece is getting closer.

Even though things are a little different this year and the Tour de France has been cancelled, the Tour de Fleece , a major spinning event in my calendar is still going ahead.

Never heard of it? the event is open to all spinners no matter how experienced and is hosted on Ravelry. These days many facebook groups also take part. Challenges are set for those who want to push themselves, rest days for those who want to take a breather. The usually starts and finishes on the Tour de France dates and many spinners watch the race whilst spinning. A major difference this year is that the event will have two parts as it will resume when the postponed Tour de France takes place in September ( obviously this may still change)

 Many spinners set their own challenge, anything from spin every day, learn and master a new technique to spinning  a large quantity for a jumper.

This year the dates are 27 June through to 19 July so a 3 week period of spinning every day for me. Historically I have spun at festivals for at least two of these weekend so this year will be different. I may have to challenge myself as to where to spin that I can reach on foot from where I live. The drop spindles may have to get some exercise.

                                                         TDF spinning 2019

I first took part in this in 2010 !! you can find posts for the previouse events here , some years I was very productive as you can see. Looking back, it looks like although I did spin last year. I didn't document it, In fact I didn't post much on this blog last year for various reasons.

So, what am I doing at the moment? I'm getting prepared, washing fleece, prepping fleece, emptying bobbins of oddments that have been hanging around, still spinning some bits as I go. I intend to document everyday during TDF, we will see how that goes :-)

Garden prep station 

Two more bags of fleece arrived this week and I suspect that these may be the last for the time being. Not whole fleeces just a kilo or so of a nice zwartbles and 500 gm Jacob which makes up an order that was dispatched incorrectly.

I have prepped around 200gm of the BFL cross purchased a couple of weeks ago and will probably spin it up over the coming week

.

All of this helps build my stock of yarn up for knitting and the occasional sale, plus keeps me out of trouble ( apparently)

days merge together....

Hi,

I've just spent the last 30 min fighting with my phone, trying to upload photos to my desktop to put into this post. Sometimes I really wonder why I bother.

This week has been pretty much the same, the number of people  I've spoken to since the end of March ( in person) is now six as a friend dropped off another fleece this morning which will probably feature in next weeks post.

Lace - I'm on the last row so will finish it tomorrow and post a photo next time.

knitting - not a stitch !

spinning- two skeins, one Jacob and one balwen/texel which is actually dyed grey/blue.

I did think that I was having problems with my dyes but this time a popped it in the slowcooker. The skein was bound in four places with a commercial 100% wool yarn which took the colour a lot better than the handspun. I've come to the conclusion that this particular fleece is simply not good at taking colour.

The bfl/swaledale is currently on the line so again I will update next week.

Sewing - as we are hoping that the campsites will open up in July I've decided to make some masks. These are just incase the advice changes or we encounter a shop etc that insists on them. I have quite a stash of cotton fabric so I've sewn three so far, simple double layers so they can be thrown into the wash when they have been used.

I've also started to tidy my work room, yep, I can now see the desk! and I took a photo to send to my mum to prove that I'm surviving lockdown :-)

I plan to have more to blog by next weekend (fingers crossed)  so will speak soon xx

Maybe I'm older than I thought I was?

I mean, I'm not old enough to retire, am I?

NO, I'm young enough to explore my options and talents :-) seriously, first day of official  retirement from my job and thanks to the current situation I've already been off work for 8 weeks or so. 

I've lost nearly a stone, feel loads better, moving easier and also found that that things that are important to me don't actually cost much .

The final festival that we have booked for this year was cancelled last night, we have a campsite booked in August which we are hopeful about as its attached to a large country park so plenty of space to walk around.

So, last week, what did I do ?

Lace making.

I'm very nearly at the bottom of the bookmark, I've not been working on this much as I had a fleece delivery that needed my attention.

Spinning.

I know I said that I had to use what I had but another 4 black bags arrived and after sorting very strictly I was left with these. Ian kindly picked them up fresh from the farm costing £2 each ! I don't like buying without seeing but it was worth taking a chance for this price.

Blue face Leicester x swaledale

Balwen x texel

2 x balwen

The two white ones are really nice, the brown ones are iffy but I will get something from them hopefully. Really not bad for the money !

Last weeks spun yarn.

two more ryeland, the coloured one is the balwen/texel

Each skein is 115-120 gm

Baking

scones, Scottish oatcakes

Ginger cake, very similar to Lyons in taste and definitely improves after a day or two. Sticky fingers :-)

 !

Flowers

this is two bunches of flowers, one from my workplace and one from my  manager who retired herself last year, I only have one vase !

Warmer Weather

Hi,

The much wished for warmer weather arrives and stayed for 3 days, so the buckets were out and I managed to wash the rest of the Ryeland, the remainder of the Portland ( not on last weeks list as it was hiding) half the Cheviot and a sample of one of the unknown white fleeces.

This is going to keep me busy for a while, as these are all white fleeces I will probably dye the yarn and knit basic hats from it and maybe some mitts.

This weeks spinning was 3 skeins of Ryeland.

To be honest, that's about that. I maybe made around 1/2 inch of lace, started to read a book, baked some biscuits and cake, and a little housework.

I'll try and find something more interesting for next week :-)

ticking off the jobs

Hi

How are you? we are still in lockdown although there is talk of starting to lift it which really won't change things much for me as I'm supposed to stay in etc for 12 weeks.

This last week has been the usual mix of housework and hobbies but the weather has not been so good, a few cold days or maybe its just me. We had some really warm weather a couple of weeks ago and I hope it returns soon.

I now have a tick list of chores that need to be done daily/weekly etc , it also includes spinning, mandolin practise etc simply to I can see that its not all work.

I did manage to wash some fleece, a lovely Ryeland Shearling that I had forgotten about and I have around 300gm ready to spin and more to wash this week ( the forecast is better)

I spun up just over 100gm of Shetland (need washing), spinning is getting faster using the e Spinner.

I checked outside and I have 10 bags of fleece waiting to be washed, all full/part fleeces that have been collecting over the last few years. I suspect some may end up in the bin but at the moment the list is Hebridean x Southdown, unknown white, black Cheviot, brown Shetland, white Ryeland, Kerry Hill, white cheviot, Jacob, galway?, and brown unknown that could be a heb cross.

I've made some progress on the lace which I am really enjoying playing with again.

On the more practical side, my favorite crop trousers have decided to give up and pull apart so I've patched them, these are the most comfortable ones that I have and when we were touring round a couple of years ago, these were pretty much all I wore !

That's about it, life really doesn't change much at the moment but we have booked a campsite for a weekend in August, fingers crossed that they reopen by then, so we can check out everything in the van still works ok. Its really strange not to be going away this month, we always go back to the Isle of Skye in May for my birthday and we will miss it big time this year.

Speak soon xx

Still here, at a 2 metre distance.

I think this was week 5? I'm not sure now as the edges are a little blurred. My routine for the morning is established and my afternoons tend to be in my craft room as my other half is usually back home by dinnertime.

I'm still baking but that may have to stop soon unless I find a source of flour, apparently the problem is more to do with the lack of domestic size bags than a shortage of actual flour.

As I'm still officially employed, I have confra calls with the management and on the social side I'm enjoying social video calls with other spinners.

My spinning mojo comes and goes along with everything else so this week I blended a remnant of dyed top with some Ryeland shearling fleece and spun up around 100gm, looks good. I finally got round to washing all the recent handspun and labelled it up.

This bag is all the skeins that are 100gm or just over. I have a couple of big squidgy skeins of Shetland that are 150gm which are waiting until I start the next bag.

My swift was temporarily re-purposed as a bobbin stand and I've started some more lace.

That is pretty much that for the time being, not terribly productive but that doesn't really matter :-)

4 weeks in...

HI

First, I apologise to anyone who tried to read my last post as the photos weren't showing, no idea why !

This weeks main achievement has been finding out how to use zoom which has given me chance to speak to my local knitting group and meet some spinners . We are also both very grateful to all the musicians who have been proving live performances from their homes, great music and an insight into their lives.

Now for the weekly round up of craft work, not a huge amount to show though.

Knitting...none
lacemaking...none

Spinning, yep, I've been prepping fibres and spinning some up.

Cheviot, Suffolk and the mixed fibres from John Arbon in the middle. All are now waiting for a wash on a hot sunny day :-)

I'm currently working on some Shetland which I will hopefully be spinning during the week.

The rest of the time I've been baking, tackling the housework and spending some time with Ian between his unsocial shifts. I also seem to be thinking a lot about long term projects, whether any will become a reality will remain to be seem.

Take care and I'll check in next Sunday.

Another weekly update

Hi,

I seem to have a problem giving myself permission to craft ! Being at home all the time still seems to mean constant housework at the moment, once things are a little more organised it shouldn't be so bad.

 My plans to spend time clearing out the house have been put on hold due to charity shops and local tips  being closed for the time being.

I intend to give myself one task a day then reward myself with some spinning etc. I think the next task will be sorting out the linen cupboard as |I have a small project in mind that may involve an old sheet.

Anyway, this weeks achievements ( the main reason for continuing with this blog )

Workroom, slightly more organised, at lease I can get across the floor now !

Spinning, one skein of Jacob waiting to be washed and 50gm of mixed fibres currently on the wheel.

Lacemaking, In spite of sharing daily photos of my lace on Instagram in January, its actually been a few year since I really made any lace. I'm starting to reteach myself by working through "an introduction to Bucks Point"
And I treated myself to a flexi light so I can see the pricking ( pattern) without the shadows from the pins.

Mandolin, little and often (15 mins daily) as my finger tips still get quite sore :-) the skin will harden after a while but its been years since I played guitar so it will take some time.

The weather has started to warm up nicely so washing now gets dry and put away the same day! I have been baking most of the week and in spite of this, I have lost weight over the last 3 weeks which has pleasantly surprised me.

Have a great week, stay safe xx