Tour de Fleece day sixteen, a day of contrasts

I've been spinning in-between visiting a couple of craft fairs today. First up was plying the White face woodland bobbins and getting the skein on the line to dry.

                          nice and squishy, ready to be measured and labelled later in the week.

Then I started on some Romney, 50 gram so far today, definitely a much finer spin so we will see what we get once the remainder is spun and plied.

Between the craft fairs I spent an hour or so on the Argonaut and Pete's Fibre Studio bobbin no 2

Then when I returned home I grabbed some of the World of wool carded fibres and quickly spun 25gm not really worrying about the texture, thickness etc.

All in all, not a bad day :-)

Tour de Fleece day fifteen and a big chunk of iron

 First we have todays spinning, I've plied and washed the Shetland, it is lovely and soft and I'm pleased with it.

I also spun 100 or so gram of white face woodland, a really quick, rustic spin which will be popped in the dyepot at some point and probably become a hat.

In the middle of the day we headed over to Bennerley Viaduct otherwise known as the iron giant. This viaduct has been saved from demolition and now serves as a walkway within the area which will become a country park. As today was the opening of the Visitor centre, we thought that we would pop down and have a look at it.

Not the easiest thing to photograph with so many people around, we have decided that we will go back mid week sometime and take a closer look.

Tour de fleece day fourteen and week two round up.

 Somehow its already the end of week two, how did that happen? Today I've been rewinding and labelling skeins from this week now they are dry.

The good news is that the kitchen cupboards are back on the wall in spite of their age and we have some new lighting as well.

This weeks spinning, three texel skeins and one zwartblexwensleydale. I then popped out for coffee and finally finished the first bobbin of the dyed polworth.

and started on the next one, I'm really hoping to finish this before the the tour finishes.

Once how I did a little house work (haha) then finished up spinning the Shetland. This was an oddment so there is around 40gm on each bobbin. This is a useful amount for a hat with another yarn as the background colour.

Plans for tomorrow are a little different but I will try and ply the Shetland if I get time.

Tour de Fleece days twelve and thirteen

 Day twelve was fairly uneventful spinning wise as I wanted catch up with my sampler stitching before the next part drops on Saturday. Just a small amount of ryeland spun on the Ashford.

The next day (Thursday) saw me start the day in Neros, which you have all seen before, spinning on the Argonaut. I have bought a smaller phone charger to save weight and I'm just seeing how long it lasts. The one that I've been using lasts for a week or so but is fairly heavy.

I've nearly finished the first bobbin of this fibre from Pete's Fibre Studio and I'm impressed with how easy it is to spin.

After the compulsory morning coffee I jumped on the tram to Hucknall. I had intended to take photos but my camera battery was dead when I picked it up this morning so we will have to make do with the phone camera today. Not my favourite choice.

I scoured the charity shops, looked at the church and decided that I need to return on a Saturday when the church will be open and the market will be on.

I finally stopped for a cuppa at Mrs C's Vintage Tea Room although this nearly didn't happen as they are cash only and I only had a handful of change on me but a managed enough for a cup of tea, This was one of the friendliest cafes that I've been in recently and will definitely go back.

I will return to Hucknall with my camera as a few things caught my eye as I walked around the town.

Soed Idee Jubileum week twenty eight

 This week we are continuing with the darning patterns and I have made a mental note to myself to start charting out the location names for our next break as I suspect some will need a bit of fiddling to fit.

I finished the stitch today in a favourite cafe in Sherwood and started it in St Peters cafe in Nottingham. I'm thinking of doing occasional posts on where I end up with my bus pass now I can stray outside the city limits without having to work out how much it will cost.

Tour de Fleece days ten and eleven

 Very quick update today as I've been super busy sorting out the crates of stuff stashed in the house, I did take my wheel to the knit group  but forgot to take any photos . I did, however, spin up the remainder of the wensleydale x zartble and another 100gm of texel. Both skeins have now been plied and washed.

Tour de Fleece days eight and nine.

 Its been a busy weekend so I've rolled both days spinning into one post. We have had to empty the camper ready for its service/mot/hab check so now I don't just have a lounge full of the kitchen contents but a spare bedroom full of the van contents as well

Fortunately I've got away (so far) with just one box of stuff in my workroom so at least I can still retreat here when needed.

I've also started on the list of replacing bits and pieces that have come to the end of their life, the kettle that won't stay open when filling, the buckets with broken handles etc.

Anyway, back to the spinning.

Saturday, 50 gm wensleydale x zwartble, lovely dark brown fibre that  I have used many times in my knitting. I think that this is the last of the fleece that I bought a couple of years ago.

I escaped for a couple of hours in the afternoon, grabbed a coffee at the castle and spun an unknown amount of an unknown fibre.

Today I've had a routine of spin a bobbin then spend time cleaning out a kitchen cupboard which resulted in another 200 gm of the never ending texel.

Hopefully I'll get this washed and on the line tomorrow before I head out to knit group.

Tour de Fleece day seven, 2026 and first week round up.

 We almost have a kitchen, they have been able to refit the original cupboards saving us the cost of a new kitchen which we really didn't want to shoulder at this point. The electrician is due on Monday to fix the new light fittings then I will thoroughly clean the walls and cupboards and see how it looks. To be honest it looks better than it was originally and the insurance has covered the cost.

This means that I carried on spinning this morning.

So we now have another 100gm texel to add to yesterdays spin.

I then decuided to take advantage of the warm weather and washed the weeks spinning, popped out for a quick coffee with my argonaut then set about labelling the skeins.

this is coming to the end of the first 50gm of Petes dyed fibres.

This weeks spinning, 300gm texel, 200gm ryeland and 3 small skeins of various wools.

Tour de Fleece day six, 2026

 A day without builders as they are waiting for the plaster to dry and we were out this afternoon at a prior engagement.  Its getting warm again so we opted to stay inside and catch up with odd jobs so I caught up on the spinning.

Second bobbin of Ryeland spun and plyed BTW these are 200gm bobbins

Second bobbin of orange world of wool fibre spun, slightly better result obtained from spinning on the e-spinner compared to the green fibre spun on the louet.

Plied  pic is a closer colour match, colour name orange marmalade.

I also managed an easy spin of 100gm texel split across two bobbins, not plied yet as I may do another couple tomorrow and mix the bobbins ie ply 1 with 3 and 2 with 4.

All in all a productive morning and evening, the builders are back tomorrow so I may get chance to spin some more and then wash week ones yarn in the evening. I'm hoping to get out and about next week  but it depends on whether the work is finished because I then have the task of trying to fit everything back in the cupboards.

Soed Idee Jubileum week twenty seven

 In amongst all the spinning madness of Tour de Fleece I still found time to stitch part 27. This time it's what we would call darning patterns and they were hard work!

Tour de Fleece day five, 2026

 The builders are still with us, this morning they plastered the new ceiling and we are now waiting on the decorators to come in and paint it. As a result I  had plenty of spinning time so 50gm of Ryeland destined to be a four ply weight.

50gm of world of wool carded wool, not sure what this will be.

Once they had finished I headed out to a favourite book shop cafe in town and spent around 1 1/2 hours more on the braid from Pete.

I now have to wipe down the kitchen again before thinking about dinner, I may spin a little more later or fall asleep as its hot again.

Tour de Fleece day four, 2026

 Today has been another wait in and hang around with the builders and fencing contractors (for next door) turning up. The kitchen now has a plaster board ceiling, no cupboards or lights.

First job was to finish a headband that's been in progress for a while. I still need to darn in the ends and give it  block but it looks ok

Next I dug out around 50gm of  white faced woodland that I popped in a dye bath a couple of weeks ago along with some texel.

Later I got the louet out and finished up the World of Wool carded wool, very neppy but It did spin up ok in the end.

Both of these are now ready to go in the wash at the weekend.

I have a few more oddments to spin alongside the regular 100gm bags that I have made up. I'm thinking something naturally dark next.

No posh coffee today, maybe later in the week, I have plans to travel around a bit more next week although it may depend on how long it takes me to sort out the kitchen once they have finished, all of this is due to a plastic waste pipe resting on a metal hot water pipe and slowly melting over time.

Tour de Fleece day three, 2026

Not a very productive day due to have to clear out the kitchen so that the builders could access ceiling but I tried . This is going to be the case over the next few days.

We now have 100gm plyed Ryeland making a total of 200gm of fibre finished so far.

The builders finished early as they are now waiting for the electrician before they can go any further so I escaped to Costa for an hour and treated myself to a free drink ( I've been saving drinks on all the apps )

Of course, I took a wheel with me, this is the progress on the Polworth from Petes Fibre Studio.

As for the kitchen, this is where we are at now. We are hoping that the cupboards will survive to be put back on the walls as we don't want to have to replace them.

The problem has been caused by a water leak ( now fixed) which has left the ceiling damaged.