end of the Tour de Fleece

Another year, another TDF grinds to the finish. Three weeks including a Music Festival, Nottingham Pride and a camping weekend.

Just over 500 gram of yarn awaiting a soak... typically today is wet and windy so it will have to wait until we have another warm sunny day.

Empty bobbins and spindle... except for one bobbin that I've just spotted as I type this. Just an ounce or so of brown ryland which  had forgotten about.

The spinning will continue as I need yarn to take on a road trip later this year when there will be plenty of knitting time.

It's been a fun 3 weeks, I've enjoyed seeing all the spinning in the Facebook groups and its given me time to bond a little more with my Louet Victoria.

Next job is to sort out the workroom and start to gather up the camping gear which is still scattered around the house.

Speak Soon xx

Tuesday/Wednesday..the end is in sight

The days are starting to merge into one, at least as far as the spinning is concerned ! Tuesday morning gave me chance to spin at the wheel and again this morning so I am nearly at the end of the 1st bag of Jacob /Texel.

 Earlier today I had to travel to a nearby town for an appointment so I took the spindle and managed a bit more between answering questions as to what I was doing.

I also found time to skein up the three bobbins from the first week ( when I was on leave) and will give these a soak tomorrow morning. The top two are Jacob, the bottom is Ryland although very similar in colour.

and that's about it from me for today, I'm thinking that an early night would be in order plus I'm back at work again tomorrow. I can't really spin on the wheel at night because it has a rattle and I'm not really sure where its coming from but I suspect it may just be a noisy bobbin.

Oh, I managed to get filmed at the weekend! a full 2 second or so of me spinning appears at the beginning of the Yewstock 2018 video but it does appear to only be available on Facebook.

post festival blues

..and a good night was had by all, especially the van near us !

Packing, getting home, emptying the van as it has a service and hab check due next month meant that by the time we got back,drink , food and sleep was the order of the day.

I managed about 5gm on the spindle, didn't photo it and crashed out :-)

I now can't get to my wheel as its surrounded by sleeping bags, cables, hoses, chairs and all the stuff that is normally kept in the van full time.

So Monday evening was spindle spinning, good practice for me and its now looking pretty :-)

I think this is all I had strength for anyway, a trying day at work and on the way home a car crashed into the bus and managed to get wedged there! we had to all get off and wait for the next bus which was now stuck behind this one unable to move. No one was hurt but I think the car driver felt a little foolish for trying to nip round the bus.

TDF day 13 -15 I think

This is spinning for Thursday 12 - Saturday 14

As I was busy packing for a festival on Thursday evening, the amount of progress made on the Jacob Texel was minimum but I did spin :-)

By 6pm on Friday we were on the road again, this time heading for Yewstock over near Stoke on Trent. This is a new one to us but we thought that we would take a chance and really its a good excuse for a relatively cheap weekend away.

Being in the van means spindle spinning on the way there and whilst we still had some daylight, this is some Charollais top dyed by Velvet sixpence which I bought last year with the intention of saving for a longer road trip so it may become an ongoing project.

 Saturday morning I was up bright and early so crept outside to take a couple of photos and then set up my wheel for some peaceful spinning on the site. We were quite lucky that we were able to park almost on the brow of this hill, you can't even see the vans and cars parked at the bottom !

My idea of heaven, spinning wheel, headphone and my phone or tablet with radio programs downloaded on it.

 Whilst it was quiet I took my wheel into the festival, got a few strange looks. Quote of the weekend was "ooh, you're spinning ! I thought it was a homemade fan to keep you cool" and she was quite serious :-) The local film maker for the festival also had a field day filming me spinning from every angle so I'll let you know if it ever appears !

This was a small pub based festival, mainly locals and 100 or so people camping. The bands were good, especially one called the Hedge Gods so I looked them up on you tube..

All in all a good weekend with the added bonus of some serious spinning on Saturday

I hope to do some spinning today (Sunday) will update again real soon xx

what day are we on?

I think this is day 12??

I'm losing count, however this is my Wednesday spinning, I gave up on the ryland as I really needed something that would spin easily and without too much effort last night.

I settled for what I hope :-) is the last of the Jacob /texel. This has been a fun fleece to spin but it was huge!!

Good progress and a good shade to include in my fair isle knitting. I'm packing some Jacob with my travel wheel ready for the weekend as I hope to grab an hour or two to sit and listen to music and spin outside.

TDF day 10 & 11, back to the day job

Hi,

Annual leave is over so my spinning time is GREATLY diminished, today's effort is a bit of Ryland.

and to distract you all from the lack of spinning, here is my go to wheel...

for some reason I always get strange looks at some spinning meets, and smiles from children.

Update, todays (day11|) spinning, spent most of my free time setting up new internet hub and now too tired to really do anything.

TDF day 7,8,9

Hi

I always knew that this would be a minimal spinning weekend as we had arranged to take the van over to a campsite near Leyburn, Yorkshire Dales so we could meet up with some friends who were attending a motorcycle rally there.

I will start with a photo of the amount I spun over the three days....

Now this is the first time that I've really got to grips with this little Turkish spindle and I think I may take it on holiday later in the year as I found that I can spin on it whilst travelling in the van.

Anyway, back to the trip. We booked a couple of nights on the campsite and walked from there up into leyburn on Friday night for a pint. I still have problems with my foot/ankle /leg so the 3 mile round trip was a challenge but I made it although I was pretty sore by the time we got back.

I had a rude awakening at around 4am by what sounded like a peacock!! well I really thought I had dreamt it until a young girl walked past later waving a peacock feather around.

Started the day with some spinning, breakfast and a look round the site.

The site itself is located in a former quarry, a little bit weird as you have to go up a hill to get in then slowly work your way down the different levels looking for a pitch. We ended up at the bottom alongside the Wensleydale railway which, unfortunately, wasn't running steam this weekend.

There is still evidence of the limestone quarry as the remains of the kilns are still standing.

This campsite also has more wildlife that any other visited so far, ducks, moorhens, bats , rabbits, squirrels, hedgehogs and YES the peacock!

It was back into leyburn later on the Saturday ( on crutches this time) to catch up with the gossip after a brief stop off at the railway.

and before we left this morning, Ian found a present from the peacock.

All together it was a really good weekend, a little warm but we shouldn't really complain about that ! Just a little sad that we had to head back home so soon.

TDF day 6

Hi

Day six already, sadly this means that I'm back at work next week and my spinning time will be very limited.

Good progress on the Jacob, I finished the second bobbin and plyed the yarn, a bit of yarn chicken but I got pretty much all of it on the bobbins.

So thats 3 bobbins of plyed yarn so far, two Jacob (see above) and one Ryland

This weekend is going to involve little spinning but some motorbikes and pubs so the next update will probably be Sunday/Monday.

have fun :-)

TDF day 5...sorting out the portable version

Up to now I'm spinning everyday on my wheel/wheels which is good for me and keeps the yarn production going.

But I need spinning that is portable as I will be away on Saturday without a wheel so a spindle would be good.

I had a quick practise last night so I guess this spinning is day 4 :-) combed southdown which is actually destined for the wheel. I still can't make up my mind on which spindle to use. Definitely not the big one as I'm washing some Shetland that is quite fine. Maybe the smaller one which is 17 gram or I may raid the collection for something sized a bit in-between these two.

I have a couple of Russian spindles that I would like to master to use in the van, maybe I'll dig them out as well,

The Shetland washed up well and I'm playing with it on the small spindle.

I also spun maybe 3/4  of a bag of Jacob this afternoon.

more tomorrow x

TDF day 4, quick update

Hi, I finished and plyed the ryeland, next up? not really sure.. maybe a lucky dip :-)

Since the weather is still good I thought I would at least have a look at my purchases from the weekend although I doubt that I will get chance to wash them.

The ouessant fleece...

Shetland #1

Shetland #2

TDF day 3, they came to take down the fence.

Remember the ryeland that  grabbed me yesterday? It's nearly all on two bobbins, just a little to finish tomorrow morning. I stayed up last night making lots of little nests and ended up with 84gm of nice fibre from the 200gm bag. I know that doesn't sound like much but there is always more rubbish with combing because it gets the rubbish out ( if you know what I mean) and its such a nice fibre prep that spins really easily and works with my fair isle knitting.

For anyone who is new to my blog, this is why I like natural coloured fleece. I hope this explains my obsession with British fleece.

The reason why I'm off work this week is that the fencing men are due to replace our garden fence, it was to be today but the late delivery of fencing panels means that it will now start tomorrow. This has unfortunately put a stop to my plan to wash the fleece purchased at the weekend :-( I usually put it on the clothes airer in the middle of the lawn but the remains of a tree have stopped that and I really don't want the men to be wearing the fleece by the end of the day!