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