TDF countdown is on :-) 6-5-4-3-2-1

Hi

I hope you have all had a good week ? The weather here has not been kind so very little fleece washing has taken place. This means I am welcoming this weeks forecast of sunshine and reasonable temperatures.

My plans for last week really went out of the window around the middle of the week, all was going fine until I realized that something was going on with my eyesight and promptly phoned my optician. After a full exam it appears that it isn't as serious as first though and should clear up but I've been told not to bungee jump and I have some new glasses on order ( I was due to upgrade just as lockdown started) Not really new glasses, more new lens into old frames due to there being a shortage of frames at my opticians.

I did receive a parcel at the beginning of the week.

containing ..

Yep, a really small fleece !! this had been added to my order simply to make the weight up as the postage came in as more than the fleece cost!

This is the main fleece, slightly dark and still to be unwrapped, hopefully it will be as soft as the first one although processing the first one is a little tedious due to a break/natural rise in the locks.

However the results are definitely spinnable ...

I have also finally got round to picking up my knitting and have finished a very rustic looking pair of mitts and I'm well on the way with knitting a hat Both items are being knit with the bfl/swaledale fleece.

my early morning work desk, yep coffee is still hot .

In other news, we have started to clean the inside and outside of the camper ready for use although she will probably be serviced before we stay in her overnight. However it was really good to get back in even if just for 50 miles to check all was well.

That's about it for this week, take care, stay safe xx

did I say no more fleece?

Hi, I had decided that I had enough fleece fot the time being but fate had other ideas. Firstly my mate Pete popped round with a Kent Romney that he had been storing for himself but has now decided that he won't get round to spinning it due to having so many other good fleeces. Then I won £25 in fleece vouchers from my usual supplier so I'm waiting for a nice coloured ryeland to be shorn and finally I spotted manx Loughton fleece for sale and couldn't resist the colour :-)

Whilst I'm waiting on the Manx, I've made a start on the Romney. It really doesn't look very promising in the bag, blue marker on it, needs a bit more skirting and the lanolin looks like it may have set. I will post washed pics once it's out of the bucket.

Edited to add post wash pic

certainly an improvement.

I've finished the Shetland, about 60 gm or so, it's on the line at the moment having had a soak earlier.

                         edit, now washed and dry, also in pic is BFL/Swaledale.

Going through the fleece stash, I found a bag of Shetland x Romney which has been hanging around for a while. Nice fleece but the natural rise means that you have to pull off the last inch or so of each lock which makes processing a fiddly job. However, I had a play with one of my spindles and it does spin up nicely so I may keep it as a spindle project to chip away at over the summer.

That's about it for this week, housework and baking took up the rest of my time :-) Next week looks like it will be mask making, we have some disposable ones but I will make a few more washable ones so we have a good supply as it looks like they will be needed more over the next few months especially as we now need them on public transport etc. It would be good to have a few extra just in case anyone gets desperate for one.

Take care, safe soon, more chat next weekend xx

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