Tour de Fleece 2017

Just as the Tour de France begins today, so does the annual Tour de Fleece. If you're a spinner, are you in?

This year, I've joined Team Spindlers and I'll be spinning up the Foxhill Farm Cormo/alpaca that I got at Rhinebeck last fall. My goal is to spin 30 minutes a day (more on challenge days)—I want to spin and/or ply as much of this lovely fiber as I can.  There are 111 grams left after my preliminary spinning/plying/swatching. 

I'm aiming for a fingering weight two-ply, hopefully enough to design and knit a cowl or other neckwear accessory to wear with my Spindler Mitts.

We aren't having an official Blue Peninsula team this year, but a few of us who are participating in the Tour de Fleece have started a discussion thread where we can share our progress, photos, questions, tips, etc. If you're spinning and want some company, feel free to join in. You'll find us here.

P.S. Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian readers! 

New Pattern: Spindler Mitts

Today I'm pleased to share the first design I've created with handspun yarn: the Spindler Mitts. They're now available on Ravelry.

A pretty mix of lace, garter stitch, and stockinette, the Spindler Mitts are just right for small amounts of handspun yarn, or for those partial skeins of fingering weight yarn we all have in our stashes. Using only 125 yards for the small/medium size (140 for the large size), they're a quick knit—perfect for a last-minute Mother's Day gift or for end-of-the-year teacher gifts. (You could get three pairs out of a typical skein of sock yarn!)

For the sample pair, I used Ashland Bay Mixed Bluefaced Leicester, spun and plied with drop spindles (16 wpi). As I mentioned in my last post, I found BFL pleasant to spin and was really excited to see how the 2-ply developed a soft, attractive halo after I blocked the mitts. 

At Rhinebeck last fall, I picked up a bag of Cormo/alpaca fiber from the Foxhill Farm booth. I've started spinning and plying it, with good results. So now I'm pondering design ideas. Maybe a cowl to go with the Spindler Mitts, in time for Rhinebeck 2017? We'll see! Stay tuned here on the blog—or follow me on Instagram—to see how that works out.

Heartfelt thanks go to Jenny Sennott for editing the pattern and Betsey Sennott for modeling. (Another Sennott Sisters production, yay!)

I hope you enjoy the pattern. Thank you very much for reading.

Pretty, Pretty BFL

What a busy month! With Calliopsis just published, a large secret project for a magazine under way, a new sock design in progress, and a new fingerless mitts pattern almost ready to publish, I basically have knitwear design on my mind 24 hours a day.

The mitts—a pretty combination of lace, stockinette, and garter stitch—are my first design with my own handspun yarn.

The fiber is Ashland Bay Mixed BFL Top, which I spun and plied with drop spindles; the resulting two-ply yarn is fingering weight, 16 wpi.

I had about 140 yards to work with. So I weighed the yarn carefully as I knit, making sure I wouldn't run out. In the end, the small/medium size used about 125 yards. There's also a large size, which requires about 140 yards.

I think there will definitely be more BFL in my spinning future! I enjoyed both spinning and knitting it. But what I loved most was how, after a good soak in Eucalan, the fabric developed a really pretty halo. And it's so soft!  A delight to feel against your skin.

My sister Jenny, an accomplished spinner with years of experience (far more than me—I'm still a newbie), says BFL is her current favorite sheep breed because "it is a pleasure to spin and finishes up soft and lustrous, not as fussy or pill-prone as merino." So far, with my limited experience, I'd have to concur.

They're called Spindler Mitts, and I hope to publish them next week. To get news about these and all my new patterns delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for the monthly Blue Peninsula newsletter.

Countdown to the Tour

The Tour de Fleece team in the Ravelry Blue Peninsula group has begun training in earnest: we're busy planning, carding, spinning, plying.  The Tour de Fleece starts on Saturday, July 2 and runs until Sunday, July 24 (with rest days and challenge days, just like the actual Tour de France). We have room for more team members, so if you want to devote more time to your spinning projects during July, come join us!

Spinners of all levels are welcome. Though the main goal of the TDF is to have fun, we've got fiber and yarn prizes too, to add a little extra incentive to post often. The prizes will be awarded randomly for posting (rather than for spinning achievements), to keep things low pressure and give everybody a chance at winning.

Because I have a lot of other projects to keep on schedule, my TDF goal is simple: spin on one of my three drop spindle WIPs for at least 20 minutes every day and—I hope—do some plying as well. I've got some mixed BFL going:

Also some dark chocolate CVM/Romeldale (gifted to me last year by Christine Link of Skeinny Dipping):

And some creamy white Cormo from Foxfire Fiber (some of which I've already plyed and dyed with hickory nuts):

Frankly, I'll be glad to make any amount of progress, even a little, on these. I confess I've been neglecting my spinning for months. Time to remedy that situation!

I also can't wait to see what my fellow team members spin. They are mostly working with more colorful fibers than I am (Three Waters Farm seems to be a particular favorite).

Are you joining the Tour de Fleece this year? If you are, I hope your pre-TDF training is going well. Good luck!

A-Plying Myself

On this last day of the Tour de Fleece, I plan to spin a little of each of my three fibers—mixed BFL, Cormo, and the chocolate brown CVM/Romeldale.

My goal for the TDF was to spin for 15 minutes a day, and I more than met that—in fact, most days I spun for at least a half hour. As a beginner, I simply wanted to get better at spindle spinning, and the daily spinning of the TDF helped a lot.

When I plied some Cormo the other day, I could see real progress—the singles I spun more recently were definitely more even, with fewer slubs. My proudest moment of the TDF came when I posted a photo of the Cormo skein and my sister Jenny—an accomplished spinner on both the wheel and spindle—commented, "A spinner is born!"

So far I've got about 110 yards of plied Cormo. I'm not sure I'll have enough in the end for a Shallows cowl, but there will definitely be enough for the mitts. I'll just keep spinning and see what happens. In the meantime, the 25% off sale on the Shallows cowl, mitts, and set ends at midnight EST tonight.

In other news, the Hulst socks KAL in our Blue Peninsula group on Ravelry ended a few days ago. Many lovely pairs were knit in bright summery colors. I'll share some of the finished socks here later this week.

Have a good Sunday!

Lessons of the Tour de Fleece

OK, I confess—I haven't actually watched the Tour de France. Not having a television or cable (by choice) means I only pick up tour news here and there online.

BUT! Things are spinning around here, nonetheless. The Tour de Fleece has been great fun and productive. Instead of spindling 15 minutes a day, I've mostly been doing 30 minutes or more.

Some things I have learned: As your spindles fill, they get heavier. Which means they are going to topple over if you put them in a small glass jar. I've switched to a heavy ceramic mug filled with rice; no more toppling.

Also: Be patient. Really patient. It is humbling to learn a new skill and be a beginner again. When I see the perfect, beautiful yarns being produced by more experienced spinners on Team Spindlers, I admire them and envy them and want my yarn to be just as fabulous. Maybe it will be, someday. For now, I have to be patient and just keep spinning.

Another lesson: Don't mistake feet for yards. (Seems obvious but not for me, I guess!) My niddy noddy is a foot long, so when I wind my plied yarn onto it, I count the feet as I go. For one glorious morning I was thrilled at how much BFL I had spun—wow, so much! Although I was also a little puzzled—how come it doesn't look like that much? Finally I remembered I needed to divide the number of feet by three to get the number of yards I'd actually produced (a mere 62). 

Yet another lesson: Spinners are generous. My sister Jenny (an expert spinner) has shared spindles, books, a DVD ... not to mention loads of information and good advice every time I ply her with questions on Ravelry (pun intended). Without her, I wouldn't even be doing this.

And thanks to Christine of Skeinny Dipping, I've also started spinning some dark brown CVM/Romeldale. Out of the blue on Instagram, she offered to send me a little. Of course, I said yes! It's springy and gorgeous and I had it on a spindle within minutes of opening the package.

So far I've produced two spindles' worth of mixed BFL and plied that into a 62-yard skein. I also tried dyeing the test skein of BFL I made before the Tour with hickory nuts (saved from last fall). I loved the resulting brown and may end up dyeing all of the BFL yarn the same way.

I've also spun one full spindle of Cormo and wound that off; a second spindle of Cormo is now in progress. 

When I first signed on for the Tour de Fleece, I wondered if I would regret it. Would I have time? Would I enjoy it? But instead, I'm so into it I have to remind myself there are other projects that need my attention (like a couple new designs I look forward to sharing soon). If you're taking part, I'd love to hear about your spinning. What lessons has the Tour de Fleece taught you?

A quick sale reminder: The Tour de Fleece discount on the Shallows cowl, mitts, or set ends July 26. Use the coupon code TDF2015 to save 25% in my Ravelry shop.