Le Tour de France kicked off on July 2nd and, in what has become an annual event for spinners across the world, so did the Tour de Fleece. Much like the Knitting World Cup, Knitting Olympics and the Knitting Winter Olympics, you set yourself a goal and try to complete it by the end of the event. So not only do you have something to pass the time while you tune in, you have something to talk about at the end of the day when you’re too knackered out to do any more knitting/crocheting/spinning!
On my last spinning kick, I managed to spin up what I thought was my entire fibre stash. When I returned from Italy and got stuck into spring cleaning (past tense? I sprung cleaned? let me know), I found a truly gigantic bag of undyed mystery fibre at the back of my wardrobe. It is 575g of dark cream deliciously soft roving with an average staple length of about two inches. I don’t know anything worth mentioning about sheep breeds so answers on a postcard, I guess!
I filled up a bobbin between last night and this morning. I suppose I might as well confess that I wasn’t watching the Tour but I don’t think it really affected my output. But who knows? The only way to find out is to do the same again today while watching. TG4 has untiring and often amusing coverage go h-iomlán BEO – those guys really know their stuff and use wonderful language like ‘rothar galánta’.
But I digress. My plan is to try and extract a 2-ply double knit weight, hopefully enough for a short cardigan. To aid in the eking-out process, I have this:
‘Marvellous’ doesn’t come close, people. It is May’s installment from Laura Hogan‘s batt club (psst! she’s got a 15% discount sale on for the Tour!). There is about 100g altogether which, if spun similarly, should help me if I use it for a colourwork yoke. See? I have a plan.
I also have a plan B. Yeah, I haven’t been practising so much recently.
I have no idea what it is because I lost the label. I know it too came from Laura and that it contains soya and probably merino. I am also unsure how I can make it my plan B but I think I will figure that out if and when I need to.
Now, definitely time for a mug of tea. Thanks so much everyone for all your warm wishes and congratulations! It is turning out to be a lot more fun than we expected it to be 🙂
Rothar galánta?! Must check out this commentary.
Love the idea of spinning enough for a garment – maybe it’s in my future! Anyhoo, you do it first and I’ll see how you go ;p
Looking Great Aileen – im spinning on an ashford joy aswell these days 😉