Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Tour de Fleece?

Many of my "fibery friends" that spin their own yarn like to participate in the annual "Tour de Fleece", an event that mirrors the Tour de France. Each spinner is to set a goal, something challenging, and to focus on that goal throughout the time of the tour. Well, I'm not that focused and my time has been a bit scattered recently since we're taking a "staycation" this year and I'm working around the entire family's schedules. So, my goal was simply to do more spinning.
I've discovered that I really enjoy "spinning outside the box", (ie. art yarns), so that's what I've been doing. I've discovered Wensleydale fleece, love it! The funnest thing is spinning it completely raw, I love the way it forms little loops and has such gorgeous, lustrous texture.
Unfortunately, I'm having trouble downloading photos of my favorite yarn from my camera and the best pictures are on there. With the oppressing heat continuing, it's looking like I'll be spending more time in my comfy studio spinning!
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9 comments:

Kaylen said...

So beautiful, Lindy!

pinkundine said...

Love your art yarns :) The colours look great and I like the little loopd! I'd love to see what it looks like knit up too :)

WonderWhyGal said...

Gorgeous yarns! I love how you can see some of the locks sneaking out of the yarn's twist. I have made a few yarns like this but yet to knit with them...they always sell before I get a chance. Have a wonderful staycation.

Lindy and Paul said...

Thanks Kaylen and Andrea, same thing keeps happening to me! (Always seems to sell before I can do something with it!) I have used a little in felting to good effect.

Melissa Plank said...

Your spinning is gorgeous!!! Your pictures are great, you have a real flair!

Voie de Vie said...

These yarns are wonderful! Can't wait to see what you make with them.

AllyB said...

I like how the crimp is still showing in that first photo. Very interesting yarn. Do you have a project in mind for it?

Heather Woollove said...

Oh, how I love this yarn!! I'm super new to spinning with a drop spindle and I've been planning to try spinning with RAW locks (this weather has not been conducive!!).
All of the yarn I've made has been extremely overspun, but I'm not good about combing out the cleaned locks first, either. Is combing the trick to using locks, or are there other things you do to make it look so amazing? Any tips would be greatly appreciated (here or at woollove-fiberart(at)hotmail(dot)com. Thanks!!

Lindy and Paul said...

Thanks everyone for the nice comments! I'm going to blog about the process in better detail in the next day or two, showing how I spin from the raw (but washed) and sometimes dyed fleece. Overspinning is very common for new spinners. I hope to photograph and explain the process as you always do so nicely in your blog, Heather!