Thus far sheepless TDF10 has been less then spectacular. I'm not as driven with the spinning, as my main goal is to spin when the riders ride, and there's been so much high drama during the race, it's not easy to do both! (Like spinning on cobblestones so to speak).
Today is the official start of Tour de Fleece - which is also known as Tour de France (for you non spinner types). This 3 weeks of spinning mania officially starts today with an 8.9 km prologue ride through the streets of Rotterdam and runs daily through til Sunday July 25th. There will be 2 rest days.
This is my second year participating on the TDF Ravelry group. I will work on stashbusting (as I did last year) and my technique - as consistency is not my long suit. I'll be spinning on my Kromsksi Minstrel which currently has a bit of leftover yarn on it - so I'll use today as my test day - ply and skein the leftovers, further fine tuning and greasing the wheel and go for a spin! I'll also make my skein sample reference card which I did last year.
My goal is to work through 210 grams of combed NZ halfbread top from Aurelia Wool & Weaving. The colourway is Victoria Rose Glitter.
If all goes well I plan to gift this to a friend who knit a beautiful pair of pink cable lace fingerless gloves for our Crockett's Rockets Weekend to End Women's Cancer silent auction fundraiser. I fell in love with them and was the highest bidder. They went for far below their true value - so I think this will make a nice surprise!
As you may or may not know, I am a compulsive sampler. I have great difficulty committing to anything for long periods of time. That's why things like 50 gm bags of fleece or fibre appeal to me. Over the years I have collected a vast collection of these its and bits - from hand dyed, handspun skeins from nature dye projects, to little butterfly wraps of tussah silk blending experiments. Coarse wool, over dye projects. Fat - thin, attempts at 3 ply. Spinning for a purpose. Spinning with no purpose other than something to do with my hands. Wheel spun. Spindle spun.
At Fibre Week this year we had a Fancy Footwork Exhibit and Exchange. It was a "show us your socks" free for all, in which socks of all shapes, sizes, including singles were encouraged. I had thought about participating. In fact I encouraged alot of people to do exactly that! Time ticked on. And I found myself "sockless". And so I began. I pulled down the rubbermaid boxes and looked in my stash. I definitely had the yarn. I looked in my needle tin - yes, had those too. Looked at the rows and rows of books - hmmm, yes lots of instruction. I even had a couple of DVD's on the subject.
I just didn't think I could... commit.
I hemmed and hawed, and buried my head in the proverbial a sack of wool. And then it came to me. I would knit ... a sample.
And so I began. I pulled out little suitable skeins and made balls on my nostepinne. I found a basic sock recipe to act as a guideline for the bones of the sock. I decided to switch colours at random whimsy, or until the sample ran out. Since it was a sample I tried a few bobbles. I garter stitched a few ridges. I did a bit of colour work. I was feeling pretty adventurous when I threw in the freehand needle felting. I knew the sock was enormous, so I decided it was a Christmas stocking. And her name was Scrappy Alice.
And then it happened. I ran out of time. So the sock came to conference and I knit at night. It needed to be done by Sunday morning... no problem I told myself. Plan: knit until midnight. Kitchner stitch the toe. Wash, dry overnight and voila!
All went as planned until "kitchner stitch the toe" - I had forgotten my tapestry needle. I brought my book to tell me how to do it (I always forget) but alas no needle! I tried everything I could think of - even cutting down a drinking straw and threading it like a needle. (No luck). I finally gave up and went to bed. The next morning (after a fitful 41/2 hour sleep) I awoke and thought... I know the answer's out there - so I went to the big guns: Google. And I typed: "Kitchner stitch without a needle" and then it was just a click to TECHknitting and everything became clear. I was to be saved. Again.
The sock was then washed in hair shampoo, fulled by hand, wrapped in a towel, thwacked, and jumped on to soak up excess moisture (not sure that helped but my feet got a good washing). It was delivered somewhat moist to the exhibit. But it was delivered. And hung for display. And....
... Scrappy Alice won the People's Choice Award! I am now the proud owner of Cookie A's Sock Innovation and a huge skein of 100% merino sock yarn which was donated by River City Yarns. I must say I was quite stunned, surprised... absolutely delighted!
I understand there's enough yarn here to actually knit a pair of socks... hmmmmm now how can I sample that?
I continue my pre games training. I've wound all my yarn from skeins to balls. I have enlarged the pattern charts for my elderly eyes, and am currently working on my "chart sample" just to make sure the pattern is correct. (You can see the developing Maple Leaf motif in the photo above). I am currently trying to determine exactly how many rows I need to knit daily to stay on track for "casting off success" during the closing ceremonies. I'd really like to not cut things that close...
Okay, so first off I'll admit this isn't me. But I love the make up. And the sweater? Well it does look like a few things I've knit in my life - but not recently.
In fact, I must confess I haven't been knitting anything lately. I do have quite a few projects in the works (PIW's - or more commonly referred to as WIPs by string handlers).
I did spend an afternoon on the deck last weekend (not my recent fleece sorting day) sorting a Cormo fleece for washing. Much to my dismay, as I worked through this fleece (which I paid handsomely for) I discovered it is quite "tippy". Needless to say, I am very disappointed. Because Cormo is similar to Merino (it has a magnificent crimp) I had fully psyched myself up for hand washing the locks,and hand combing.
I am left with a few points to ponder.
OR
... if the former is the case, I'm willing to proceed. If the latter is the case, then I'll just wash it up, throw it in some dye and play with a drum carder or hand cards - I don't mind neppy product if I'm the one who left it there for textural interest...
Any thoughts out there?
In the meantime - I'll go make muffins.
Earlier this week I put my Flip rigid heddle loom together. As part of my 2009 High Fibre Diet I had found a cotton tea towel warp that needed completion. Besides my tea towels are looking a little sad. Once you have gone handwoven - you really can't go back to store bought. My tea towels are over ten years old - and going strong. But I'm wanting some new towels.
Once the loom was together, I realized I was very much going to miss the stomp stomp stomp of my old floor loom ( donated to the guild during the great equipment destash).
My friend Ruth wanted to try out the rigid heddle. She had still had the Leclerc compact loom which I have had a prior relationship with (call it a love - hate relationship).
And so...
Loom in... loom out.
