On this the second day of the Tour de Fleece, I would like to say that I am doing it a little different this year. As I have been doing since January, I am trying to finish my UFOs, that includes hands-spun yarn. I have a lot of projects that did not get finished when I got sick two years ago. So those are first on the agenda for this year‘s tour. Since I’m not going for any prizes except for maybe a cleaner knitting and spinning room I’m totally fine with this.
I cleared the yarn off of 12 spindles today. There were 11 from a 3.9 ounce braid from www.edgewoodgardenstudio.com in the color Dusty Plain 1 in Stricken Lonk Wool which I had never spun before this. If you have never spun with Stricken Lonk wool I would highly recommend it. This wool is amazing, I used very tiny light weight spindles weighing in at about 18 grams all the way up to 1.5 ounces and got the same fine spin with all of them.
On the Hansen electric wheel I have a braid that I am currently plying. The skein was bought at Grandmas Spinning Wheel her in Tucson. The braid is an in house dyed line by Cassie and Jessica. The braid is a merino and silk blend that I am plying with ITO raw silk. The yarn feels amazing. I am hoping that I have enough to knit a pair of fingerless mittens for myself.
When I get caught up, I will bring out two batts with wool I have never worked with before. It’s a European wool that is raised on a small farm, locally processed near the farm. The business the process this wool has been in business with the same family since 1800s. And then I bought the batts from a company that specializes in small batch fibers from Europe.
I am going to mainly concentrate on my drop spindles, Turkish Spindles and see if I can do a little bit of supported spinning. My personal feeling on the subject is that I can spin on a Navajo spindle, supported spindles are very similar. Although in the future I would like to trade my big company Navajo type spindle for a Dine made spindle. I understand the balance is much better. The craftsmanship is usually better too.
Below is a picture of my 11 spindles of Stricken Lonk Wool. You can see what I mean by the different size spindles.
Picture insert tabs is not working. Sorry, I will get it up soon.
