Tour de Fleece CHALLENGE Day

Today is the 22nd. It is the hardest part of the Tour de France which means that it should also be the hardest part of the Tour de Fleece. That though is open to interpretation. For me I have decided that the hardest part of my tour will be spinning with an unfamiliar short stapled fiber. Enter the llama fiber. I picked this up at the farmers market in my home town a month ago and now I get to spin it up.


I chose to try it out which my new cascade spindle. Which was the replacement for the one I broke a couple weeks ago. (Yes spindles don't count in my fabric, fiber yarn diet. But I did decided that I would rather buy a spindle than groceries this week. I have been living off of rice, and noddles) I am happy to report that even though the look of it is slightly different, it does spin very similarly to my old Cascade spindle. A huge relief.

Llama fiber spins up a little like my merino/angora blend that I've been working on. But it is very fine and doesn't have a lot of stretch to it. I won't really know until I knit with it though.

My plans for this llama fiber I am spinning up is going to be to ply it with this beautiful woolgatherings fiber I have that is a merino/tussah silk/bamboo blend. I didn't plan on spinning them up together. Actually at all. But it is sort of a new thing for me to blend a rainbow fiber with a solid neutral color.

These two were also sitting next to each other in my fiber closet and they just went so well together I couldn't resist. I think I'm going to split the rainbow as much as possible to get the short color repeats in there and it (should) be really pretty. That's all I've got for challenging myself. A fiber of a different nature. It is very very soft though

Also, I wanted to show off. (pardon the terrible bathroom picture) I got new extensions put in my hair last week they are fun I love the colors

Maybe not so Lucky, Or Just Clumsy

A few weeks ago, I made the statement that I was the luckiest crafter in the world. I backed up this statement with my new sewing machine and spinning outside in the back yard with my gifted spinning wheel.

Well. Two spindles later and I have come to the conclusion that I am not. Or, I am just extremely clumsy. Also highly likely.

Remember that give away I had? Well, the winner Kate has been the most wonderful patient giveaway winner in the world. Because I was at the zoo, I stumbled and then landed on my butt, ontop of my spindle. (sad) I opened up my spinning back, which I attached to the outside of my bag to keep things from in my bag to break it, to asses the damage. and it turns out that I snapped one of the arms. (double sad)

When I got home I messaged the people I got it from Threads Thru Time. And spoke to a wonderful woman named Barbara who got another piece of olivewood to make another arm, (yay!) and ended up replacing both of them to match, the new one is a lot lighter in color. It is also lighter in weight. The last spindle weighed in at 1.4oz, this one weighs in at 1.1 I got it today and it was perfect timing.
a friends

Because this is what I did yesterday. Remember the merino/angora blend I've been spinning? Well after a two mile bike ride to a friends house, while I was parking my bike my spinning bag fell off my handle bar. I didn't notice and then promptly stepped on it (triple sad) I broke it in the middle of spinning so I had to wind off in the middle of spinning with a broken shaft


The good news is though my new spindle is only .1oz from the old spindle and now I can look for a new spindle for 1.5oz my birthday is coming up =D I think a new spindle is an excellent present
to myself.

One last thing to end on a yay note. Yesterday right before I GIANT storm hit I dragged in this new (to me) bookshelf that was sitting on the curb. It matches my current bookshelf and I really need new places to put my stuff.

Awesome.