Tour de Fleece, 2009 the end

Peggy won!

July 26, 2009 7:16 a.m. - Completed my Tour de Fleece challenge this morning! 3 bobbins-full, 16 ounces. Whew - Yellow Jersey earned just before the official ending of the race at 8:29 a.m. Pacific Time!

The next part of this project is to spin another 16 ounces, this time using plain CVM, and then ply them together.

July 4, 2009 Started the 2009 Tour de Fleece challenge of 16 oz of CVM Angora. By Day 15 I had completed 2/3s of the challenge.

1 lb. of CVM Angora top from Yellow Creek Cottage in Ohio. This one has about 20% Angora in with the CVM, and is a natural grey. It’s more light tan than grey, but that’s OK. It will be fun to spin, and then ply with the CVM.

***

Rebecca did not finish. It became abundantly clear on day 15 that, with only half the project completed and less than half the race remaining, I wasn't going to be able to finish my project. It's all good though. At this point I am more than half way through the 9.4 oz, and it will be done fairly soon. I got to spin every day, I used stash fiber and I like the resulting yarn. Yea for Peggy and all the others who earned the yellow shirt! Congrats everyone!

2009 Tour de Fleece, Day 15 update

Peggy, two full spools

Peggy, starting the third spool

Rebecca, one spool of 2-ply, about 470 yards
Rebecca, beginning the third spool

Sock Yarn We Dyed

Yarn:
KnitPicks Bare 50% Superwash Merino, 25% Superfine Alpaca, 25% Nylon
438 yards, 100 gms Fingering Weight

Rebecca's project:
Jacquard Acid Dyes: #626 Navy Blue and #638 Silver Gray
Daubed on dry yarn with a damp chop stick in some places and increased water level to cover, heated to simmering. Took out when it looked done.

Peggy's project:

Prochem's WashFast Acid Dyes
#304 Cranberry, #306 Turkey Red, #508 Mahogany,
#411 Periwinkle, #119 Sun Yellow
Soaked yarn in water with a little vinegar, spread out as a single layer of yarn, daubed on dry powder w/ damp chopstick at 2" intervals, 6 sections w/ each of the 5 colors, wrapped in saranwrap and set the color with hot water bath for about an hour. (This would also work in a microwave.) Unwrapped and put in hot water with a lot of vinegar so the colors wouldn't migrate.

2009 Tour de Fleece - Day 7 update

Peggy
CVM Angora blend
Day 1

Day 2

Day 7

Rebecca
Yak Merino blend

Day 1

Day 2

Day 7

The Dye Days of Summer

We had a couple of dye days the last two weekends.
Here are some of the colors we got.

Embe wanted to over-dye a very bright sock yarn.

It toned down quite nicely with a navy blue tint.

Kay's first two attempts at this dye thing went very well!

Pat threw some yarn in the color left from
another project with good results.

Peggy did some test colors on samples of CVM.

Natasha wanted to recreate this:

From this:

and got very close!

The Peggy's were over-dying brown yarns;
the one on the left could have been a bit orangier
but they both look lovely in the sun.

MaryEllin went for raspberry
and Peggy got a blue/pink combo ~ lovely.

ElK was doing some dry dyeing per Sandi:

The gorgeous eggplant result.

and FINALLY, the most amazing of the day,
Elaine and her space dyed project ~

Squirt on the dye:
Wrap both halves:

Microwave it for 3 minutes, let it dry in the sun
and compare with the inspiration:

That's an amazing dye job, Elaine.
Nicely done!

2009 Tour de Fleece - Day 1

Rebecca will spin 9.4oz of 50/50 yak-merino blend from Sarah Anderson of Great Balls of Fiber and hopes to spin it the same as the 4oz 2008 Tour de Fleece batch. This should make enough for a very large circular or square shawl.

Peggy has decided on one pound of CVM/Angora from Yellow Creek Cottage in Ohio. Ultimately this will be plied with one pound of 100% CVM from the same source.

That's the plan. We shall see.

Limbo Gloves

Project notes:

Yarn: Schoeller+Stahl Limbo Superwash, sport weight, 2 skeins, 275 yards total
Needle size: us #3
Pattern: from a class I took at Weaving Works where the instructions are basic and gauge is everything.
Beads: from stash

It was a very fun project and a great use of the Limbo yarn, which had perked in my stash since the mid 90's. And why not put the beaded picot cuff on gloves as well as socks?

I did some wrist shaping:
decreasing two stitches per round 4 times,
3 knit rounds between decreases.

All that's left is the weaving in of ends.

Ok, ends all woven in. Tried on and photos taken.
Shared with friends who also tried them on.
Multiple friends.
Multiple try-on times.

What’s wrong with this picture?

A dropped stitch on the right glove just below the index finger.
ack.

I am NOT frogging to catch up that stitch. I will stop the run with a little strand of yarn and weave in the two ends. feh. Almost perfect gloves. But it’s all good. In 50 years or so no one will remember, right?