Spinning Show & Tell: The Tour!

The Tour de Fleece started on Saturday! Oh, the excitement!

In fact, on the actual day I only spun about ten yards. I was feeling very little spinning inspiration, and was more excited about knitting the new project I stupidly started that morning (more about that tomorrow!). I didn't meet my goal mentioned last Tuesday to finish spinning the alpaca singles I had been working on, but I did finished them today, and I plied them. I had a lot of fun photographing the progress.

Unfortunately, it didn't yield as much as I had hoped. From nearly four ounces, I only got 226 yards, which isn't nearly enough to make Orchid Thief. I'm guessing it's ended up being about sport weight judging by the yardage, though it really looks like fingering. It will probably bloom a lot with washing, but that's a job for tomorrow...

The alpaca isn't the only stuff I've been spinning, mind. I also spun some yellow fluff I dyed a while back. I spun and plied it on a drop spindle, and had enough for one or two hexipuffs, which is what I've  endeavored to do with the finished product. 

I haven't quite finished that puff yet... I've lost some of my interest in hexipuffing since starting some new, more interesting projects. 

That's it for me tonight! Check out Crafts from the Cwtch for more lovely spinning posts! Thanks for the linky, Sarah! 

Spinning Show & Tell: On and Off

I haven't done much spinning since last week, but I have finished the first half of the 4oz of alpaca I'm spinning. I'm spinning it super-fine, and I'll ply it into what will hopefully be round fingering weight. I'm envisioning Orchid Thief being knit from it, granted I'll have enough yardage. However, I have another 4oz of the same roving that I can spin up should I run out. 

My goal of spinning for 15 minutes a day has been extinguished of late- every few days, I'll spin for a  couple of hours, and then let my spinning wheel or drop spindle (usually the former) gather dust until I am next inspired to spin. But with the Tour de Fleece fast approaching, I'm anticipating my spinning tools getting much more use. 

I'm creating another goal- to finish the singles of this alpaca by the start of the TdF on Saturday and ply it on the first day. Wish me luck- two ounces of lace weight singles in three days isn't something I've accomplished before!

Linking with Crafts from the Cwtch today. 

Spinning Show & Tell

Today I am joining in with Sarah at Crafts from the Cwtch, for the sole purpose that she has including a Mr Linky widget in her most recent post about spinning. This means that I can put a link to my blog on her blog, and as her blog is, I believe, quite popular (at least, it should be, considering how enjoyable it is to read), some of her traffic might be directed over to To Live A Life. I am such a selfish person to be taking advantage of this.

I'm not doing this post purely to get a couple of page views- I also have some spinning-related stuff I want to talk about.

This is the yarn spun from the roving I bought at the DFW Fiber Fest 2013 (blogged about here). I originally intended to make a fingering-weight single from the roving, but spun it too thick (into a light sport weight, I'd imagine) and ended up just plying it into a wonderful 130 yards of bulky weight. I'm very happy with the result, but can't decide what to make with it- any suggestions would be welcome! 

Also, today I was tricked into joining Tour de Fleece, which I now cannot wait to begin on June 29th. I still don't know a lot about it, but I'm part of two teams- Rookies  and Tiny Owl Knits. The Rookies team is for first-timers, and I don't know if it's mandatory for first years to join it or if it's optional, but I did join it and that's that. 

I busted out my fiber stash to see what all I could spin up for the TdF, and this is what I came up with. Not much. However, the fluffy light brown fiber to the far right is only a portion of the alpaca I'm currently spinning, and I have about 2 pounds of 100% silk hidden away somewhere that I can spin if I use up everything else (which I rather doubt will happen).

The third and last spinning-related topic I wish to cover is one of celebration- my second spinning anniversary is coming up in less than a month, and I need to buy myself a pretty braid of fiber to celebrate. The TdF coming up only gives me more reason to want to treat myself. I've been searching Etsy for reasonably-priced, beautifully dyed braids, and if anybody has a favorite I'd love to hear it in the comments below!