Knitting in all directions

I am still high from the tour de fleece completion, and to my great surprise, I also won some wool in a draw on Ravelry!!! I didn't know that when entering Team Vanisle I would be entered in the draw. Double winner!!!

I can hardly wait to see my gorgeous prize.

Thank you Funknits for doing that.

After Sunday's high I was still in a spinning mood and got done a small ball of blue faced leicester from Sheeptrhills, fast and dirty as it is for felting and I just need to give it enough twist to knit. No need to set the twist, didn't know what I was going to do with it.

My knitting is erratic at the moment, so I made another potholder!!! Gives me time to think about the next project...Made a beaded rope to keep my hands busy, designed a couple of headbands in cotton to relax after work, and wonder what I could make with the tiny amount left over from the beaded silk/mohair sitting on my desk...

I am looking forward to next Sunday's

"knitting under the plum tree" meet, it has been fun to stay connected with other local knitters through what is usually for me an "avoid people at all cost" tourist season. We have met new knitters here on holiday, sparked some interesting discussions about knitting in public, and renewed knitting friendships with each other.

Thanks again Bethany for inspiring this.

Tour De Fleece 2008 The Finish

Got up at 6am this morning (local time) to enter the last étape of the Tour De Fleece, I really wanted to finish at the same time as the Tour...

Set myself up to finish the bobbins, my calculations were amazingly enough quite accurate, just a tiny amount left on one.
Wound up the small amount on ball winder ,
and race to the end.

By the time they were entering the suburbs, I was sprinting through the winding of the skeins.

A quick steam set, a trick I had learned from sheepthrills passing the skeins through steam when you want speed setting, and hanging during the entry into Paris...
Gert Steegmans crossed the finish line as I placed my 2 lovely balls (210gr total weight) of sock weight merino superwash in front of the TV!!!!

What a great race.

Congratulations to all.

The Yellow jersey belongs now to Carlos Sastre of Spain,

and me!!!

I loved the challenge, it was a very creative adventure. My heart is still beating fast as I got much more excited than I anticipated concluding this race. Thank you Katherine for inspiring me to do this.

Tour De Fleece 2008 pedaling

Pedaling fast, the plying taking almost as much time as 1 bobbin to spin. I am being obsessed with the finishing, today being a work day, I put in 2 days worth yesterday.

And it is filling up nicely.

An amazing thing about this challenge is that it renewed my passion about spinning. I am looking at my stash, and think that if I set aside spinning time, I will have quite a bit of yarn to add to my other stash...the yarn one. Now, lets not talk about storage, there should be a challenge for that one.

Tour De Force, anyone?

Tour De Fleece 2008 climbing

Put in a big push yesterday and got the 2 bobbins done...Another gorgeous day in paradise.

Got so excited about plying that I started right there, even though it was getting dark by then. It will take me the week to get to the finish line, I am glad that I was realistic in my challenge, cant wait to skein it...

Tour De Fleece 2008 My Mountains

Spinning is progressing nicely, right on schedule, I am very pleased with the results so far. But this week was my personal mountains challenge, with the preparations for the wedding of one of my nieces. I had the privilege of making her the cake....

This was a week long project, I learned a lot, new culinary terms entered my daily vocabulary, and most of all I learned about time. I made her what some call a "raspberry rhapsody", french genoise layer cake, with a lot of help from this site, it was challenging, fun, exciting, and best of all the bride and the groom loved it. A layer cake for 125, my personal mountain.

Best wishes to L & D, as one of the grooms attendants said in his speech,

"May you future be as bright as the Bride's smile".

Tour De Fleece 2008 back in the peloton

It was a very good idea to take it easy, I am back well rested and ready to re-join the peloton...I always loved the noun as a kid, it means ball, I could imagine all the riders in a tight ball wounding around the roads of France, very appropriate for a wool spinning challenge.

I finished the first bobbin, concentrating hard on getting the thinnest thread, and got started on the second one.

Yesterday being the 14 and Bastille day, claiming my frenchness fully, I gave a good push and got about a third of the second bobbin done.
13 days to go, the mountains are coming...

Tour De Fleece 2008 days 3 & 4 Injury

I went to town yesterday and hurt myself lifting too many heavy things. I had planned to spin when I got home, but it felt too uncomfortable. So I am taking a 4 day break to heal and will get back into the race this Week-end.

I am not giving up on my goal, I figure I still have plenty of time...

Tour De Fleece 2008 Day 2

2ND post for today, but really the actual day of what I accomplished.

So before I started this afternoon, this being a challenge and all, it occurred to me that I had no idea how much roving I had, and that I should measure the amount needed for each spool as I will make this yarn 2ply.

I got the scale out.

Weight the whole thing, minus the amount I figured I had already spun...

174gr. No 2 lb here, goes to show I have never had an accurate sense of measures, even in metric which I was born with.

Divided in two, roughly... 90gr on the right...

and set my timer to 1 hour.

This is the accomplishment for today. I finally covered the core of the spool.

Not bad, the hour went very fast.

It's good that the event runs for 3 weeks, I have so much on my plate, at this rate I should be finishing plying as they cross the line on the Champs-Elysées.

Tour De Fleece 2008

There goes the challenge!!!!

As if I wasn't busy enough in the summer I decided to challenge myself, and joined the "Tour De Fleece 2008".

My lovely Louet spinning wheel has been dormant for 1 year....It's not like I don't have any wool to spin, I don't have the time or the right comfortable place do to so. The challenge was inspiring, I just got about 2lb of superwash merino roving died by Sheepthrills, the color is just right for the edging of the blankie I am knitting for my future great nephew/great niece expected in December. Can`t post pictures it`s a surprise...

Back to the spinning.

Hands are rusty, and the challenge is that it is sooooo slippery I even called to make sure that it is not silk!!!

It is not, just the nature of the superwash.

I set my timer for 1 hour.... its going to take all the Tour de France to make it...