So, as you may know, there has been a big competition across the pond where men in funny outfits kill themselves on two wheeled contraptions. It’s called the Tour de France.

Anyway, while those crazy people are doing their thing over there, we fiber people do our own crazy thing over here, the “Tour de Fleece.” It tends to be pretty free-form though some people get together for specific challenges and such. Last year my own TdF was more organized.

This year my main goals were to spin every day, even if only a tiny bit, and make progress on some standing projects.

In those generalized goals, I succeeded. One of my specific goals I didn’t make, I wanted to finish spinning the handprepped romney/mohair batts into sock yarn, a project that’s been kind of hanging over me for a long time. Oh well. I did get a lot done.

For one thing, right at the beginning of it I flew down to North Carolina for a family thing. I managed to keep up my spinning at least a yard or two every day, and got a lot of spinning done in the airports. On the plane I started a basic beanie hat with my own handspun.

The hat

And the handspun. Abby Franquemont batts. These are going to be weft for a woven twill weave scarf I’m working on.

Both spun up on my lovely Spindlewood top whorl.

Once I got back, I finished sleying the reed on the loom for the scarf project. I’ll post more photos of the weaving project progress start to finish once I get a few more steps along.

I also spun some cobweb weight from cormo handprepped by the Tsocktsarina.

Spinning it on my newest spindle, a zebrawood spindle called a Tiger by… Cascade bought from Spunky Eclectic as my one purchase at MA Sheep and Wool. Love it. Spins great, especially things like silk for superfine stuff.

Then, right near the end of the Tour, the first of my new roving came back from the mill. Very exciting. Domestic Perendale and Polwarth. Since I’m going to be putting some of the Perendale up in my next shop update, I thought I should spin some myself since it’s a new fiber to me. So I grabbed my Bosworth Midi spun some up longdraw and plied it, washed it, fulled it, and dried it. 3-ply on the left, 2-ply on the right.

3-ply close up

2-ply close up

It’s an interesting fiber. Spun this way it’s a fairly prickly fiber but makes a much softer yarn than you expect. So I went all the way and knit it up, washed it and blocked it. Well, as much as you can block a 1.5″ squarish.

And a closeup. You can see it’s got more luster than your average downs wool. It comes from the Romney in the bloodline. It’s VERY springy and lofty with a big halo. It’s not super soft, about what non-specified “wool” sweaters usually are. So good for anything a mid-level romney would be good for, sweaters, hats, mittens, heavy-duty socks, outerwear, etc.

And that’s about it for my TdF. Other than keeping Gnomespun running, and expanding things slightly and examining a few new possible paths.

TdF 2010

And now, back to the dye pots. Perendale and Polwarth roving. A couple new things coming up!

Until the next time!

~The Gnome

So I’ve had this for a while now (as evidenced by the fact it was filmed at my old apartment).

I keep thinking that I’ll do an addendum to it, or add something or what have you. But I don’t. So… I’ll post it as is. If it needs a new version, or an addendum, then you – dear readers – can tell me what you’d like to see.

So, here’s a small video I made about bottom whorls. Specifically it was meant to address two of the big myths I’ve seen spread about.

1) Bottom whorl spindles are heavy

2) You can’t spin fine on a bottom whorl

There’s also some basic explanation of how to use a bottom whorl, if you’re interested. Personally, I love my bottom whorls. I want to get another at some point, since my big one tends to be full of plying projects as it’s my longest shafted spindle (see earlier post with 4.2oz of icelandic plied onto it).

So, without further ado, here it is. Bottom/low whorl spindles.

Let me know if you have questions, comments, etc!

P.S. Thanks here to Tom, for filming this for me.

That’s all for now…

~The Gnome

This is a little behind, but this is my latest finished spinning project.

It’s a 2-ply yarn, spun largely longdraw on Strider (my Schact-Reeves 30″) and then plied entirely on my bottom whorl Spindlewood.

For anyone curious how much you can fit on a spindle? Well… here’s an answer. This is a 1.5oz spindle to begin with. I have 4.2 ounces of yarn on it. There’s about 3/4″ of bare shaft left. By the end I was using it as a mix of bottom whorl and support spindle (a nice feature of the Spindlewood designs).

So… you can fit as much on a spindle as you can fit, and it’s almost always more than you think you can.

As usual, I don’t know what I’m going to do with this yarn. I spun it to play with Icelandic, which is a new fiber for me. Always new fibers to try. It’s an interesting fiber, and I can see why some people are in love with it! Don’t think it’ll replace others as my favorite fiber, but it’ll definitely have it’s place in my fiber arsenal.

EDIT: Teresa, this was an unpicked Icelandic (that is, thel and tog are together) from a sheep, rather than a lamb. It’s a durable yarn, would be good for a blanket. If you’re not too sensitive you could make knucks out of it. For me it’s a little too coarse for next-to skin. I could see making a heavy barn sweater out of it though. (though not from 4oz obviously).

~The Gnome

Hi guys.

I’m almost done. For realz this time. Just a few signatures left. I was hoping to get one last update to the shop up before xmas, but that is not going to happen. At this rate I’ll be lucky to get everything I have to get done, done in time.

I’ve got boss’ signature on my dissertation and then all the printing and official paperwork left. Then I’m done with that, and all that’s left is getting car insurance and health insurance signed up for/redirected/etc.

In the meantime, here’s a project I finished ages ago, but couldn’t tell you about at the time, and then things got insane.

This was what I did for the Fiber to Scarf Exchange 2009. Basically, you send out fiber, and it goes to someone (you don’t know who until after) and they spin it up and knit (or crochet or weave) a scarf or cowl out of it and send it back. You’ll remember a ways back when I posted the lovely alpaca scarf I got from my fiber.

What I got was some lovely purple/blue corriedale/romney from BlackBunny Fibers. I spun it up on both my ashford and my (at the time) new SR30.

2-ply, spun more-or-less with a point of twist sort-of-short draw.

(Photo by Joe)

I decided to knit without a pattern, because I like torturing myself, or something. Also, I’m really poor at following patterns.

So I designed this pattern, though I’m fairly certain it’s been done before by others. It’s essentially just a 3×3 diagonal rib (not a cabled diagonal like koolhaus or the like). I liked the effect, and think it came out pretty well. It scrunches nicely.

(Photo by Joe)

Here it is on me before I sent it out…

Then I sent it to the awesome QueerJoe (who’s fiber it was, and who took the better photos you’ve seen here)

And he loved it. Thank goodness. I’m always worried when crafting for other people.

Ok, back to forms.

~The Gnome

One of the reasons I’ve been on such radio silence, getting ready and then recovering from this massive thing!

Well. I brought 80+ pieces to Rhinebeck. Which is nothing for “real” vendors, but for me, it was massive, especially since I’ve been working on my dissertation at the same time.

I was a TINY bit less poleaxed than last year.

I thought enough in advance to get a photo of the booth when it was just set up…

and even more importantly, since I FAILED last year of me, Tsockstsarina and Jennifer who run the booth with the additional help of Patrick (who I don’t seem to have a photo of, bugger).

Getting a photo of these people is insane.

I did manage to get one photo of Thegeorg unlike last year. Though I admit it’s not a very good photo.

Had a delicious dinner with excellent people at a diner place.

In the morning, they let people in FIFTY minutes early. Which made for… a rush. Just before they hit, I got some photos of my stuff up, though only the first batch. Obviously with 80 things, I couldn’t have it all out at once.

The fiber and some yarn

the rest of the yarn

and my stitch markers

Then came…

the seething hoards!

I failed, again, to see everything (apparently the genuine AFLAC duck was there, who knew?) but I did wander around more than last year.

I met a bunch of people for a group shot (not my camera)

And yes, I was wearing my kilt and a double layer wool “ranger” jacket. It was lovely, comfy, and I wasn’t cold at all.

Lots of good people there. My good friends ZaftigWendy (of Yarnivore) and HoneyChild (of HotterFasterBetter art)

Honeychild and I wandered around quite a bit (mostly having horribly inappropriate conversations, which was excellent). We met these adorable little goats.

And the Serta Sheep

And a wensleydale that just begged for love

At the end of the day, for going to dinner and such, I needed to change. Luckily, it’s easy in a kilt. So I changed in the middle of the booth.

Then it was back to the diner for dinner with a different set of friends!

The second day, I aspinnerated the two Cyds, Cyd-Squared?

Don’t they look happy? “OMG, I’m making yarnz!”

Hrm… that’s about it. Oh, we took down the booth and I drove back home (2.5 hours, not bad, yay GPS!) in an ice storm (icky).

Oh, right, phat lootz. I didn’t buy much, I was very restrained. I got a couple pounds of dorset for dyeing, two abbybatts from Carolina Homespun where I was also viciously and mercilessly ASSAULTED by this evil thing.

It’s a Spindlewood, top whorl, laceweight spindle. I don’t know what wood it’s from, as the label had fallen off. I’m told it’s something from the Rosewood family. I also know that it’s a little under 0.5oz. Which for some would be ideal, but it’s totally not the sport of spindle I buy. I really love my 0.8-1.2 range spindles.

But… well… it hummed. Those who know what I mean will understand, and to the rest, lets just say it didn’t give me much choice in the matter. It was sitting next to a *gorgeous* piece made of amboyna burl and birds eye, and yet this one was clearly the one. And I’m loving it. It’s currently working on one of the abbybatts (Merino, Silk, Cashmere).

People often ask if the square whorls cause a problem. The answer is no. It’s basically like having 4 notches, and rim weighting. It spins amazingly long for such a tiny spindle. I love it.

So that’s Rhinebeck.

I’m currently working on reopening and updating the shop. It’ll be a bit. I’ll post when that’s done.

~The Gnome