Le Tour Est Fini!

I am quite happy to announce that for the second year in a row I have earned my Yellow Jersey for Le Tour de Fleece! Yipee!

My Tour Goals were actually quite modest this year. Given the large amounts of time I've been spending in the gym I knew that I just wasn't going to be able to manage either a daily spinning practice or to finish large amounts of fiber. Instead, I set some very reasonable goals which were designed to help me learn a few things. To that end, I was able to accomplish the following.

1. I liberated some gorgeous singles from a languishing bobbin, producing a two-ply yarn that makes my magpie heart sing. (See the above link.)
2. In a sprint to the finish, I finished reading The Intentional Spinner just yesterday. I will fess up to skipping the portions on novelty yarn (blech..not me at all), but I did read everything else. I'm amazed at how much I learned, and am ready to put into practice a few new ideas.
3. I did call about processing the fiber, and will be taking it in after the first part of August. I may haul in the box of llama that's been languishing in the basement while I'm at it to see if they can do anything with it as well.
4. The actual spinning portion of le Tour was all about silk for me - gorgeous, luscious, touchable, shiny silk. What I didn't tell you before the Tour started was that I had been more than a bit intimidated by the small amount of gorgeous silk that had found its way into my stash. No more! Now it's one of my favorites, and I've enjoyed every minute of working with it! For those of you who remember my dilemma....YES, I did order a second batch of the Chasing Rainbows Bombyx Silk Top! It should arrive soon, and I can't wait to finish up this project so that I can knit with it immediately. My second new-to-me fiber was the suri/alpaca blend. Honestly - though it is beautiful to look at - it's just not my favorite fiber. It's fantastic for my drop spindle experiments because it's so very sticky, but it's just not what I had hoped for. I'm 99% certain at this point that it's a preparation issue, though, and I will definitely try it again some time with another batch.
5. For the first time ever, I spent an entire day yesterday with my drop spindle. My husband snorted a bit when I showed him the admittedly small fruit of my labor, but I loved every minute of it. I am a spindle spinner, and I see many happy moments with my spindle down the road!
   

Congrats to all of the rest of my fellow Tour participants. I hope you all earned your yellow jersey, AND I hope you enjoyed the ride!