Tour de Fleece 2009

Phew! It's been a while. I'm unburying the blog because today starts the Tour de Fleece, and I'm going to take part on Team Hoar, with my RR fellows.
My general goal is to spin at least something close to 300g of fiber. That includes 4oz of sw merino/tencel blend, 100g of merino/silk and 100g of tussah silk. The last two will be laceweight, plied together, and I think I'll try navajo-plied laceweight for the first. This is the fiber:

SW Merino/Tencel from fiberoptic, custom dyed.

I intend to focus on technique and improve my skills as much as I can, too. My Specific goals:

1. No pre-drafting allowed, except for colour management, if needed.
2. No splitting the top, except for colour management, if needed.
3. Organizing and reading my spinning folder (pdfs, ebooks, articles I have saved in my computer).
4. Improving the way I build my cops.
5. Depends on what the prep will allow, but if possible, learning long draw.
6. Improving speed.
7. If time allows, spin am extra 100g of cashmere/tussah silk, drafting from the fold (something else to learn).

The blog banner, or: Reviving an old favourite.

Non-cropped:

Fast, lazy, Happy Half-Nekkid Thursday!

See shawl here.

HNT in a yarny blackhole.

I had yarn to ply today, and I thought it would be fast, as it was only a single ball. So I started plying and plied, and plied, and plied, while I read Ravelry and did other things on the computer. I swear the ball on the pic above is practically the same size as it was when I started, even though the spindle is almost totally full. I was scratching my head and trying to understand it, and then the explanation came to me.

Happy Half-Nekkid Thursday.

Sleepy HNT

I've been relapse on the last several weeks but this pic practically took itself.

I fell asleep fully dressed last night, and when I woke up the coins in my pocket had scaped and attached themselves to my back, where my shirt had riden up. They started falling as I moved, but I still could catch 2 in a pic. That's 75 cents, by the way.

Happy Half-Nekkid Thursday, yawn.

Bayfield Apple

I have my first good handspun yarn! 

Fiber: Yarn Love's Marianne Roving (superwash merino)

Colourway: Bayfield Apple

181.5 yards (176m) of 3-ply fingering weight

That should be roughly 2oz, and I'm still spinning the other half of the roving. It will be enough for a nice pair of socks. 

The pic was taken before setting the twist. Now that I did it, I see that the yarn is slightly overplied, but close enough to balance to be used, and the extra twist will help with resistance. The dyes bled just a tiny bit in the hot water. I could only see a bit of red, but the pale green is almost yellow. It's almost dry now, and I can't stop staring and fondling and drooling over how soft and yarny it is, even though I made it myself.

Meu primeiro fio de verdade! Fiado a mão, na espessura certa pra fazer meias, 181.5 jardas (176m) de fio de lã. Ainda tô fiando a outra metade da lã, mas quando terminar vai ser o suficiente pra um par de meias! Eu tô especialmente feliz porque consegui planejar desde o começo e acertar a espessura planejada, mesmo que sorte tenha ajudado um pouco.

Teaser - Spinning and Blocking

Still around

I haven't been feeling like blogging lately, and part of it is that I feel a little guilty about not having finished the Ravelympics shawl yet, not having blocked the Queen Anne's Lace shawl yet, or even touched any of the UFOs I have going on. BUT that doesn't mean I haven't done anything in this time.

Eu não tô escrevendo muito esses dias, por uma série de motivos. Parte deles é que eu me sinto culpada de negligenciar vários projetos que mencionei no blog e deixei de lado por enquanto, porque eu comecei a fazer meias. Terminei o par aí embaixo agorinha:

I'm in a sock frenzy. I just finished these:

Pattern: Wavy socks, by Amy King, in The Knitter's Book of Yarn

Yarn: Mirage, merino/tencel blend, The Natural Dye Studio (I can't find the yarn since the day I ordered. Maybe it was discontinued.)

Needles: 2.5mm

The yarn is very shiny and has a very subtle variegation that I love, but it's not camera friendly. Like fairies, if you really believe it, you can see the variegation in this second pic:

A linha é bem brilhosa e tem uma variação de cor sutil demais pra fotografar, mas eu acho que dá pra ver na segunda foto.

Not so subtle is the variegation on the first pair of socks I made, the week before I started these:

O outro par que eu fiz antes desse já não é tão sutil:

I made these with Pigeonroof Studio yarn, 100% merino wool, in a toe-up plain stockinette pattern with short-row heels, on 2mm needles. I absolutely love these, and I've been wearing them for a week. Good thing that I finished a second pair. At least now I can alternate them.

A peek on what the future holds:

One of the Yarn Love rovings I just received this week from Sonny and Shear. As soon as my spindle arrives I'm going back to spinning and, hopefully, will have some rainbow yarn to make socks with. (What can I say? I love handknit socks now.)

E logo, logo, eu vou voltar a fiar, assim que receber meu fuso. Eu tenho dois pacotes de lã tingida esperando pra virarem mais meias.