Days 4, 5, 6, and 7

I spent a good chunk of Day Four of the Tour de Fleece spinning a denim coloured superwash merino in preparation for plying into a boucle yarn.

On Day Five I attempted the boucle (on the left in the picture below). Hmm, not really my favourite type of plying, but sure to be fun texture for a weaving some day.

On the right is the remainder of the previous days spinning chain plyed into a 3 ply yarn. Meh. The denim like grey blue colour isn't doing much for me.

Day Six was much more fun. Not that my chosen fibre for spinning was all that nice, it was a very coarse, dirty alpaca. The finished yarn will have to be used for something other than wearables. It is very scratchy, which is unusual for alpaca I think. I've heard that the fibre gets coarser as the animals age.

The fun of that day came in allowing my granddaughters to play at my wheel! My coarse alpaca fibre, plyed with thread, is the two skeins on either end of the next photo. The centre skeins are two the girls did as their very first attempts at plying.

The eight year old's skein is on the centre left. She not only did the hand work to do the plying, she also did her own treadling. She found it difficult to keep the wheel spinning in the correct direction but persevered and was very proud of her little skein.

The six year old sat on my lap and did the hand work for plying her little pink and blue skein while I handled the treadling for her. Both girls also worked hard using my niddy noddy to skein their creations.

I don't normally weight my skeins, but all four of these turned out a little over plyed and needed the blocking.

And today, after a busy day of running about, I spent a relaxing 1/2 hour or more at the wheel with a vibrant pink merino/tencel blend. I love it! After a bit of a pre-draft it spun like a dream.

Spinning Batts

Still working toward having all the handspun to knit up a Gnome. I dug through the fibre stash and came up with this batt. It was originally a commercially dyed merino top that I found too compact. I ran it through my drum carder quite some time ago. Much of it was used in a blend with other fibres, but I had this bit left over.

I spun all 65g that remained into a 2ply. It might work for the gnome, but I won't know until I try a swatch. It looks a bit thinner than I had hoped for.


I also spun up all 65g of a batt of Lincoln that I received as a door prize at a spin-in. It too is a contender for the gnome, but looks about the same weight as the merino. Perhaps they will both end up being used, but in separate gnomes?

And Now In Blue

I really get a lot of use from the water bottle covers I crocheted a year ago. When I recently bought a couple of new bottles, this time in blue, (Propel Fitness Water*), I decided they needed coordinating covers.


Blue = hand dyed merino Natural = coopworth


Like the others, these are crocheted in handspun, hand dyed wool. Go HERE for the free pattern. These two have been "fulled" in the washing machine for a snugger fit.

* Like this sports drink reviewer, I really like the bottle design of Propel Fitness Water, but find the "fitness water" nothing more than water with added hype (and artificial sweetner). Makes a great sports bottle to refill with tap water though.

2 B Plyed

On the wheel:



Superwash mill ends from ebay seller shpherder.

I have 2 very large bobbins of this spun and ready to be plyed. I purchased 2 pounds of this dark, dark navy colour, and pound of a soft, bubblegum pink, 2 pounds of black, and 3 pounds of light blue. It's lovely, soft wool, but I find it a bit difficult to spin. The combination of "superwash" AND "merino" makes it very slippery. I have to "pinch" with the lead hand a little more firmly than I am used to and if I spin for a long time my hand cramps up.

Worth it though.