Tour End

1.8 pounds of fiber, 830 yards.

Day 21!

I seriously can not believe it is all ready day 21! I feel like tour as just flown by but looking back I really have spun a ton of yarn. I have also improved so much and learned so much about myself as a spinner and about my wheel and spindles. So last night I only showed a quick picture of my finished yarn so I though I would start off by sharing more info about it. It is my own hand-dyed punta roving, I named the color way The Sky's the Limit. The finished yarn weighs in at around 3.5 ounces and is a whopping 150 yards!

 So I have never been more proud then I am of this yarn. It is the most yardage I have ever gotten and also the most even I have ever spun. Not only that but it is by far the best plying job I have ever done. Part of me never wants to knit with it because I am simply so proud of it!  It really inspires me to keep spinning when I see how far I have come with my spinning.

I just can hardly even believe I spun this yarn. My sister told me it looked store bought and I really just keep staring at it amazed. Guys I spin that! I am just so excited! And I started spinning my light blue bought fiber and it is more of a challenge though. It has Tussah in it and very little merino so it keeps slipping through my fingers, but I am determined! I hope you all are having a great Friday!

It is Done!

And now it is hanging up in the shower and I am going to bed. I will have the amazing pictures and details for you tomorrow! For now though I am completely pooped!

Pictures!

I have barely spun today and feel so lame even posting. But with only a few days left my goal of posting every day in tour is getting close. So I thought I would share a couple pictures I snagged off the orientation page of me there! I hope to have the blue yarn finished tomorrow, so hopefully real pictures then!

My team won a free shirt!

Sorry about the super lame post! Hope you all are having a great day, more spinning soon.

It's Legit Now

Back from orientation and I am super tired and promise to write a better more exciting post tomorrow. Orientation was a blast and I made so many friends already, I feel confident that I will have a great time. I did come home and have a minor melt down because I have no idea what I actually want to do with my life. That aside though the past two days have been wonderful. I even came home to a surprise laying on my bed! I while ago a won a monthly give away over at A Year at the Wheel, Sara is amazing and a total inspiration when it comes to knitting and spinning. I won 2 ounces of Merino/Tussah blend and it is so soft I can't even handle it. The pictures aren't so great because it is dark and I am slightly sleep deprived but trust me it is gorgeous.

Not only was she kind enough to do that give away she also read my post one wanting to try spinning a fleece and was wonderful enough to send me a little bit of her own to test out! It's part of her prize winning Border Leicester fleece and it is so soft and the color is just so rich. I am going to be washing it sometime really soon because I just can't wait to spin it! Thank you so much Sara both fibers are completely amazing, you are way too kind!

So that is all for now, no real spinning news today other then plugging away at plying my blue fiber. I hope to get that done soon so I can start on my new stuff! I hope you all had a great day!

What to Do?

When you all read this I will be at college learning things and signing up for classes. Since I can't post this from there I will write it now (at 1:15 am) and have it post later. So I don't miss a day!

Anyway I have a question for all you spinners. You know when you finish plying and you have that tiny bit of uneven yarn?

I save them and wash them and all that jazz, and now I have like six tiny skeins of yarn sitting there. I don't really know what to do with them. So do you guys keep that bit of yarn or do you toss it?

The Yarn That Will Never End

Another super last minute post here. I am literally typing this as I get ready for bed. I am about half way through plying my hand painted fiber. It is going super well and I am so proud of it. I have my college orientation tomorrow and Tuesday so I need to get to bed soon and won't be getting much spinning done. I hope you all have a great Monday and Tuesday!

Plying Time!

I finished spinning the last two ounces on my hand dyed roving. I will be plying them on my drip spindle because there is no way my tiny bobbin can fit all of that.

The Post That Almost Didn't Happen

Which could be the name of last nights post also. Sorry about the really stupid post last night, it was 11:58 and I realized I hadn't posted a blog. I didn't spin much today though so I feel bad spamming your wall with next to no progress. I finished the first half of my hand-dyed roving. Right now I am spinning this one;

It is probably my favorite roving that I dyed. It is mostly just blue but I also had speckled tiny bits of green when I dyed it which show up more in person then in that picture. I am spinning it pretty thin and plan to ply it. Which poses the problem of how I want to ply it. My bobbin will not fit all of the yarn that I want to ply so I can either split it or I can spindle ply it. I am leaning towards using my spindle so I can just have one long skein.

See it is probably the thinnest I have ever spun and I am keeping it pretty even. Hopefully I will have more progress to show tomorrow! Fingers crossed.

Oh no!

So I just got this in under the wire. Still spinning some hand-dyed blue fiber and wanted to share a fast picture of the tencel/merino roving I spun yesterday.

I promise a longer better post tomorrow. Where I will once again not almost miss my post ever day deadline.

Busy Busy

So I know I should be trying not to post this late anymore but I can't rip myself away from my wheel. Though I had a bit of a problem last night. I was trying to ply some of my hand dyed fiber on the wheel and  I may have you know... over filled the bobbin. Excuse me while I hide my head on the sand. It got all over and stuck in some of the moving bits and it was such a huge mess. I lost probably twenty yards because of this. I leaner my lesson. So what was left is about 80 or so yards of a bulky yarn.

I have yet to name it or wash it, as always I spam you with pictures first! Other then the whole yarn mess I really like my second wheel yarn. I don't know if I told you guys but I have named my wheel Ponyo. I love that movie and it is probably the most common thing I watch while spinning. I just finished up spinning my first ever tencel/merino mix and it was so hard. I felt like it was constantly just slipping though my fingers. Pictures of that tomorrow!

A New Addition

I would like to introduce the newest member of my fiber addiction habit. My first ever spinning wheel! It is an Ashford Kiwi and I got it unfinished. I go back and forth about whether I will either stain it myself or paint it. Either way I am completely in love with it!

Gorgeous right? So the yellow fiber is one I dyed myself, I have changed the name to Butterbeer! I have been having a Harry Potter marathon so it is like all I think about. I finished spinning it and I got only 50 yards of super bulky yarn.

It is super smooshy and wonderful, even if I only got a tiny amount. I am also super proud about it being my first ever wheel spun yarn. Is it bad that I am already looking at buying a jumbo flier? In all honesty that is the only thing that gets me on this wheel is that the bobbin is so tiny and to get a jumbo one costs another 130 dollars. Other then that though it is total love. I have already started my next roving!

Punk Rock and Fiber Love

Okay first off as promised some better pictures of my purple castle yarn, the ones last night did not do justice on the gorgeous colors.

See those pictures do it so much more justice. It is so soft and cushy and wonderful, I just love it. But I think I may knit my mom something from it, because she puts up with my spinning addiction. I also last night found some more of that rainbow yarn that I had spun into a single but I had been saved from the horror of my n-plying. Not enough to really do anything with, until I found some mystery black fiber that I had spun a while ago also. Then bam! Born was my Punk Rock yarn, it's 63 yards of worsted or so weight mystery fiber.

At first I was not a huge fan of the whole barber pole affect, but I kind of actually like it. The strangest thing though is that neither of these fibers were very soft yet after washing and wacking them they are so soft together. Not sure if this should really count towards spinning for tour since I technically only plied them. Not sure what is next for spinning. Too many choices!

Day Nine

(How is it day nine already?)

Hello my name is Zoey and today I feel like a spinning ninja. Excuse the late post and bad photography. I keep getting the worst most random shift at work but I don't work on Tuesday so I promise to post before ten at night. You may be asking yourself why I feel like a spinning ninja, or you may just think I am bat shit crazy. Either way I will tell you why. Today I finished my fifth yarn for the tour! Yup you read that right my fifth yarn. There was the rainbow unicorn, my failed art yarn, hawaiian sunrise, and the purple party yarn. And now to show you the newest addition. I have so named it Purple Castles, it is 2 ounces of light purple merino roving. It ended up being about 70 yards at a worsted weight.

There are some thick thin spots but over all I am totally in love with it. I was surprised at getting 70 yards of two ply out of only 2 ounces. I used to only get 70 yards out of four ounces. Crazy how in five months how much better I have gotten. I hope you all had an amazing day and a wonderful tomorrow!

Making Progress

Making progress on the Merino wool! I promise more info tomorrow, today has been a fun but long day!

Back In Action

Thank you guys for all of your well wishes yesterday, I feel a million times better today and am so excited to be posting. It took way longer then I had planned but I have finally finished the purple and pink pencil roving. I decided not to ply it because I would only have gotten 50 or so yards and I think it might have looked weird. So weighing in at 1.7 ounces and 104 yards, I introduce to you my first ever pencil roving yarn!

It took me so much longer than I thought it would but it is finally done. I actually still need to wash it but I just couldn't wait to show you guys. I will probably post another picture once it has been washed and dried. I love all the colors in it and it really makes me think of a party. It doesn't have a real name yet and I would love all of your opinions on what I could name it. I am going to finish spinning my light purple merino wool next before I start anything new. I hope you all have a great Friday!

Day Six (?)

So you may notice this post is close to the wire, I almost didn't post today. One of my goals for tour is to post every day of tour and today tested that. I have a bit of a stomach bug and can hardly even get the urge to spin let alone get on and blog. But I shall conquer! I did spin some late last night and then spun some today. I keep going back and forth about plying it. It has these streaks where there are two colors in each strand and I just don't know how it will look plied.

See and I just can't decide if I will like how that will look plied. Also it is only 1.7 ounces and if I ply it will be worsted weight and I just don't know if I will have enough yardage to do anything. What do you think? To ply or not to ply?

Happy Fourth!

So first of all happy Independence Day! My friends and I always joke that it is actually just the day the declaration came back from the printers, but any excuse for fireworks is something I can accept. I hope you all are having a great day, here though it is almost a 100 degrees and no chance of it cooling down anytime soon. Also I swear if it were any more humid you would be walking out the door into soup, it is so gross outside. All of towns around here have actually canceled their fireworks and there is talk around my house of us skipping out this year. I hate super hot weather. It probably didn't help that I woke up and had to go to work this morning.

I just look so excited yeah. Work is work and I refuse to bring the boringness that is my job onto my blog. So in tour news I finished my first ever intentional art yarn! It is a thick-thin single and it was possibly harder to spin then normal yarn is. It's spun from my hand dyed punta roving named Iowa Spring. It is only about 45 yards but part of me is strangely proud for spinning thick-thin yarn on purpose.

From this to that!

I know it is probably weird because most people don't want weird yarn but I just am fascinated by the whole art yarn thing. I just love it so much. I have also made some progress on the bright colored pencil roving, which really needs a better name. Any ideas?

It actually has a ton of different colors in it I just hit a pink streak right before taking a picture. I ended up spinning it thinner and I think I may try to ply it depending on how much I have when I am done. No point in ending up with like two yards of something. I hope tour is going great for all of you guys and the heat isn't hitting you as much as it is here. Keep spinning!