TdF: The End

The Tour de France ended today and, along with it, so did the Tour de Fleece. I have two more finished yarns to show you.

First, what was my "challenge" yarn -- a singles yarn. This is BFL from Gale's Art; the colorway is Deep Blue Sea.

Although this didn't turn out quite the way I was hoping it would (namely that it's a lot thinner than I was intending!), I consider it a success because it did hold together, even when I thwacked it aggressively in finishing. Moreover, after finishing, the skein hung fairly straight, which was a pleasant surprise. I ended up with about 330 yards of slightly thick and thin that averages about heavy fingering weight or sportweight.

I also finished up the last of the Lorna's Laces Rainbow fiber. I had spun the remaining 2.5 or so ounces into a thin single and then chain plied it. I ended up with about 190 yards of fingering weight.

I really like how this one turned out. It's a different effect from the other Rainbow yarn, but it should still stripe nicely and should make something cute for my Rainbow.

The last of my Tour de Fleece spinning is some Dyeing Arts superwash merino that also is destined to be something for the baby. I spun most of the first bobbin at the spin in at Natural Stitches the other night; here's what I managed to get started on the second bobbin this afternoon:

Overall, I'd say it was a very successful Tour for me. I had three goals: spin (or do something related to spinning, such as prepping fiber) every day, spin something thicker than sock yarn, and spin down some of my fiber stash. I accomplished all three goals. I spun every day but one, and on that one day I think I skeined up and finished some completed yarn and prepped the next day's fiber. I spun two yarns that were decidedly thicker than sock yarn, and by my count I spun through more than 22 ounces of fiber, not including what's on my wheel right now.

Finally, while watching the end to the bike race this moring, I finished up Rainbow's lastest socks (the usual pattern, Reynold's Soft Sea Wool, size 1 needles):