Road Report: Tour de Fleece 2010

If you follow any of the spinning groups on Ravelry, then you know that July means the annual spinning event known as the Tour de Fleece. This is my second year participating, after having an immensely successful rookie year. I did not have any lofty goals this year, because I have so little time to myself as it is these days. Instead, I set for myself two very attainable goals: spin every day, even if it's only for a little bit, and practice spinning on a spindle.

Although I had intended to start the Tour with empty bobbins, just like last year I still had a yarn in progress when the event began. So, my first yarn completed during the Tour ended up being one that had been in progress for nearly two months. This was the Crown Mountain Farms Targhee that was the May shipment for the fiber club. The coloway was Woodstock, and if you recall, the fiber looked like it had been tie dyed. I was a bit worried that it might turn out a bit muddy when I plied, but luck was on my side and the colors seem to have remained distinct enough. This is a traditional three ply, a light fingering weight, and approximately 487 yards -- by far my best three-ply sock yarn yardage yet.

Once that was finally off the wheel, I was able to pull out one of my three braids of fiber from the All Spun Up "fish" spinalong. I went with the mystery fish colorway, A Somewhat Seuss-ish Trout, which is on Polwarth, a new-to-me fiber. I'm spinning this up significantly thicker, so it's going much faster. It should be a sport to DK two ply when it's done, which should be by this weekend at the rate it's going.

Finally, in keeping with my second goal for the Tour, I took out my spindle (which I won in last year's TdF) at Hurricane Knitting last night and discovered that this spindling thing has finally clicked for me. (For scale, the whorl of the spindle is about the size of a half dollar coin.)

It's been a while since I've posted a Rainbow picture, so here's one from earlier in the week. Unfortunately the story that goes with it is not a very happy one. She was really fussy all weekend long, and we thought she was just teething. On Monday evening, though, she spiked a fever, so we stripped her down to her diaper and draped a cool washcloth over her. She seemed to enjoy that.

I took her to the doctor first thing Tuesday morning, and as it turns out, she has a double ear infection. I stayed home with her that day (and got a lot of spining done when she took a long nap that afternoon!), and now she seems to be on the mend. She does not like it when we give her medicine, though! I think we are all ready for her to get back to normal.