In Training

The Tour de Fleece starts toward the end of the month, and considering how little I touched my wheels during the last month (when I was so focused on knitting), I thought I should spend some time getting back into the "spin" of things so I'll be ready for the serious spinning the Tour requires. After finishing up the cabled yarn last week, I thought I should start working through my MDSW purchases.

I started with this Fiber Optic merino/silk gradient.

A gradient like this of course begs to be chain plied to preserve the color changes, so I started with the orange end and began spinning very fine singles on my miniSpinner. I've put it a decent amount of time during the past week, including about three hours on Friday (I had the day off and was dealing with what may have been a migraine rebound headache for much of the day, so it was good to just sit and spin). As of yesterday, I'd gotten into the beginning of the blue. Unfortunately, the color is not showing accurately here; it's a much deeper purple/blue. I'm hoping to finish spinning the singles in the next couple of days so I can let the bobbin rest before I start plying.

This afternoon, a friend came over to spin for a bit. It wasn't practical to bring the miniSpinner downstairs and try to run the cord across the room, so I got out the Lendrum and this BFL from Gale's Art that also came home with me from MDSW.

I bought this with Rainbow in mind, and I decided to split it for a fractal spin. My thought was that these bright colors would be perfect for a winter hat and/or mittens. I'm spinning it up significantly thicker than the Fiber Optic braid, so it's no surprise that in three hours of spinning, I got through about a bobbin and a half.

I love instant gratification spinning!

Before I go, a final word (really more of a public service announcement). If you've been reading this blog for any length of time and paid attention to my spinning posts, then you know that Crown Mountain Farms is one of my favorite purveyors of fiber. We found out this week that Klaus, the owner and dyer, is quitting the business to move back to Germany to be near his parents. The online business is for sale, but after the end of the month, Klaus's gorgeous colorways will no longer be available. I already placed a pretty decently sized order, but if you've been considering making a purchase, I'd advise you to do it now. CMF's fibers are always wonderfully prepped. and Klaus's color sense is amazing. I've never been disappointed with anything I've ordered from CMF and will certainly miss them.