Tour de Fleece!

Yippee! I'm in the Ravelry Tour de Fleece and having a great time! Been feeling a bit tired and achy, but carrying on :) First order of fleecy business: add in the angelina I got from Loop to the Jacob fleece I bought at MDS&W. Now I'm almost done re-carding the batts; I had 7 and now I have 3 more to go. I spun up the white jacob (1.4 oz) and n-plied it into worsted. Unfortunately, I didn't get much out of it, only 80+ yds, but I decided to stop thinking about possible projects and just see what I've got when I am done spinning. Today, I'm done spinning the lt. gray singles and will n-ply and finish them. I'll probably have closer to 2 oz of this color. There are 3 more colors to spin after that, then I can play with my Oxford. One of these nights I think I'm going to tease them so they will feed into the carder nicely.

About the carder: when I first started using my drum carder, it was kind of a nightmare. I had crappy fleece that I partially felted when I washed it, the licker-in was a micron too close to the main drum, so I was getting tons of waste on it. After I got wise to fleece and washing and carding, my spinning life improved dramatically. I can't express enough how important it is to prepare your fibers for carding. Not only do the batts come off easier when the fiber is open, but they are smoother, easier to crank and easier to spin with less waste.

As for the Tour de Fleece, I am on three teams: Team Batty, Team Spin City and Team Verb. I hope to finish yarn for all of the teams, though right now, I'm working on Team Batty. Here's my first skein:

And here is a picture of the next color(lt. gray) on the bobbin:

So there's my progress so far :)

Dreamin'

It's early and I'm awake, and somehow in the middle of REM sleep, I finally discovered a use for my camel hair roving. Yes. Camel hair. I've been thinking about making an art yarn hobby horse for a while, but forgot about it. Camel hair would make some awesome reigns and bridle for my horsie. I definitely will make this project someday...when I have enough artyarn for the mane :D Maybe I will try my hand at braiding.

Later that day...

I find it hard to believe that I'm drinking Tepache, a Mexican fermented drink that I made for Cinco de Mayo, but I won't drink beer. Been thinking about mixing up a batch of Mavi, but I can't till I make some space in the fridge. Next time I make tepache, I will definitely use much less sugar than recommended. Mixed with selzer water, it is much more palatable. Also, more cinnamon and ginger, less cloves. It's still yummy and tastes great on this f'in hot August day in NY.

I'm so tired...

All my Amazon stuff, save for my silk artyarn, came in this week. I'm very excited to report that. Knitting Lingerie Style is super-cool and I can't wait to make a slip. I've got some stuff on order from friends and family, one shrug and two bikinis, as well as a shower present for my cousin's fiancee. I'd like to finish that stuff up before I work on my own stuff. Mom's shrug is coming along nicely in Moda Dea TweedleDee. It's bulky acrylic, but really soft and nice. She picked it out, and it's working beautifully in the pattern, which is supposed to be for a mohair yarn!

In other news, schoolwork has been non-existent, so I decided to do some ABA on myself and put myself on a schedule this Saturday. I've done a bit of cleaning, ate breakfast, worked on my mom's shrug AND did some schoolwork. My reward is a trip to Smileys and AC Moore, to get more yarn for my mom. Smiley's is having an awesome sale. I'm getting there when the doors open so I gotta go. Being this productive is super tiring. Did I schedule in a nap for later?

I didn't schedule in a nap, but ended up taking one anyway. Mom's shrug is coming along, and I switched from dpns to magic loop on my alpaca cuffs. Here's a haiku about it:

Alpaca glides on
Two pointy, silver needles
My world is all right

I am so happy that I can work on this project again! Insubordiknits might be having a weekend workshop in August and I will be so pysched if it can happen!!! I can't afford her new DVD, but for my b-day, nothing beats a fiber workshop. Art yarns. I have books, and I have sort of tried, but I will be ready by the end of summer. I plan on making a daily schedule for myself to help me organize my time better. It will include fiber processing and knitting, to keep me motivated and on track.