Fat Cats Corner

I never have a 'plan' when it comes to spinning.  I just grab whatever fiber is at the top of my Stash Bin and start spinning.  Most of the time I don't even have enough fiber to actually make anything other than a hat or mittens.  Both of which get very little wear here in Upstate South Carolina. So these yarns are relegated to my Hand spun Bin and only come out to be admired.   This time when the Tour de Fleece Part 2 starts in August, I have a plan. This is a 30 Breed Sampler from Wool Gatherings .   I've never even heard of most of these breeds of sheep.   I have my favorites I like to spin; Polwarth, Merino and  Bluefaced Leicester (My very favorite is Alpaca but that's another post.) and I have a tendency to buy those fibers almost exclusively. So when I saw this 30 Breed Sampler I decided I would try them to expand my knowledge and branch out a bit. There is a program called Shave 'em to Save 'em (SE2SE) that I've been hearing about from serious s

Ravelry hosts it's Tour de Fleece in July every year while the  Tour de France  race is on.  This year with COVID-19 pandemic the race start has been delayed until August 29th.  We spun anyway and I believe some Ravelry Teams will be 'riding' again in August.  I hope to be among them. I am very happy with my TDF2020 results.  I didn't spin a large quantity but I did spin everyday and I did manage to spin thinner, which was a goal.  So with out further adieu.... The blue is 2-ply, 100% Polwarth wool. The fiber is from Briar Rose Fibers in a color she called Winter Ice. This is a lovely fiber to spin and Chris dyes them beautifully. The brown is also a 2-ply. 70% Suri Alpaca, 20% Merino, 10% Tussah Silk from Fawks Farms Studio. Alpaca is my favorite fiber to spin and I have a big weak spot for Andrea's. In total I spun a bit over 1,000 yards of 2-ply yarn tha I can actually knit with. Go me!   

I've been trying to spin thinner.  I'd like a 2-ply yarn that is smaller than DK but I've been unsuccessful .  I haven't really been prepping my fiber at all, just pulling off a strip and spinning, thinking I could draft out just what I needed.  Which has been resulting in a DK/Worsted/10wpi 2-ply.                                          It's just a bit too bulky for knitting garments suitable for wearing in South Carolina. So for my second fiber of the Tour de Fleece 2020 spin   I dove into my stash and came up with a very nice Suri Alpaca from Fawkes Farms Studio 'pencil roving'. From Wikipedia: " Pencil roving  is a type of  roving  that has been drawn until it is the size of a fat  pencil . It can be used by spinners with minimal drafting (withdrawing fibers from a clump). Knitters also use  pencil roving , similar to Lopi style yarns, or when making a thrummed item." It didn't occur to me to split my regular sized roving down into a penci

I was so proud of myself.  I was just spinning away having a good time.  The spinning was going really well. Plying went really well.  I was happy with the way the yarn was coming out.   Then came time to take it off the bobbins and skein it up.  My nephew made this beautiful table-top skein winder for me about a year ago. I thought it would be perfect for winding off the bobbins and faster than using the Niddy-Noddy. And it is!  Until you stop paying attention and the yarn slides off  one of the posts and you can't get it to stay on and wind at the same time and it becomes this disaster. Yea, it was awesome.  I spent several hours wrapping one end onto a Niddy-Noddy and winding the other end into a ball.  It was so fun! 😬  I left it in time out over night to think about the error of it's ways and went to bed to start afresh in the morning.  Ta-Da!  Success! I started with 16oz of Briar Rose Fibers roving and ended up with 640 yds of 2-ply DK (roughly 10 wpi) weight. I've

Every thing is different this year. Every festival (canceled), every event (canceled), every outing (mask up!).  Even just grocery shopping is a challenge (one way isles and 6 foot social distancing).  Thank you COVID-19.  But we must try to continue on as normal as much as we can. So, since I don't actually have to leave my house to join the Tour de France Fleece, I dusted off Fanty and joined the Ride.   Fanty sounds kind of decrepit in the video but IRL he has a very soothing clack, clack, clack. I'm not getting in much mileage but I am spinning every day.  There are no hard and fast rules, just guidelines:  Spin every day the Tour rides, if possible. Saturday June 27 through Sunday July 19th. Days of rest: Monday, July 6th and Monday, July 13th. (Just like the actual tour.) I don't spin a lot.  Actually I usually only spin during the Tour. I decided to start with a couple of the 30 different Samples I picked up from Wool Gatherings  a few years ago.  These 1 ounce samp