Fat Cats Corner

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 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 wit...

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 fe...

A few weeks back I saw an ad for ' The Fiber Event ' while perusing Ravelry .   Oh look!  It's only an hour from my Brother & Sister-in-Law in Indianapolis.  I'll bet they'd LOVE to have me stay with them (for FIVE days, haha!)  Oh look!   Briar Rose Fibers  !!    one of my favorite vendors will be there! Hmm...there is a   'Spinning Luxury Fibers' workshop  taught by  Kate Larson .  And it's not full or expensive! Oh Look!  The Crazy Sheep Lady  (Sara) lives right on my travel route.  And there is Lamb Camp !!! That's it, I'm SO going! And I did :)  I called my brother & SIL and they were too happy to have me stay with them.  So I signed up for the workshop, sent an email to Sara, strapped my spinning wheel into the back seat of Vera and headed North. Vera The 8 hour drive was uneventful and I only ran into rain about 2 hours south of Indy.  My workshop was 9...

There was Knitting.... and all the yarn used was from STASH!  I've put myself on a Yarn Diet these last couple years.  At the rate I knit my yarn stash is considered S.A.B.L.E “SABLE- A common knitting acronym that stands for Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy.” Atlantic Cowl by Antonia Shankland in Classic Elite Yarns Majestic Tweed - Gifted This yarn was purchased in 2015 Denver Cowl by Veronica Parsons Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted - Donated to Charity Yikes, purchased in 2009! About time it found it's project :)  I often bought yarn without a project in mind.  Not the best idea really.  But these yarns have told me eventually "I want to be a scarf/hat etc." Cloud of Softness neckgater by Marji LaFreniere Bijou Basin Ranch , Bijou Bliss - Gifted Yarn purchased in 2015 Great yarn!  I'll be buying more from them. Oops!  Awe, forget the Yarn Diet! Dangling Conversation by Mindy Ross Wolle's...

Yea.  Remember when I posted this list of Knitting Plans?  And a few months later changed that plan to  this one ?  Well let's just agree that this will be a fluid, ever changing plan, O.K.?  O.K., good.  I  did complete the Ocean Cable baby thrown and I frogged the Ethereal Shawl.  And since I didn't have the yarns for Simply Sheer I started Tilted Texture   a pattern that wasn't even on either of the two planned lists.  I'm using a beautiful, hand-painted, fingering weight, 50/50 Merino/Tencel from Briar Rose Fibers called Sea Pearl that I purchased at fiber fair back in 2010.   Sigh.  Well at least I'm knitting.