Tour De Fleece, Closing in on the End

The Tour de Fleece continues and while I have greatly enjoyed our two rest days, I have been making great progress on my spinning too.

I finished my Cloudlover Merino in Peacock.

It turned out so lovely I can't stand it! It's pretty well-balanced too. Just barely a twist in the skein.

With 730 yards of two-ply from 4 ounces, it's pretty much a true laceweight as well. It isn't washed yet (you have to stop carrying it around and petting it to wash it) I think it will be even more lovely when the twist is set.

I had a hard time stopping myself from taking more pictures.
I've been working hard on my spindle spinning as well.

I really wanted to focus on my spindling this tour. I'm spinning Cloudlover Polwarth in Haunted Vineyard on the Turkish spindle and I'm filling it for the third time. It seems like it's progressing well. Partly because I take it with me everywhere and spin whenever I have a minute. The small size is so great for that.
Next to it is the Spinsanity spindle that I'm spinning Gritty Knits Merino in the April 2010 club colorway. I love it but progress is slow and I haven't focused as much of my spindling time on this spindle.
To the right is the Russian spindle with the Cloudlover Rambouillet in Iris on it. I have filled the spindle once and I'm working on it more. I really would like to enjoy supported spindling and do well at it but some days it goes well and I love it, some days it is a struggle and lately it has felt like more of a struggle than anything. I love the fiber though so I keep plugging away.
I've also been spending time spinning on my wheel.

I just love my Schacht Matchless and the only thing I don't love about it is how heavy it is if you want to take it somewhere. On the left is the fist bobbin of Cloudlover Organic Polwarth/Silk in Artemis. It's so shiny and sleek (and a bit slippery to spin) on the right is the Gritty Knits Rambouillet in La Grande Boucle. I finished the first half of the Artemis last night so I decided to work on the La Grande Boucle and I have to say switching from a sleek, shiny, slippery spin into a bouncy, crimpy spin was a challenge but they're both so beautiful!
I've really been neglecting my knitting the last few weeks and focusing on the tour spinning but did start a new project with handspun on the rest days. I'll save that for next week.
Have a great weekend and if you're doing the Tour de Fleece; Spin fast! We're almost to the finish line!!

Tour de Fleece 2014

Last week sort of got away from me. Sorry about that. This week we're already to Tuesday though and Tuesdays are for spinning. Since it's the Tour de Fleece I figured I should at least post something here about my goals for the Tour.

I laid out all the fiber I'd like to spin.

At the top, on the bobbins is some coarse brown wool I've had for a couple of years. I've been spinning it into a traditional 3-ply for a sweater and I have had it partly finished for so long. I decided my very first goal was to finally finish it.
Below that, starting on the left, the peachy fiber is Merino/Bamboo from Zarzuela's Fibers (sadly no longer dyeing) To the right of that is the Gritty Knits Tour de Fleece colorway La Grande Boucle on Rambouillet. Then Cloudlover Organic Polwarth/Silk in Artemis. On the far right is Cloudlover Merino in Peacock. I had started it on a spindle and I'd like to finish it but I'll be doing it on the wheel.
Then in the front on the left is Cloudlover Rambouillet in Iris on my Russian Spindle. It was also already started and I'm planning to keep working on it. Then to the right of that is some Gritty Knits Merino from the Merino of the Month club way back in April of 2010! I'm working on it on a spindle as well. I really like how it's coming out so I plan to keep working on it.
At the last minute I also decided to add;

This Cloudlover Polwarth in Haunted Vineyard from the Knitgirllls SAL/KAL.
My main goals though are just to keep working on all these things, every day of the tour and make some progress.
The first thing I did was finish the coarse brown wool.

On the first day I filled 3 bobbins with the last of it and plied it up into yarn the next day. (Just the 3 in the front) It's all finished and I'm so glad. To be honest, I kinda hate it now so I don't know that I will knit with it very soon. As a matter of fact, I may just sell it.

I'm making okay progress on the other things though but sadly slowly because my spinning time the last couple of days has been seriously cut short.