And We're Off

Saturday was the official Kick-off of the Tour de France and therefore also the kick-off of the Tour de Fleece. It's very exciting. My goals are to spin 2 braids of fiber (4 oz. each) to be navajo-plied into sock yarn.

I haven't actually chosen the second but here is a sneak peek of the first and how it's going.

This is my Gritty Knits Merino Braid of the Month from May of this year. Isn't it great? I love getting fiber every month and this club is great because you pay monthly so it doesn't come all at once.

I have been planning to N-ply it to keep the beautiful colors together and it's going to be sock yarn so I wanted some great stripes so I stripped it the full length of the braid.

And, on Saturday, I started spinning. So far, I've spun almost 2 oz. of the first braid.

Here are some gorgeous singles

I'm glad that I'm "ahead" right now because if I lose momentum as time goes on, I can hopefully still finish. So far, things are looking GREAT.

In other news, I feel like I won the lottery because I have been chosen as the chart test-knitter for one of Susan Pandorf's amazing patterns. I'm knitting the Bombadil hat (it's in her series based on the Lord of the Rings and it's based on a character that was left out of the movies named Tom Bombadil.)

It's several rows of colorwork followed by one color twisted stitches. It's beautiful so far, even though I'm knitting it out of other colors besides those that are recommended and the pattern is beautifully written (charted).