Tour De Fleece Progress- Day 3-8

So I am still on my target goal, of completing at least one yarn a day.. though I have slipped a bit in blogging about my progress daily!
Day 3
I carded up a couple amazing batts of assorted blue fleece (targhee, cormo, corridale, merino), a touch of merino top and a TON of rainbow kid mohair locks and blue angelina..
Then I corespun it.. and the yarn is just fabu!! It has such texture! I just love it!




I also corespun some beautiful kid mohair locks "mohairy"- translucent over the novelty yarn, with spots tailspun. I love how it turned out!



All the kid mohair locks in these yarns come from GoatGoatSheep

Day 4
I spun some light worsted soft spun singles of merino/seacell from EGMTK. I added some extra purple and gold angelina..


Day 5
I spun a BUNCH of supercoils which were destined for necklaces..




I also spun some slubby wool destined for necklaces..


Day 6
I corespun a batt of assorted fibers!! Super texture and YUMMY!!


Day 7
I spun up 3 oz of "rough cut diamond" enchanted knoll batts and plied it with silver thread and 12 swvorwski crystals. (plied pics coming later)


Day 8
I started some BEAUTIFUL AllSpunUp merino/silk bamboo. Going for light sport weight soft spun singles


So today.. Day 9
I'm putting away the AllSpunUp to finish later today, and am switching to a corespun atomicblue batt, with an iridescent autowrap. Photos and progress post later tonight. I'm also carding batts today for a shop update. Lots of handspun yarn and a few new batts going up!

Here's the yarns I finished Day 1 and 2

NEW in the shop!! Felt soap and Fiber art Necklaces!!

I'm so excited to be offering some new products in the shop!!

The first is the YUMMIEST handmade cold press soap, by local soapmaker (and fellow ACETeam member) TGurleyBathAndBody Tracey makes the most amazing vegan soaps with pure essential oils. These are big bars! Each one is approx 5oz! I take her wonderful soap and felt soft merino sweaters around the outside!!
Why use felted soap? Well the felted sweater gives you a built in washcloth!! It enhances the lather and gently exfoliates. The felt makes your soap last twice as long and you use every last bit as the felt will shrink as the soap gets smaller!! (This is very important when you are using delicious handmade soaps like these!!) Once the soap is gone use the felt as a scrubbie or put it in a drawer to give your clothes a yummy scent.

There's lots of new scents planned.. Chai spice is coming, as well as a holiday scent. There will be make your own felt kits, as well as mini felted soaps, 1/2 the size of the ones up now, so you can mix and match scents. I can make custom soaps to match any decor! These make the perfect less than $15 gift!!

I'm also super excited about the new fiber art necklaces in the shop. I still have my fun double supercoil style..


But now I'm offering a NEW style!! These new necklaces have fun vintage ribbons and felted handspun yarn and felted crochet cords (from handspun yarn) I felt the ends together, add a loop and a button, and voila! a beautiful drapy fiber art piece!!


Some styles have beehive thread plied yarn, supercoil yarn.. These necklaces have the funkiest handspun around!

Look for lots of new colors and styles coming soon!!

Tour De Fleece Day 2

Today was a fiber filled day.. except I only finished one yarn from start to end! How did I have a fiber day then? BATTS!! I carded another 8 batts for the shop which totaled 12 total that went up today!! Whoo HOO!!
There are some beauties! I really went with luxury today.. adding lots of angora, cashmere and silk!!


I did finish the targhee/finn corespun fleece with angelina and glitterati. My Sunshine Day yarn!!


I also finished a beautiful corespun with a fun textured batt in earthy tones with pops of color, my Forest Floor yarn.


So for my next yarns... probably spun tomorrow (since I can't stay up until 3am again tonight!! LOL!) I'm going to play with some of the yummy kid mohair!! I carded up a version of the shop Mermaid Garden batts, with lots of blue fleeces-cormo, targhee, corridale, cotswold, alpaca.. and lots of rainbow kid mohair locks.. and TONS of blue angelina (of course)



I'm also going to do a 'mohairy' yarn over novelty yarn, with tailspun bits. I carded up some kid mohair locks into a textured cloud with angelina.. and then I have some full locks

Tour De Fleece- Day ONE!!

AND WE BEGIN!! I'm so excited to be participating this year!! Last year I was in the midst of painting our house, and packing up the rental house and just couldn't spin as much as I wanted to.. but THIS year.. My goal is to spin at least one yarn a day.. and blog about it each day! We'll see how far I get.. but day one took me off and running!!
I had a fantastic setup.. with my wheel... the TV and my wonderful hubby brought the laptop in the living room.. so I could even play on the computer and watch the Tour thread on Ravelry



I started with some beautiful batts that are always available in my shop called "Purity" These are smoothie batts with added bits of texture. Beautiful luxury fibers include merino, bamboo, cashmere, silk, tencel, novelty yarn snippets, sparkle and banana silk. I had a custom order to spin these into some worsted singles and it was a pleasure to spin. I just LOVE cashmere!!


Next I moved onto an art yarn that has been screaming for me to make it a reality. My tribute to Michael Jackson art yarn.. King of Pop.
I corespun black and white alpaca with red white and black kid mohair locks, red and carbonized bamboo, red and black silk fabric, red sari silk, red white gold silver and black sequins and TONS of bling!


I was having a great time spinning and watching the tour! It's rare I get an entire Saturday off.. I really wanted to make the most of it!



After I finished King of Pop I had to spin up the new Ewe Give Me the Knits Bfl/Silk that came earlier this week. I went for sport weight singles, and added 2 shades of red and gold angelina for sparkle..



So here's the 3 yarns I finished today.. It's almost a lb of spinning!!
6+ oz purity, 4 oz bfl/silk and 6 or so oz King of Pop!


I've started yarn 4- I guess it's yarn 1 of day 2 since I began spinning it after midnight. It's corespun targhee/finn fleece with angelina and glitterati


I managed to card up 5 new batts for the shop update tomorrow.. hopefully I'll get another 4 carded in the morning to join them..


It was a good day!! I'm going to do a bit more spinning then hit the sack! Tomorrow more fiber fun with carding, spinning and a HUGE update in the evening!!

Tour De Fleece!!!

I can't wait!! Yes.. I said Tour de FLEECE.. no France!! The tour de fleece is a fun summer event that spinners participate in while the Tour de France runs! We spin everyday along with the race. There are teams and prizes. We have the same days of rest.. and when you feel victorious, wear YELLOW!! I'm so excited to start!! Last year we were painting and packing and moving during the Tour and I couldn't spin as much as I wanted to.

This year my goal is to spin everyday and take daily photos of my progress. I also hope to blog a bit daily about my work. I'm really excited for this challenge!! I want to try a few new techniques.. and even try to spin some THIN yarn!! My tour ends in Chicago, as the last weekend I'll be hosting and attending Camp PluckyFluff, one of the coolest art yarn workshops around!!

Tomorrow my spinning time will be at the same time as the race, so it'll be nice to start the tour spinning my wheel along with theirs.. I'm not sure it will always work out that way.. but I'm committed to spinning as much as possible..

I'm on a number of teams.. My main team is the Breakaway team (for art yarns) Then I'm on a number of wildcard teams- Enchanted Elves, Team Loop, Team JazzySpins, Tour de Fish, Hopelessly OverCommitted, Snobby Spinners and StashBusters

YAY!! I can't wait to start!! Off to prep more add in's for my King of Pop yarn that is going on the bobbin first thing. Then some fiery bfl/silk that I plan to spin into soft sport weight singles.. then a Loop batt I plan to corespin with some beads.. Then mayby some tailspun kid mohair locks... and then it might be 2:00.. but if I start at 9:30 I may just make it!!

LOOK for a SHOP UPDATE with new yarns and batts on SATURDAY AND SUNDAY evening!!

Happiness is........15+ lbs of kid mohair!!

So I made a new wonderful friend!! Patti, from GoatGoatSheep is just fantastic.. and she has some of the softest and silkiest kid mohair I have ever felt. I got a small amount.. and then worked out a large amount.. a very large amount!!

The box was like a circus clown car.. locks kept coming out.. in beautiful colors..

Oh I just love the multi colored mardi gras locks!! SO yumtasic!!

Happiness is sorting a rainbow of kid mohair locks...




SO go check out Patti's amazing fiber at GoatGoatSheep and tell her that Esther sent ya!!