Tour de Fleece, Day4

Not able to do lots, but working steadily on my project. I'm hitting my goal of 12 wraps/inch!

Tour de Fleece

I'm participating in the Tour de Fleece.  It's an event for which spinners like myself spin something challenging all throughout the Tour de France when another type of spinner is also doing something challenging.    Here's a photo of my first day.

Brrr?

It's actually a little bit cold here and I'm looking at buying a heater to deal with it.  I'm of two minds about it because the heat is due to be turned on in a week and it seems silly not to just wait and see if it's necessary.  BUT!  We have a guest coming this week-end from Brazil and all I know about Brazil is steamy jungles and sun-tans, and the dog won't come out from between her blankets.  Not even to piddle.  Accidents have started to happen.

See?

Free time

I've been spinning a lot of wool into the fattest yarn I have ever made.  I almost have enough for my project, a pair of felted clogs.  I use the Fiber Trends pattern and this will be the second pair I have made. I'm really enjoying the process of spinning a yarn that is perfect for the felting process.  Ok, so I do feel smug about spinning what I want instead of buying woolen yarn and doubling and trebling it until it's fat enough to make the gauge required by the pattern.  I'll soon be dyeing it, too, and yes, I am gloating a little, about adding this extra step to the whole satisfying process. There is a tiny bit of risk-taking, as you might end up with something really ugly and be stuck with a frightful lump to put in the back of the closet, but over-all, it's worth it for the happy times spent in exploring colors, feeling the yarn form between your fingers, watching the bobbins fill.  Right now, I'm thinking about moss green with smokey purples and a touch of spring green/almost yellow?  Lots of choices to be made.

Yarn for the first pair of clogs

Here's a photo of the yarn in process that for the first pair of clogs.  It was a commercially prepared top-for-felting from New Zealand with a good hand.  I finally located a carded, undyed roving from Chile so that's what I'm using for the second pair.

And here's the carded roving I'm working with now.  It's been heavily picked, is medium soft, and may be a Corridale cross, but I haven't been able to find out yet. Time to go pat and smooth it a bit.

Rethinking it

I've already re-thought my decision to keep this blog private.  If anyone out there finds my thoughts interesting enough to make a friendly comment, I'd like to hear it.  That's the beauty of blogging, surely.

first post

I just discovered a blog I started about 4 years ago as a trial.  I've temporarily disabled the settings that would allow this blog to be found easily on the web.  I'm thinking--if it took me 4 years to get around to my first post, it might not be the most active blog a person could read.  Still, it's been on my mind a lot for a while, so why not?  Now that I have actually moved out of the States perhaps I have something to share.

In that vein, I'll say that I have moved to Santiago, Chile.  I'm slowly exploring the place.  So far, I'm fascinated by the people and the place.  I don't have any juicy horror stories but I'll be sharing my experiences such as they are. My husband is currently part of the team building the new Baha'i House of Worship in Santiago.  I don't hear much of what goes on there but will include what I can.  Poco a poco, little by little.

And yes, this place has a lot of little earthquakes.  If they don't reach more than 7 on the Richter scale, they're called temors, not earthquakes.  I'm on the top floor of a 15 story building and up here a 6.something tremor is a bit of a roller coaster ride.