We’re about halfway through the Tour de Fleece, and I’m enjoying it immensely. I’ve been spinning every night so far, and a bit more on the weekends. The rolags that I made are quite nice to spin: they are soft, draft easily, and are full of colour surprises. When making them, I tried to be random about the colours, so I really don’t know what to expect when spinning them. Fun!
I started with my MirkwoodArts spindles. I’m participating in the Mirkwood team this year, so I wanted to showcase and use my Mirkwood collection. These are fine spindles. I did have a collection of these a few years ago, sold them at one point because I felt they did not spin entirely to my liking, but then I purchased a few again that had my favourite spinning characteristics (Russian-like, with a whorl that has some weight). I was not disappointed, and really enjoyed spinning with them again. I do not have a preference for pointed or crowned tips, I must say, they spin very similar.
After one week of spinning I had just moved on to my eighth spindle, one of my Mingo & Asho Glasspins. I’m trying to spin this project with similar spindles to keep the singles as consistent as possible. I’m estimating that it would become a fingering to sport weight with a 2-ply, or a DK weight with a 3-ply. I had spun about half of my rolags at this point.
In the last couple of days I have continued spinning with my Glasspins. Yesterday evening I added a Malcolm Dyavol to the mix. Still 7 rolags to go!
And what will it become? I’m not sure yet, in the beginning I thought I might knit it into a large shawl. But now that I see the randomness and playfulness of the colours, I’m thinking about weaving with it. That way, the colours of the warp will interact with the colours of the weft, which will be more interesting than a knitted colour change once in a while. I will probably chain ply the singles, and do a double-width weave on my Sample-It to create a generous wrap with happy colours!
