Whew!

The Tour de Fleece ended last Sunday, and boy was I glad!  Four teams is just too many for me, so next year I won't be on so many.  I sorta met my goals - I got more comfortable on Russian/Tibetan spindles and the great wheel.  I finished "Treebeard" that was on the Reeves, and finished the singles that were on the Polonaise and the Babe Production:

I made another Tibetan last weekend - I call it a "Tiny Tibetan", as it's only 8" long and I made it short to be a better traveling spindle.  Since it's short, I had enough left over to turn a spinning cup too, and the two are great together!

I tested it on the drive to the woodworking store yesterday, and it's great for in-the-car spinning, though the cup could be a bit deeper for when you go over bumps:

A Dyeing Wish's Star Trek spin-along colorway "Enterprise".  It's very sparkly, so I love it. :-D  I layered the 3 different batts on top of each other and am pulling fauxlags from it.

The purple in front is an add-on - all purple and extra-sparkly, that I think I'll spin as a fine single and ply it with the Enterprise 2-ply.  Maybe.  I might like the 2-ply enough to not add anything to it.

The ubiquitous puppy pic:

As the spindle turns...

Or, rather, the lathe. :-)  I've been making spindles this weekend.  I made another Tibetan, which looks much like the first one.

And I made a phang from paduak - interesting wood, and interesting spindle:

And today I turned a Russian from zebrawood:

Are those cool or what?!

And I spun a bit on all of them (except the newest Tibetan - the spinning point needs a little work yet).

And for my sister:

So why is it...

Dogs are drawn to a freshly-made bed like cats to laundry baskets???

The first week

of Tour de Fleece is under my belt, and I'm already faltering. :-/  I'm finding it difficult to do so many different things in an evening (even though it's only 3 things - spindle wheel, supported wheel, flyer wheel).  But I've been spinning on the Tibetan:

(pygora)

and the Russian:

(silk hankie)

and the great wheel (except for the past two days)

(unknown fiber)

And I finished plying the camel/silk on the Bulky Pinkie:

It took me ALL WEEKEND to ply the camel/silk. :-/  I'm not sure if it was because it's fine (2-ply at ~24 wpi) or if it is due to use the BPinkie.  And I overspun the singles, so I don't know how the yarn will turn out.  Keep your fingers crossed!

I should have done a before picture...

This weekend I went to my mom's and worked on her neglected yard (actually, I've been working on it the past couple of years but really made progress this time).  Now it looks pretty nice!

I'm still not finished, but it is sooo much better!

In spinning news, the Tour de Fleece has started! :-D  I had to start late due to being away at Mom's, but I made up for it today.  I worked on the Reeves project and the Tibetan & Russian spindles and my great wheel  For the spindles my goals are to learn how to use them (Tibetan & Russian) and improve my techniques (the great wheel), so I won't be spending quite as much time on them as on the wheel-spinning.

I'm continuing the pygora on the Tibetan:

And I started a CHF silk hankie on the Russian:

The Reeves project looks the same (though still very pretty)

as does the great wheel fiber, though this was my view while I was trying to spin on it this afternoon:

I didn't do much 'walking'!