A successful Tour

Tour de Fleece concluded with the Tour de France, on July 27th – The goal for my tour this year was to spin or do something spinning related each day that the tour was riding while also trying to perfect at least one new skill. I kicked off the tour with trying again at cable plying, and this time it worked out much better than my previous (and first) attempt.

The final weekend of the tour was a mad sprint to the finish – I had a 3-ply combo spin planned (12 oz of fiber) and I still didn’t have the final bobbin of singles finished as of Sunday morning.  I wound up spending the whole day spinning and plying – the final yarn turned out really beautifully. Here’s a quick recap:

Here’s the very last bobbin being finished:

The three bobbins of singles:

The plied bobbins:

and the final skein (I anticipate it will foof up in the wash quite a bit):

Surprisingly, the singles were fairly well matched, there wasn’t much remaining on the other two bobbins when the first bobbin of singles ran out! Final stats for this combo? 12.3 oz / 350g of wool and 992 yards of finished yarn. It’s all Organic Polwarth from HelloYarn and it’s now called Tiny Flickering Tutti Frutti Tart. (The colorways were Tiny Flicker (a club offering), Tutti Frutti, and Tart).

I’m pleased I was able to accomplish as much as I did during this Tour de Fleece – I was able to participate daily in one way or another, and at the end of it, I have 2 lbs of wool transformed into yarn. I spun a grand total of approximately 6550 yards worth of singles which were plied into approximately 2282 yards worth of finished yarn. I have no idea what I’ll do with it all yet, but I do need to start knitting/weaving with my yarn as my handspun storage cubby is now full!