In Which the Pirate Jumps In.

Okay, I did it – I signed up for the Tour de Fleece. I joined three teams: Rookies, because it’s my first year; Kool Kromskis, because I’ll be doing most if not all of the spinning on Grace the Sonata; and Lantern Rouge… because with this mysterious ankle injury, I might not be able to spin every day. But I’m going to try my whole-hearted best, and if I don’t make it, at least I have a good excuse.

I haven’t yet decided what fibre I’m going to spin first. There’s so much to choose from – and that’s the main reason I signed up for this crazy thing, because I’m not letting myself buy any more fibre until I’ve used up some of what I’ve got. July’s challenge in Spinner Central is chain plying/navajo plying, so I think I’ll give that a shot. Other than that, I really have no plans past “spin, spin, spin, and spin some more.” I just want to use up some of the beautiful fibre I’ve got and try some new things in my spinning.

Most of what I produce will probably be sock- or DK-weight yarn, because that’s what I most like to knit with. If I finish up the sparkly blue stuff I have, that’ll be more of a worsted-weight – at least, if I want the second half to match the first. And the finn/mohair batts were never meant to be a fine yarn, not with how chunky they are. I’ve been joking for a while that I want to have a “Drunken Spinning Night” during which I have a glass or bottle of wine and spin completely without any perfectionism. Perhaps towards the end of the Tour de Fleece, I’ll be more than ready to do something like that.