In Which the Pirate Spins.

Two-thirds of the way through this year’s Tour de France/Fleece, and I haven’t been spinning or biking nearly as much as I’d planned to. Not that I’ve been completely inactive… I’m just taking it easy.

I’ve been working on spinning this Fiber Optic gradient from end to end, and it’ll be chain-plied to keep the colour sequence. The tricky part is that I’m spinning for a worsted weight yarn, and my hands just aren’t used to making a thicker single! The spinner’s control card comes in really handy here, as I keep stopping every few yards to check that my yarn won’t be gradually getting thinner and thinner.

The fibre is well-prepped except for some short chunks of silk that I remove and discard, but I’m not really enjoying the thicker spinning. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m so accustomed to making a fine single, or because I’m not as skilled at the thicker spinning, or because I’m frustrated at the inconsistent yarn I’m making, or because I have to pause so often to check the single that I’m finding it hard to get into a groove. Hopefully as I do more thicker spinning, it’ll start to feel easier and more natural.

The plan is to knit a hat from the finished yarn. There’s a lot less of the lightest colour and much more of the darker shades, so I plan to start the hat top-down from the aqua. If I’ve done this right, I should get to the brim of the hat and the end of the yarn at the same time.

Meanwhile, I’ve ridden my bike nearly a hundred miles since the Tour began, and I set a new record for my longest ride to date: 50 miles/80 km! My goal for this season is a metric century, 62 miles/100 km, and I’m well on my way to achieving it… though honestly, I don’t know if I want to be on a bike for that long! After my 50 mile ride, I was so beat that I pretty much came home, showered, ate dinner, and went to bed. Amazingly, I wasn’t too sore the next morning.

My ride often takes me over Goose Creek. Some days it’s so hot that I wish I could jump in to cool off!