In Which the Pirate Spins With the Tour.

My Tour de Fleece got off to a slow start, but this weekend I picked up the pace. I’m starting with this Ashland Bay merino/tussah blend that I picked up at Maryland Sheep and Wool way back in 2011. I have two ounces each of three colourways, so I split each one into quarters to make two equal skeins of two-ply yarn. The blend of colours in the purple one (“Concord”) is fantastic – and yes, all that does come out to be a heathery purple, as you can see in the plied yarn below.

I like to watch the Tour de France while I spin. On Sunday morning I first watched the F1 race and then the Tour stage, and listened to the purr of the Sonata as the riders climbed up yet another mountain and complained about the spectators who run alongside them on the road. Some of them do get frighteningly close!

By the end of the weekend, I’d spun and plied all of the purple and half of the white (the colourway is actually called “Lilac”.) The third colour is a dark teal blend named “MacKenzie”. As usual, there aren’t any plans for what to do with the finished yarn, which seems to be plying up at a sport or DK weight. A hat? Armwarmers?

Then I get the fun of choosing the next fibre to spin and which wheel to spin it on – last weekend I unpacked the Schacht-Reeves, which has come through the dangers of moving house completely unscathed, and is all set up and ready to go. I’d have to carry it down two flights of stairs into the living room if I wanted to spin and watch the Tour at the same time, though.

Speaking of “unscathed,” did I mention that I had to glue the Sonata back together? The upright had split where the rod for the mother-of-all drops in, almost certainly because I’d overtightened it too many times. (Hey Kromski: it would be a significant design improvement to have a metal sleeve in that hole.) I repurposed one of the syringes that I usually use to transfer ink, and injected wood glue into the crack, then clamped it and left it to dry. Now you can barely tell where the crack had been, and I’m being much more careful about tightening the screw – though that does mean the MOA is more prone to shifting around.