July Wrap Up - Tour de Fleece and other things

My July was mostly filled with Tour de Fleece and all the focus went there.

I bought a couple books, and I'll talk about that next month, if I open them.

So with that Let's talk Tour and FO's and WIPs.

Tour de Fleece is an event that takes place along side the Tour de France bicycle race.  All meeting at the starting line at Ravelry.com we set our personal goals and support each other with each leg of the race.  I can't tell you why I haven't done the Tour in previous years, but this was my Rookie Year on the Tour.

I had goals, oh yes, the Tour is about personal goals and mine were lofty.  I wanted to finish the long term projects on my bobbins and spindles.  I had 8 ounces of Mixed BFL from Blue Moon Fiber Arts that I got at The Fold when they were at the Sewing Show in March of 2012.  I had 2.7 ounces spun on my spindles.

I decided to spin 4 on the wheel and 4 on the spindle.  I finished up my 1.3 ounces on the spindles and completed the 4 ounces on the Sidekick.  I worked a 2 ply on the Sidekick and got a delicate fingering weight.  It's so pretty - in reds, pinks, and greens.

So soft and lofty.  When washed it blossomed!  Oh, I love it.  Aprox 690 yards.  :)

I also have some BFL from Miss Babs I got from her website and from Loopy Yarn in the Loop.  Some in the color Dew and some in the color Envy Me.  They were both BRIGHT GREEN, I love that color.  I spun about half of it up on the Vespera espinner and I was a little green myself when I spun it.

I finished the singles on the Sidekick and plyed on the Vespera.

I worked a 3 ply and it is puffy and glorious.

I then tackled the last long term project.  I have about 5 lbs of llama to spin up.  I'm really struggling with it.  I don't think it's well prepared.  The spinning guild helped me find the problems with it and what to look for next time.  It's full of veg matter, and there are second cuts.  It makes it hard to draft properly without stopping regularly to clean and pick.

So to combat this disheartening task, I SWEAR I will do 3 bobbins of llama between other projects.  I did my 3 bobbins and like it.

The last thing I did was start a new project!  Yay!  It is Corridale from Gale's Art in a Random Colorway - it's blues and purples with a pop of red.  The red is slightly out of place, but I will spin it up and gift it at Christmas.  Here's some pictures:

Love it! I will post on Friday about my WIP's and FO's.  Are you excited?  

July Spinning and Classes

I have finished a couple classes on Craftsy while finishing my Stoker Pullover.  I think I finished them both ... hmmm.

I finished the Fit to Flatter class with Amy Herzog.  A nice follow up to that class would be something on Arm-hole math.  I would love that.  Seriously.  I need that.  Well, her class is pretty great.  The only improvement I could see is that in the beginning we look at pictures and analyzing shape.  We are given the tip - contrasting outfit for your background.  What does she do?  Models in black against a dark wooden background.  Behind Amy?  A pale blue wall.  *shakes head*  There is a lot of tips on math, and some practice.  It was really helpful.  And then - you really only have to do this kind of math once, then you will know what to do for EVERY SWEATER you will make for yourself again.  Assuming you don't change too much.

Well worth it.

I also signed up for the free class - Know your Wool.  And it helped me get my sheepy fix after not seeing any at the Midwest Folk and Fiber.  :)

With the sheep - it's Tour de Fleece!  And Bright Green BFL from Miss Babs is almost complete.  I will wash and set right after posting this!

Pictures:

June's Projects in various states of complete

I've been working fast and furious on my projects.  A lot of KAL's - per usual.  I like to do Camp Loopy with the Loopy Ewe in CO.  I knit swiftly and the 1 project in a month is not too difficult for me.  I like the crazy challenges.

So:

I finished some projects I love.

I have a new pair of socks that have a TARDIS theme!  I worked on them while THE BLACKHAWKS were WINNING!

They are in my Garter Chevron pattern - available BOGO Free right now - use coupon code: FUZZYSOCK2013 use it wisely.

I finished a sweater that I will love in the cold windy winters of Chicago-land.  The Stoker Pullover from the Fit to Flatter book.  I already want to make another in say ... a wool.  The alpaca chainette construction of the Flicker Yarn is going to be so warm.  Oh but the modifications to fit ... Wide hips, as written above the waist, wider arms, and some armscye math.  Cowl neck as written.  :)

A co-worker that I convinced to start going to yoga classes with me has a birthday coming up.  I made her a yoga mat bag that will coordinate with the color of her mat.  It's an aqua color - this is the Om Yoga Mat Bag from the Stitch n Bitch Nation book.  It's probably one of my first knitting books.  My friend Fluffy had it when visiting me back in 2006, and it really inspired me to try new things.  This book and her influence pushed me over the edge.  I made this pattern back then for my yoga mats, I made it bigger for myself and ran out of yarn.  Mine looks crazy, Ning's looks a lot better.

In progress I have a ton.  Always. I cluster knit.

Still in progress are the hexapuffs - I got sick on Monday and made a couple YELLOW ones.  Yellow is making me happy right now.  I'm still working on the Bittersweet Vines set from Anne Hanson.  That project takes brains, and those projects take me a little longer because I have no time for that right now.

I started a blanket for Project Linus 8 strands of yarn given to me from a friend who lost her grandmother.  It's plain acrylic and it's working up nicely.  (size 50's from Bagsmith)  I was on FaceTime with a friend who called her hubby over to watch me work on them.  (Go Team Squishy)

I started another Sallah Cowl.  I love that pattern, it's a free Knitty.com pattern.  Bristol Ivy did a wonderful job, well written.  The only thing missing on Knitty is the schematic, but I think it is on her blog.  I'm working in Packer Themed yarn - Go Pack!

I've also joined a KAL for my old yarn club - The Mean Girls Yarn Club.  Yarns were themed around a villainess of the month.  My year (year 2) was centered around the movies.  I have worked up one - it was hard to find a pattern to work with that yarn.  It looked horrible worked up, but lovely in the skein.  I am still not happy with it, but too stubborn to rip it out.  This yarn - a 2 ply superwash fingering weight screams SPRING with an olive green meeting purple and coral.  I did not want it to blend - I wanted pooling.  I viewed the Run Amok projects on Ravelry, and found when the colors blended it looked brown from a distance.  No - I wanted SPRING.  I went crochet.  I'm doing tiny granny squares that I will couple with a white boarder.  We'll see how this goes :)

Lastly it's time for Camp Loopy project 2 - I'm doing the Helena for a lovely almost 3 YO.  She picked the color - a Flash Dance Purple in Madelinetosh DK.  Here's the progress shot.