Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 10

The Cycling: Stage 10 is 167km of a hilly route that starts in Vulcania and ends in Issoire. 

The Daily Challenge: This will help you along a bit...grab two singles that you've spun so far and ply them together...huzzah! A finished yarn!

Suggested Fibre: Whatever you've created so far, or if you've got some in your stash, use those!

What I did

First of all I finished spinning yesterday's Fibonacci spin and then chain plied it.

The finished yarn is 50% Merino, 37.5% Bluefaced Leicester, 12.5% Swaledale, sport weight and 210m/94g.

The second yarn I plied today is the Fractal Spin from Stage 9

The finished yarn is 100% Superwash Merino, sport weight and 421m/110g.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Day 10 - Rest

The Cycling: Today is a rest day.  There is no cycling today.

The Daily Challenge: Use today to catch up, get ahead or just chill.

Suggested Fibre: No recommendation

What I did

Because I have looked ahead at the upcoming challenges I have been able to plan my spinning from day 1.  I haven't always managed to finish on time to be able to do the next days challenge but I have done a lot of the challenges so far.  I know what tomorrows challenge is so today I will be starting on the National Trust braid that I wanted to spin a couple of days ago. It is one of the monthly subscription fibres that I used to have.  It is 50% Merino, 37.5% Bluefaced Leicester and 12.5% Swaledale.  I will be doing another Fibonacci spin, although the colours are more blended in this braid than the first time I tried this style of spinning.

Because of the Swaledale element, there is quite a lot of kemp fibres in this and I've been picking it out as much as possible when preparing this for spinning.  My lengths for this one is 21cm, 42cm, 63cm, 105cm and 168cm.

Top: the lengths of fibre as per Fibonacci sequence
Bottom: one of the lengths split into 3 colour bundles ready for spinning

So, because of how blended this fibre braid is compared to the first one that I did a Fibonacci Spin with, I was only to separate out 3 distinct colours but I'm still happy with that.

It took me so long to sort this one out that I ran out of time for today to be able to finish spinning the single in readiness for the chain ply (navajo ply) tomorrow.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 2

The Cycling: Stage 2 is 209km of a hilly route that starts in Vitoria-Gasteiz and ends in San Sebastian, in Basque Country, Northern Spain.

The Daily Challenge: Finish something!  If you bit off more than you can chew yesterday, get stuck in and complete that spin.  Or, if you put down a project to start TdF, pick it back up.

Suggested Fibre: Anything

What I did

I chain plied yesterday's spun single to keep the colours together.  The finished yarn is perfect for working garments, such as a shawl, where you start with a few stitches at the neck edge and progressively increase the number of stitches as you work the rows.  The progressively increasing colour lengths will match that increasing stitches and the resulting stripes should be pretty even in depth as you work.  If you were to use this type of yarn to knit something that is a straight knit or square or rectangular in shape then the stripes would start off thin and get deeper and deeper as you knit.

The finished yarn is 100% Merino sport weight and 201m/100g.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 1

The Cycling: Stage 1 is 182km of a hilly route that starts and ends in Bilbao, in Basque Country, Northern Spain.

The Daily Challenge: Spin something bold and beautiful.  It can be a particularly vibrant fibre or you can jump straight in with an art yarn with all the bells and whistles!

Suggested Fibre: Pina Colada by Matt

What I did

I didn't watch the cycling today and I'm not sure when I will be able to or even if I will watch the cycling.  I don't seem to be able to get interested in it but I will be tackling the spinning challenges when I can.  I'm certainly not going to blog about the route and sites of interest along the route like I did last year, it was just too much work and I don't think there were any readers other than myself and maybe 1 other person.

I am going to tackle a bold coloured braid of fibre that has been sat in my stash since the 2021 Fibre Advent Calendar.  It is 100% Merino wool and called Ice & Fire.

I have recently been reading and learning about a new-to-me technique called "Fibonacci Spun".  This technique requires a braid of fibre that has long strips of different coloured fibre running the entire length of the braid, like this one does.  It is also best if you spin one long single and chain (Navajo) ply it to keep the colours together.

You have to undo the plaited braid into one long length and then split the braid into lengths that represent the Fibonacci Sequence of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55 etc etc.  Most people miss out the first 1 when they are spinning in this method and I am doing the same.  My lengths are going to be multiples of 7 inches.  So, my first one is 7 inches, second one is 14 inches, third one is 21 inches, fourth one is 35 inches and the last one is roughly 56 inches in length.

Starting with the shortest length of braid, 7 inches, you then split the colours as best as you can into however many colours you can or you want but you don't have do it perfectly.  I split it into 4 colours, dark red, dark blue, orange and pale blue.  Choose which order you want to spin them and then spin each colour bundle in turn.  Work through each length of braid in the same way from shortest to longest and spin the colours in the same sequence each time so by the time you reach the longest part of the braid and split the colours out, each colour bundle will be pretty big.

The resulting spun single will have progressively longer and longer lengths of individual colours and you spin your way through the braid.  To keep the colours together you will need to chain ply (Navajo ply) the yarn on itself.  I can't finish this yarn today, I will have to ply it tomorrow.