I started making this as soon as I finished making the last one, on 25th April 2023.
All of the threads used on this project are taken from one dye lot per colour. I didn't take any work-in-progress photos at all and I have no idea how I forgot to do that, other than the fact that my father-in-law passed away the first week of May and I was busy helping my mother-in-law and husband with all that that entails.
The Cycling: Stage 1 is 206km of a hilly route that starts in Florence and ends in Rimini.
The Daily Challenge: Florence is steeped in history and some of the most beautiful architecture in the world, but most importantly, it is the birthplace of gelato all the way back to the 1500's! Keeping it chilled and easy, grab your favourite cool tones for today's spin.
Suggested Fibre: Ice Cream, a cool blend of 67% 23mic Merino and 33% Milk Protein Fibre.
What I did
I didn't do any spinning today because I was busy finishing a crochet shawl in Twilley's Goldfingering which should have been finished by mid-week but due to the heatwave and how horrible and sticky the heat was I got behind my own personal schedule.
I have again signed up with the same team that I have signed up to in the previous 3 years to participate in the TdF. It all kicks off on 29th June this year. I will blog about it as and when I can, although I will endeavour to set up all the blog posts before the event and just add the info, photos etc as and when I get chance to but I will be keeping it simple, like I did last year, as that worked better for me.
This year the Team organisers have produced three fibre braids for the Tour. Pink Champagne for Stage 9 - 62.5% Merino, 37.5% Tussah Silk - subtle merino shades with soft pink Tussah Silk to achieve the colour of its namesake. Waterway for Stage 18 - 50% Romney, 25% Shetland, 25% Bamboo - in a cool watery tone. Flora - 50% Corriedale, 37.5% Rambouillet, 12.5% Sari Silk - inspired by the Bataille de Fleurs. They also set up a section in the shop for the event and added all the suggested fibres for us to use on the challenges that they are going to set, rather than give us a long list.
This year, once the event starts, those of us who want to look ahead at the challenges to come will be able to do so, on the same proviso as last year, and that is to not openly discuss the challenges on the team chat boards.
This year I have more than enough fibre to spin but I might struggle to find time to get much spinning actually done but I will do what I can, when I can.
I started making this back in September 2023, using this project as something to work on when I had to sit in a café and while away an hour or so when my youngest first started college and was only in for 2 hours on a Friday morning and it wasn't worth driving home to turn around and come back again. He was in for longer the rest of the week and also at times when I had to sit and wait at appointments and such. I don't have to sit and wait now so I've decided to finish making it a bit quicker.
At the end of November I was playing with my blending hackle and created this fibre for spinning. I have finally found some time to sit down and get some spinning done over the Easter break. During the pre-draft I had to try my best to ensure that various lumps and bumps of the additions to the wool were spread out along the length and then during the spinning process, which I started on 2nd April, I had to make sure that I pulled apart and thinned out the lumps of Silk Noil as I went and ensured that they were well secured in with the spin and again on the ply.
I've not gone for anything really fine due to the amount of lumps and bumps that I put into the blend and so I've spun this up to Double Knit weight (11 wpi), producing two skeins for a total of 193g/457m. The fibre content is 75% Llandovery Whiteface Hill Wool, 9% Tussah Silk, 6% Trilobal Nylon, 5% Silk Noil, 5% Hemp.
Back in this post from December 2020, I came up with the idea of doing a sampler featuring the wools of different sheep breeds and I mentioned that I would make two different ones, one for the 57 different pure breed British Breeds (not including standard crosses like Welsh Mule, Masham etc) and one for the other breeds that are non-British (even if there are flocks of some of them now living in the UK).
I am building up quite a collection of small amounts of fleece and ready-to-spin fibre for a lot of these breeds and what I have been doing this past month or so, since 13th January, is that I have been preparing some of the small amounts of washed fleece ready for spinning.
Top half of photo collage
Large picture top left - Norsk Spelsau - Norway
Small picture top middle - Galway - Ireland
Small picture top right - Berrichon du Cher - France
Small picture 2nd row middle - Coloured Beltex - Belgium
Small picture 2nd row right - Blue Texel - The Netherlands
Lower half of photo collage
Small picture top left - Roussin de la Hague - France
Small picture top middle - Tiroler Steinschaf - Austria
Small picture bottom left - Harjedalsfaren - Sweden
Small picture bottom middle - Ouessant - France
Large picture bottom right - Klovsjo - Sweden
These are all different kinds of fleece, there are some very bouncy, almost "Downs-like" fleece, some are more longwool type and some are dual-coated like the Harjedalsfaren. I've not started spinning any of the breeds that I have just yet but I do know that I will need to spin finer yarns than I did for the British Breeds project as I have limited amounts of each of them due to cost and availability but also because when I do the designs I not only need to get the name of the breed in the design but also the country such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Ireland, USA etc etc whilst still keeping the entire project within a manageable physical size.
What I have so far, besides those above are: Rambouillet (France), Eider (Germany), Targhee (USA), Pommersches Landschaf (Germany), Texel (The Netherlands, and considered a different breed from Blue Texel), Swedish Finewool (Sweden), Helsinge (Sweden), Asen (Sweden), Varmland (Sweden), Roslad (Sweden), Gestrike (Sweden), Rya (Sweden), Gotland (Sweden), Finnish (Finland), Nederlandse Bonte Schaapo (The Netherlands), Highlander (New Zealand), Coburger Fuchsschaf (Bavaria), Swiss Valais Blacknose (Switzerland), Corriedale (New Zealand), Charollais (France), Polwarth (Australia), Perendale (New Zealand), Icelandic (Iceland), Zwartbles (The Netherlands), Tiroler Bergschaf (Austria), Faroese (Faroe Islands), Norwegian (Norway), Punta Arenas (Chile), Beltex (Belgium), Est a Laine (France), Cormo (Tasmania/Australia), Gutefar (Sweden) and Falkland Merino (Falkland Islands).
There are others that I am on the lookout for, as and when I see them, depending on costs and ability to be able to import them or not. Merino is traditionally and historically a Spanish sheep so I will make sure I have some standard Merino in this project too. At some point I will have to make the decision that I have enough samples and get designing and spinning but I'm in no immediate rush to do that as I'm happy to see what this years may bring forth first.
With the festive celebrations and everything else it has taken me around about a month to spin up the entirety of this blend that I put together myself back in June 2023, but then there is just over 450g of it. I finished spinning the first skein on 16th December 2023 and the last skein on 10th January 2024.
All of the skeins are sport weight and they are reasonably soft considering the fact that majority fibre in the blend is Whitefaced Dartmoor. The fibre content is 67.5% Whiteface Dartmoor, 13.5% Merino, 5% Corriedale, 4% Tussah Silk, 3% Hemp, 3% Longwool breed, 3% Sari Silk, 1% Angelina. Unfortunately the Angelina doesn't show up in the photos but it is there and under the right lighting conditions you can see little purple sparkles in the yarn. In total there is 454g/859m.
