I have committed to achieve some goals in a Ravelry spinning group challenge this month. The challenge is organised so that each spinner sets her or his goals, and allocates points totalling 100.  We aim to get at least 70 points done each month.  This is for each of us to get more spinning done, and to spin down our stashes a bit.

My goals are to

1. finish spinning the last quarter of the singles needed for my cabled sock yarn (20 points)
2. ply and then cable ply that yarn (40 points)
3. finish the yarn on my Windwheel that has been languishing for far too long (20 points)
4. spin 10 minutes a day minimum of alpaca fleece on my little spindle. Those 12 fleeces aren’t going to spin themselves. (20 points).

I have finished the singles for the cabled yarn (20 points), and have finished the singles on the Windwheel yarn, and have yet to ply them.  I might even do that tonight, you never know.  The plying and cable plying will take a while longer, I will have to set myself up in front of a couple of good movies I think.  The alpaca is on a hiatus at the moment, since I can only seem to make decent yarn on my wee turkish spindle, and crap yarn on my wheels and other spindles.  I don't know how big the cop has to be on the turkish, so I might stop spinning on it now, take the yarn off, and start another cop.  Wish me luck, I'm not so good at handling singles once they come off spindles.

Go me!

Stage 8 - I finished the 50g of rainbow coloured silk tops that has been on  my Windwheel for over 12 months.  Hooray!

I didn't think to put a lego brick in the picture for size perspective (Lego bricks are my inclusion for standardising colours and sizes, coins are no good, most of the rest of the world doesn't know what Au cents look like), but the yarn is very very very thin.  Like super thin.  Think hair or sewing thread.  Next challenge is to navajo ply it, which will be a very long undertaking indeed.  I will have to move the kids out for a week to get it done.  Or even better, move myself out for a week.  Yes... good plan.

I was going to blog every day with my le Tour spins, but this week has been a bit hideous.

Here is what I can remember.

Day one - stayed up late knitting Party Wig, and stopped knitting to get in an hour or so worth of spinning rainbow silk on my Windwheel.  The singles that this silk is turning into is either cobweb weight or lace weight, and will likely end up being navajo plied to keep the colours together.  I've had this on the wheel for over a year and I would really really like it to be finished.

Day two - I only managed about 10 minutes of spinning of alpaca fleece on my teensy tinsy new turkish spindle.  The alpaca is part of the many kg of raw alpaca fleece I was given last year, and I washed it, dried it, carded it, combed it and dizzed it off into gorgeous soft delicious top.  When I tried spinning it on my wheel I couldn't find my mojo at all, so I am really happy that it is spinning up so well on the spindle.  I also managed a wee bit more rainbow silk on the Windwheel

Day three - some more alpaca on the baby spindle, and also a bit of time spinning laceweight merino/silk on my other spindle

Day four - spindling, both merino/silk and alpaca.

Day 5 - about an hour spinning rainbow silk on the Windwheel.

It is all I can do to get the spins done, I haven't managed photos yet.  Maybe this weekend.

I have signed up to participate in the Tour de Fleece, which is a challenge to spin every day of the Tour de France.  I wanted to do this last year, and I can't even remember what it was that got in the way of me doing it, so I am going to spin in the 2011 Tour.

My goals for this tour are to

• finish the rainbow silk that has been on my Windwheel since at least this time last year, and even navajo ply it if I can be bothered
• spin as much alpaca as I can on my new wee turkish spindle.  Even though it feels like moving a mountain one grain of sand at a time (since I started out with 17 whole fleeces, and this spindle only spins a tiny amount at a time), it is good to get some of it spun finally
• put a dent in the bag of merino silk that I am spinning on my other spindle
• go stash diving - shut my eyes and stick my hand into my tub of fibre and spin whatever I pull out.  I really would like to reduce my stash, because it is awkward to want to buy new stash when this stash is not really in control any more.  Must remedy this situation!

I will be spending a lot of time at the theatre since Monkey 1 will be doing rehearsals and performances in a show for the 2 weeks of the school holidays, so I will take one spindle or the other with me and try to get in 10 minutes at a time wherever I can.

I might hit my goals, or I might miss, but I will get some more spinning done and that will be fine.

some more jumbo bobbins for my wheel! yippee!



They were out of stock at Christmas time so they came in a box with my other fibrey Christmas present from my sister and her Laddo. They signed me up for Fibre Club at Ewe Give Me the Knits!, and the first installment of fibrey goodness arrived this week.


150 or so grams of superwash merino in autumny colours. Maybe it will be socks? gotta love machine washable socks :) It might go all chunky and into an art yarn for a hat or a scarf...

I think that I need to work on getting my jumbo flyer mojo happening before I do anything with this fibre. Also I am waiting on an orifice reducer bush (fnar fnar) so that I don't have to screw the big orifice thingy on and off when I change flyers. Too many little bits to lose, and since Monkey 4 is now scritching around the floor very capably, the fewer little bits around to lose the better.

The Love of my Life ordered me a last minute Christmas present, hoping that it would arrive here before the 25th. The big day arrived but my parcel didn't.

Not very happy...

On new years eve, Mandie from Ewe Give me the Knits rang us to check our address since the parcel was returned to her, saying that there was no such address. WTF??? She had addressed it properly to us, using the same address that Australia Post has recognised and delivered to for the last 7 years that we have been living here.

She posted it again, and today it arrived.

I was a bit excited but mostly "it's about time"...

Before I could put the flyer on my wheel, I had to oil it and put a few bits together.

And then I had to change one of the orifice supports on my wheel. If you aren't into spinning, the orifice is the hole at the front that the yarn gets sucked into like a toddler eating spaghetti.
Myself, I still feel a bit weird when I think of poking stuff into my orifice, esp in polite company. Orifice. Heh heh. Anyhow, the orifice (heh heh) support for the new flyer was a teensy bit bigger than the old one,
so I had to get to the maiden (the wooden bit (seriously, maiden, orifice, spinning is a dirty business...)) with the bit of sandpaper that came in the kit of goodies, probably for that purpose.

Then I found that the brake band wouldn't fit (too short) and the quick modification I made using a hairband wouldn't work (too dodgy), so there was nothing fot it but to pirate some fishing line from TLOML's fishing rod. One of these days I am going to need to upgrade to a new postie elastic band instead of the old one that I am using.
I had a go at plying some singles that I spun more than 12 months ago, when I was only just pregnant with Monkey 4, and really nauseous. In honour of its history, I proclaim this yarn to be Funky Chunky Chucky. Don't say that too fast, if you do it will sound worse than me going on about orifices.

Finally, some fibre all spun up and ready to use :)

I bought this fibre at the Old Bus Depot Markets on Wool Day a few months ago. Isn't it GORGEOUS?!?!?


So I spun it up with lots of air, so that it can be a nice soft beannie for the new Monkey. I then plied (my first ever ply!) it with some rayon machine embroidery thread in a beautiful purple, making it look like this

Nice! I have spun up a second bobbin of this opaly merino roving, and plied most of it. It is on the niddy noddy as I type, and the rest of the bobbin will be plied hopefully tonight. Then on the niddy noddy, in for a wash, a dry and then to crochet a little Monkey hat. Awwww!