Tour - Day 23 - The Last Day

Today was the last day of spinning for the Tour de Fleece.  I'm sad to see it go, but I like the idea of having some spare time to do what I want to do.  Not that I couldn't do that anyway, but it was a contest, and I felt compelled. I feel compelled every year and next year won't be any different.  I'll be back!

The last fiber I spun was Frabjous Fibers, BFL in High Tide, 8 ounces that I plied this morning, washed this morning and waited for it to dry - which it didn't.  It was so humid today that nothing dried, even the yarn I washed yesterday is still damp!  Oy!

At the suggestion of Monika, I made this yarn a three ply and overfilled two bobbins to get what has got to be almost 400 yards.  Three ply was smarter than chain ply because there are no lumps, just plain smooth yarn.  Thanks for the tip, Monika.

The alpaca and silk from the Sheep Shed and the wool and kid mohair from Capistrano didn't dry either, and I put them up yesterday!

But the still look pretty!  I see a fake fair isle hat with these two yarns together.  Their colors are so complimentary.

I think I figured out the secret of plying.

Everything I've read says that when you're plying you should stop and let the fiber hang.  An even/balanced yarn won't wind on itself.  Yeah, OK.  That doesn't work for me because my yarn doesn't hang down without plying on itself.  Honestly, I'm not going for balance, I'm going for looks.  It's shallow, I know, but don't care if my socks lean to the side - as long as they go on my feet.  So that was my light bulb moment.  Now, if only I can remember that for next year's Tour.

So the tour is done, but I still have wet yarn in the house.  I haven't measured any of it and I don't want to because it's still so hot and humid.  The only thing that's going to change around here is that I don't have to spin, but I still have lots of yarn work to do.  It's not going to happen tonight.

This evening I plan to knit in bed.

Keep cool!