Woolly Wednesday December 2012

Welcome to our Woolly Wednesday gathering for December, whether you are a regular or a new visitor - come and share with us all what you have been doing with wool or fibres in the last month. All crafts and inspiration welcome. A busy month with Yule, Christmas and other Seasonal celebrations so we look forward to seeing what you have been up to or your plans.

Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!.

Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Spinspiration, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture - upload the picture and then add the url (http://spinwheelspin.blogspot.com/) and the image will link to here. Join us with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month or to a post in the month ahead, we look forward to seeing you, no time limits just join us when you can.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it, and Seasons blessings to those who celebrate the season in other ways. See you in 2013!

Lydia's December Woolly Wednesday

I am posting appallingly late in the day but it is still just about Wednesday. I haven't had a chance to spin anything this month, which is disappointing, especially as my Lendrum is sat there looking mournfully at me. But I have been knitting, which is a miracle for me because I really struggle with knitting. Spinning is so much easier, you don't have to remember a complicated pattern and the fibre only goes in one direction.

I started the Fatigue Cap a while ago but it turned out to be way too big so I frogged it and then could not work out the maths at all. You would think it would be simple if you know the number of stitches to the inch and the number of inches around the person's head. But every time I tried to work out how many stitches I needed to cast on I got a different answer.

I have at last solved the maths problem and the hat is the right size. The next issue is I am running out of yarn. The Fatigue Cap is a very simple pattern, it is a straight tube with no shaping but the pattern says make the tube 36 inches long. This seems extremely long to me and I'm really not sure how the hat is meant to be worn, it must end up double thickness but that may be uncomfortably hot. As I am running out of yarn I have decided to give up on the pattern altogether and just shape the top of the hat following a different pattern.

 This is only my second project using circular needles and I must say I love them. I find going round in circles strangely soothing. I think I may just have to make another hat. This time I'd like to use my own handspun, so I'm bound to have more issues with maths. By the time I've finished pulling out my hair trying to work out how many stitches to cast on I will need a hat to cover my baldness.

Dawns December woolly days ...

Busy times!

I have been spending quite a bit of my time during the last month spinning and knitting, lots of different projects, some small, some bigger, some gifts, some just for fun. Lots of other things keeping me busy too with school and Christmas not far away, but enjoying cosy nights with wool in one way or another.

My autumn spinning has been completed, plied as a 2 ply to get a decent yardage - approximately 340 metres of DK weight yarn destined to be a shawlette for me to wear as a scarf. I was intending to have cast it on by now but have been concentrating on other knitting I wanted to do first. Hope to share a picture of the finished item in the new year, here is the yarn.

I am now spinning some fibre from my stash which is drum carder blended alpaca, wool and a little bamboo. Looking good so far with one bobbin full and another hot on its heels.

2nd bobbin and a sample of the yarn plied

In knitting I have been quite productive. I have knitted some socks for my daughter out of some of my handspun from 2009! A little lumpy and bumpy but lovely and soft and she helped my dye this yarn in black beans. I didn't get the mordant right so a lot of the colour ran out, but it's a lovely silvery light blue.

Handspun, hand-dyed local fleece socks hand-knitted

Determined to work my way through my handspun stash, I have knitted several small projects to use up all those oddments. So I have knitted a tablet cover, a kindle cover, another kindle cover (different sized kindle!), a mobile phone cover and a small bag to felt.

 Various covers knitted in Double Knitting style so completely seamless

Not from handspun but I have knitted some booties for a relatives baby due in 2013. I will be knitting more and some other pieces for them in the new year.

Newborn booties

Back to handspun yarn, this Dorset Horn from my stash has been wound into yarn cakes ready to knit the next pair of socks.

Yarn ready for socks

Other crafty projects in the making, but I can't share them here just yet.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is doing.

Thank you all for sharing this space over the year. I leave you all with a wish for a wonderful festive season however you celebrate it, and I look forward to sitting and chatting with you in 2013.

Merry Christmas, Yule blessings ...

Woolly Wednesday November

Welcome to our Woolly Wednesday gathering for November, whether you are a regular or a new visitor - come and share with us all what you have been doing with wool or fibres in the last month. All crafts and inspiration welcome.It's a little quiet here some months, we would love to hear from you. Have you been spinning, knitting, felting, crochet, etc


Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!.

Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Spinspiration, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture -  upload the picture and then add the url (http://spinwheelspin.blogspot.com/) and the image will link to here. Join us with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month or to a post in the month ahead, we look forward to seeing you, no time limits just join us when you can.

Dawns Woolly November post

 Autumnal fibres - more on that later

Hello November! Hello fibre lovers. What are you up to?

October has seen a flurry of activity spinning, knitting, and felting. First off I have finished spinning the Romney Marsh fleece I was spinning last month. I ended up with several bobbins full, so many that I forgot to leave one of the Wee Peggy bobbins free for plying! Doh! I pondered plying it on the Louet wheel, but instead I sat and wound off one of the bobbins onto a spare ashford bobbin I had. Plying commenced and took quite some time. I have a lovely bundle of skeins of this 2ply yarn - decided to ply all of the remainder as a 2 ply and it has resulted in a lovely yarn approximately 4ply with 14 wpi. All together I have about 630m, enough for a decent sized project. Awaiting washing still, but it's on my to do list!

 Romney Marsh skeins

 A few weeks ago was our local Guild meeting, a much anticipated meeting as we welcome Wingham Wool Works to the guild with all of their lovely wares to feel, to sample and to buy. I haven't previously taken my wheel to this day as I get involved in other things and never get around to spinning. But this year I was determined I would take the wheel and sample some fibres not spun before, and colourful combinations to get an idea of things I would like to spin again and also inspiration for colour blending. I had a lovely day, sampled lots of different things and have resulted in a lovely sample skein still patiently sitting on my niddy noddy. I was so busy having fun I only took one photograph at the beginning of the day. Ah well, my skein of finished samples is pretty to look at and shows what sort of day I had.

 Sampling bobbin

Sampling results n-plied and on the niddy noddy

We did have a committee meeting in the afternoon that went on for quite a while so some samples were finished at home. I made a few purchases, but not a lot, I have enough fibre and fleece at home to be getting on with for now (whoa, did I just admit that!?!).

Finishing the romney and sampling got me thinking about all the skeins of yarn I have sitting waiting to become something, so since then I have spent time logging my handspun in a book - what the fibre is, yardage, approximate thickness. The idea is to then look at projects I'd like to do and see what skeins match the project. That's the plan anyway. Among all the larger skeins, I had several small skeins or balls of handspun samples or bit left over from other things, and lots of bits of my early uneven spinning. So I set to using these up, firstly making a cover for a tablet we have (my pattern database!), and for a kindle (on loan to us) and a couple of bags. A great way to use up all those scraps, oh no I can't call handspun yarn scrap, even just a little bit - all those bits and bobs.


Since the wheel was empty, I have started spinning some superfine merino roving from the stash in lovely Autumn Burnt Leaves colourway, beautiful bright colours for those grey days - holding onto a little autumn beauty. Pondering whether to 2ply or navajo ply.

 Seperated the roving lengthways to spin

Spinning started 

(have now a full bobbin and almost full 2nd bobbin but no updated picture)

Will show you this next month when it's finished.
 I'm still knitting my tunic jumper - need to pop it on to see if the length is okay, so maybe that will be finished soon-ish. Knitting a few other little projects too, and this week I have cast on 2 pairs of 2-at-a-time socks too, with others in the planning.

Falling in love with silk

Lots of woolly things happening again here, but what to talk about?

I could tell you the story behind a custom order for a macBook cover, using handspun wool, but it's very similar to things I have said before.

 I could tell you about using up odd bits of handspun wool to make brooches, hair grips and bobbles for a stall the Guild are holding this weekend and Compton Verney, but that too gets a bit repetitive.

 So how about I tell you about a series of talks we've had a Guild recently?  One of our members grows her own silk, and gave us an amazing talk about the history of silk, the different kinds of silk, the different properties of silk, and had samples upon samples of all these different silks, from tussah to mulberry, from cocoons, to hankies.  And it was the silk hankies that really excited me. 

A hankie is a stretched coccoon.  It has to be processed to remove the sericin (the glue the silk worm uses in making the cocoon), but then can be stretched into a square and dried.  This site  http://www.wormspit.com/mawatas.htm shows the process in more detail.

 Once you have these hankies you can seperate them out and then , whilst sticking your thumb through the centre of it, you stretch it.  Keep on stretching and stretching (there is a lot of fibre in these hankies), and yyou end up with a long loop.

 Break the loop, and you have a pure silk yarn.  No spinning required, you can knit or crochet with it as it is. 

 

Needless to say, I had to buy myself some hankies.  I've had a little play, but would like to dye them first and then have much more of a play. 

 

This coming month we are learning how to make paper from silk.  I am very much looking forward to learning more about this wonderful silk.

Lydia's Woolly Wednesday

Back in April after Wonderwool Wales, a big fibre event in the UK, there was a thread on Ravelry where people displayed their purchases. I saw one of these lovely plaits. I hadn't seen the plaits at the show, I was too busy on my own stand.

The combination of colours really grabbed me. I found out the plait came from Adelaide Walker. I was delighted to find the Adelaide Walker stand at Fibre East, so of course a plait found its way into my bag (after I paid for it)! It isn't really a plait, it's four lengths of top twisted together -dark brown, light brown, grey and white Shetland wool.

It seemed a shame to actually spin the fibre, it looked so lovely just twisted together. But the temptation of ready prepared fibre was too much and I separated the four lengths. I really wanted to preserve the effect of the four distinct colours. I decided to spin two marled singles. I debated which colours to combine. In the end I decided to spin the dark and light brown together:

and the white and grey:

Then I plied the two marled singles together. The contrasts are less subtle than when the fibre was in the plait. I think maybe if I increased the amount of white there would be more contrast. Even so, I'm pleased with the effect.

Do join us for Woolly Wednesday and let us know what you have been spinning. If you add your blog I will come and visit, I'm looking forward to hearing about your fibre adventures!

Woolly Wednesday returns ... October 2012

Whoosh and we're back! Hope everyone has had a lovely Summer.
There have been some changes here at Spinspiration. Kelly has now returned to her homeland and is enjoying life back there with her family, we wish her well and hope to see her spinning again in the future.
With that in mind I would like to welcome new blog writers on Spinspiration -  Lydia (blogging today below) and Claire (hopefully joining in soon) and look forward to sharing this space with them and with you all, they have both linked up with our Woolly Wednesdays for a while.


So welcome to our Woolly Wednesday gathering for October, whether you are a regular or a new visitor - come and share with us all what you have been doing with wool or fibres in the last month. All crafts and inspiration welcome.It's a little quiet here some months, we would love to hear from you. Have you been spinning, knitting, felting, crochet, etc

Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!.

Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Spinspiration, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture -  upload the picture and then add the url (http://spinwheelspin.blogspot.com/) and the image will link to here. Join us with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month or to a post in the month ahead, we look forward to seeing you, no time limits just join us when you can.

Planning a woolly Christmas!

First of all I ought to say "Hi" and introduce myself.  I'm Claire, and have been taking part in Spinspirations monthly get togethers since the offset, but now am helping with Spinspiration in a more formal sense.  I blog over at Simply...Life as well as at Aisling Designs.  I'm a mother to four children, and have been spinning for what will be two years this coming Christmas.

As a crafter, my mind is already turning to Christmas, things to make, mainly for others, and possibly a little for myself. I am currently spinning up more wool (Zwartble/Suffolk cross from Dawn) for a macBook cover commission, based on the iPad cover I made for someone.

 Earlier this year I was making a couple of rings for the Guild Exhibition that was held in July.  The Robin was the one that was eventually sent down there, and it has now made it's way back home, and yesterday I was able to give it to my Mum for her birthday present, as she was rather taken with it as I was making it.

 I also made a seascape one, which has had lots of interest in it over on Etsy.

 As I enjoyed making them so much, and as I had so many other ideas going round in my head for designs, I bought the rest of the rings from our local guild, so that I can continue playing with spinning, felting, knitting, crocheting, all to create new pictures (hopefully some in time for Christmas)

 More woolly goings on for Christmas include a batch of soaps and wool!  I think I will have very clean hands after felting this lot (and that's only half the soaps!!)

 

I've also been approached by our guild to see if I have any small things that I can sell at a show they are at in November.  I haven't been able to think of many small scale things to make, but the other day I came up with the idea of some embellished flowers using handspun wool.  These will be turned into brooches, hair clips, bobby pins and hair bobbles.  A nice satisfyingly quick thing to make amongst the bigger projects.

 

 

As ever, with me, so many ideas, so little time.  But it is safe to say, I will be spending the next couple of months working with alot of wool!

Off to see what everyone else is up to.

Dawn - Woolly Wednesday adventures

It's good to be back for Woolly Wednesday! I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Lydia and Claire who have joined the Spinspiration team. I am looking forward to them sharing this space and reading their writing.


I hope everyone had a lovely Summer, anyone who reads my other blog will have seen we had lots of fun and enjoyed some lovely weather during the school holidays. Now though it is most definitely Autumn here, time for dark cosy evenings in front of the spinning wheel. Bliss. I hadn't spun at all over the summer holiday.

September has seen a revival of the wheel spinning though and plenty of time spent spinning at public events encouraging and inspiring others to take up the crafts. It has been fun, and I have even sold on my first Spinning Wheel - my trusty Ashford Traditional that started off my love of spinning. It has sat unused for a while though, except for a short loan period to a friend until she bought her wheel. So it was time to say goodbye and pay forward the opportunity to somebody new to spinning to buy a wheel at a very reasonable price, after all I bought her very reasonably too. The new owner has also joined the guild, so our paths will no doubt cross some months.

 My first wheel ... now someone else's first wheel

So spinning - the first spinning I did in on return to the wheel was some Romney Marsh spun on my Wee Peggy wheel. I started spinning this at The Romsey Show - an agricultural show that the Guild are represented at each year. I loved it this year, amongst some good friends with lots of chatter and laughter ... oh the laughter! It was a gloriously sunny hot hot day too, and the show was very busy. We had a great day, lots of visitors and many of them really interested in spinning and dyeing and weaving. A great opportunity to show people how the wheel works, the history of spinning, the fleece to yarn process ... visitors young and old. We even won a prize for our interactive dempnstration areas.

 Me on the left with friends having a great time

(towards the end of the day hence not many visitors around us!)

Our rosette and certificate proudly displayed

It was wonderful to be able to give the opportunity to many to have a go at spinning too, their eyes lighting up when you ask "do you want to have a go?". I still remember being asked that question years ago, so am always keen to offer the same opportunity.

Romney Marsh carded fibre

I spun a bobbin of the Romney and then decided I'd like to n-ply it so sat and plied it before going on to spin more of the fibre. A joy to spin, really lovely fibre with a little lanolin still there making it lovely for the hands too - the best hand "cream" ever!

My navajo plied skein awaiting washing

I continued to spin the Romney Marsh the weekend after at our Guilds open day/taster day. I ended with another couple of full bobbins which are waiting to be plied. I need to decide if I will n-ply these or make it a 2 ply for another project, I have more to spin so may see what yardage I'd get with either plying. I'm not that good at planning for projects, but trying to improve on that now as the handspun stash grows.

2 more bobbins of Romney Marsh singles

As mentioned earlier I took along the Ashford Traditional wheel too, initially set up for people to come and have a try at spinning as it is such an easy going wheel to learn on. I had a for sale sign ready to pop on after a while, although had to quickly remove it after Imogen (my daughter) stuck it on my Wee Peggy! No darling, this one really is not for sale, and not at that price! Most definitely not, although it raised a laugh and a smile amongst friends. Quite a few people had a go on the wheel, some who had recently acquired wheels and were not sure where to start, others interested in getting into spinning.

And then a friend asked if my wheel was available for a lady to try and I saw that little spark or something and thought to myself - I think this lady is going to love and buy this wheel. She was hooked right from the start, loved it, and was very good at grasping the drafting and treadling. She sat with us for a long time, spinning more and more, occasionally acknowledging her daughters who were there too and loving trying out lots of things. But she was determined that she was going to spend her time here with the wheel. A message to the husband about where it might go, quashing his crazy idea that it could go in the garage! We had fun chatting, and yes she did buy the wheel. I gave her some Jacob roving to keep her going too and she picked up some fleece at the sales table. Her daughters were as pleased to know the wheel was going home with them, I think they had all fallen for the spinning bug! It was lovely to have been able to offer the wheel to her - and making friends with a new member, and two new members signed up to the Youth Guild too.

Me on the right spinning on the Wee Peggy

The Ashford Traditional on the left with her new owner

A good month for spinning and meeting new friends. Next month our Guild meeting welcomes Wingham Wool Work who fill our hall with goodies to fondle, sample and buy. I must remember to buy more spinning wheel oil. I have sat and labelled a lot of my spinning samples and skeins in a view to linking them up to a project. I have a lot of fleece and fibre to use so can't see me coming home with much from the day, except maybe some samples and some of the more unusual fibres out there that I've not spun with much yet.

Looking forward to catching up with what everyone has been up to, come along and share anything woolly - we love to be inspired. Join us for virtual spin (or other woolly crafts) and chat, with a virtual coffee and cake!

Meet Lydia

I’m Lydia, or shearersgirl on Ravelry. I am joining Dawn to assist with Spinspiration now that Kelly has moved on. I thought as this is my first post over here I’d better introduce myself. I have been spinning, dyeing and shearing sheep for about four years. I became interested in wool when I discovered fleeces were being burnt or left to rot because they had so little value. As someone who hates waste, I was horrified. I went on a shearing course, bought a spinning wheel and joined the Guild.

I am a member of the Kent Guild of Spinners, Dyers and Weavers. Now I also run a small business, Shearer Girl Yarns, selling my hand dyed yarns and fibre from local farms. I love working with natural fibres and natural dyes. People often ask if I have my own sheep or live on a farm, sadly neither is true – maybe one day. I can also be found writing for Yarnmaker magazine and I’m on Twitter @Romneyteg. 

I’m looking forward to taking part in Spinspiration and hearing about your fibre adventures!

Here is my spinning story.

Beginning Spinning – Lydia’s Story

I started spinning four years ago. I am horse mad and I have always had an interest in farming so I was volunteering at the Working Horse Trust, a charity which promotes traditional heavy horse breeds. 

As part of the grassland management system, the trust has a small flock of Southdown sheep. I helped out a bit at lambing time and enjoyed a few Southdown sausages but didn’t have a lot of contact with the sheep. When I saw the flock’s fleeces abandoned to rot in a barn, I was horrified. I thought maybe I could learn to spin and do something with all this wool. I also thought I could save the charity some money by learning to shear. 

So I came to shearing and spinning at the same time. I went on a shearing course, then a few weeks later I was at the Kent County Show and wandered into the tent of the Kent Guild of Spinners, Dyers and Weavers. I was fascinated to watch the ladies spinning and see all the colourful things they had made. I kept going back to their tent. Eventually, one of the spinners asked if I would like to have a go. I did and was hooked. Janet said afterwards she knew I must have been keen because I kept coming back! 

I was helping out on shearing jobs that summer. One of the shearing customers had an Ashford Traditional wheel, still in pieces in its box, tucked away. I bought the brand new wheel for a good price, along with carders, a niddy noddy, lazy kate and a video. I lovingly waxed my wheel and put it together but it would not spin. I was in despair. I took my wheel to a Guild meeting and explained my dilemma. A huddle of ladies appeared around me making all sorts of suggestions and within minutes they had my wheel set up and spinning. 

I got a Portland fleece from a shearing job and washed it without sorting it because I didn’t know anything about sorting fleece. I dyed some of the fleece with Dylon dyes and felted a fair portion by accident. I carded the wool by hand and spun lumpy yarn. Eventually I spun enough to make a jumper.  A bullet proof jumper - the yarn was so dense and over spun. 

My first handspun

My never quite finished bullet proof jumper

In the meantime, I decided fleece washing was a tedious business and so I flung my second fleece, a Black Welsh Mountain, in the washing machine. Again, I hadn’t sorted the fleece, nor had I noticed the hardened clumps of poo attached to the bottom end. The poo softened in the wash and distributed itself throughout the fleece. Being forgiving Welsh Mountain, the fleece didn’t felt and I did manage to spin some.

Since then, I’ve learned by trial and error, reading books and by watching fellow Guild members. These days I also learn a great deal through online resources, such as Spinspiration!

It's Wednesday ...

But not Woolly Wednesday just yet, but Woolly Wednesday will be back next week so do come and join in with your woolly activities of recent days, weeks or months.

For today though I would like to let you know about a free e-book courtesy of Spinning Daily on dyeing yarn with natural dyes and techniques. A useful ebook collection of articles from previous Spin Off magazines. You do need to register your email address if you aren't already registered but don't get loads of emails as a result. You do get to know about other  free ebooks and special offers in the future.

Free ebook click here

See you next week x

A short holiday!

Just a quick post today, more of a pre-empt for tomorrow really which would normally be the Woolly Wednesday gathering, but Spinspiration will be taking a short holiday and be back soon.

I'd still love to hear from you with what you have been doing, so do please leave a comment, and I shall come by and check out your blog. 

I also have not forgotten that Claire and Shearer's girl have both asked about being involved in the blog and I promise I will be in touch with you both very soon to see if you would like to post on Spinspiration regularly.

It's been a busy Summer holiday here, but there hasn't really been any spinning going on. Knitting yes, so hopefully can share something next time and the spinning will be starting up again soon too.

See you soon x

Dawn x

Woolly Wednesday - August 2012

Welcome to our Woolly Wednesday gathering for August, come and share what you have been doing with wool or fibres in the last month. All crafts and inspiration welcome.It's a little quiet here some months, we would love to hear from you. Have you been spinning, knitting, felting, crochet, etc


I would just like to say thankyou to Kelly for all the encouragement, support and friendship I have experienced during the lifetime of this blog and before and want to wish you all the best with your move. I shall miss you very much and hope our paths meet again one day.
This blog was born from a conversation via our other blogs, a kind of "shall we start a joint spinning inspiration blog" and went on from there. I enjoy posting here, wish I could find more time to post more but enjoy our Wednesday gathering each month. In light of Kelly moving away, if anyone is interested in co-blogging here or guest posting maybe, please let me know. It would be lovely to share this online gathering with you. The more the merrier.
Dawn x


Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!.

Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Spinspiration, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture -  upload the picture and then add the url (http://spinwheelspin.blogspot.com/) and the image will link to here. Join us with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month or to a post in the month ahead, we look forward to seeing you, no time limits just join us when you can.

Dawns August Woolly Wednesday

Since the last Woolly Wednesday I have finished the spinning for the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry and loved every minute of it. I will definitely be taking part again next year and set myself some targets.

Here are the results of my spinning for the TDF

 Polwarth 2 ply (loved spinning this)

 Total results of my TDF spinning - Olympic yarn, Polwarth, Shetland single, 
mixed scrappy yarn, Kerry Hill and Manx on bobbins, silk/wool/acrylic mix on spindle

 Olympic ring yarn on the Niddy Noddy

And my finished knitting using the Olympic yarn spun for the TDF - a little project I set myself for a bit of fun and knitted up into this linked rings scarf for Imogen. We shall be taking in the atmosphere at the Olympics in London, so maybe this will come out of the bag if the evenings are cooler. I have also made a hairband for her - just a few stripes of the colours in the same order.

 Olympic rings scarf

Look forward to seeing what everyone else has been spinning.  I shall really miss Kelly when she leaves the UK for her homeland and am sure everyone will join me in wishing her the best, hopefully we will meet again in blogland or elsewhere.

If anyone would like to become a regular poster on Spinspiration, please get in touch with me - would love to keep this blog as a space to share inspiration, no pressures or advertising ... just a fun virtual spin and chat group.

Dawn x