My fibre processing has been quite repetitive this week with my focus on getting the rest of the Castlemilk Moorit processed, spun and plied. It’s the first time I’ve processed a whole fleece start to finish during TDF; the Castlemilk Moorit is one of my smaller fleeces, but it has been in my stash since the early days of my blog so it’s satisfying to know it’s finally ready to be turned into something (but it doesn’t make for the most varied picture gallery!). I’ve made a start on the Black Welsh Mountain (BWM) too – combing is slow work, but quite meditative.
I also completed my second Tuesday Challenge – this week I attempted to spin using random household objects in lieu of a spindle (my favourite was the pocket watch!), with some interesting results which you can see in the video below the gallery. I plied the cotton spun last week on the spindle, and while I think my first attempt is quite good, there were some weaknesses in the singles, so I may experiment and see if using the wheel improves the strength and consistency as I can go a little more slowly without worrying about the weight of the spindle.
Yesterday I took time to clear my bobbins, hoover (the Castlemilk Moorit had spread dust everywhere) ahead of the final week of TDF. I’ll continue with the BWM and the cotton, but do have a couple of other fibres that I might experiment with if I have time, to keep things interesting!
If you are also joining in with Tour de Fleece I’d love to hear how you’re getting on, let me know in the comments below! As next Sunday is the final day of TDF, my wrap-up will be out either at the end of the day, or on Monday depending on where I’m up to in my challenge alongside video editing.
Happy Spinning!
For more information about my tour de fleece challenge my introductory blog post is here. I’m also posting my progress photos daily on my instagram.
Loose Ends 
I never thought of trying to spin with objects not normally for spinning! Interesting! I have had a very busy time lately with time out of town (I did bring my drop spindle but did not even get to that every day), followed by houseguests during our annual extended family reunion (that is not over although most of our houseguests are gone). I am still plugging away at the School of Sweet Georgia “Spinning Up a Level” class samples of different techniques with different preps of fiber. It is a good exercise. I am afraid many of my samples look similar. I will do a blog post about it at some point. I am also behind on blogging due to everything going on. And some projects that are not going the way I had planned lol.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love throwing challenges out to others – non-spinners particularly come up with interesting challenges that seem to help improve my technique one way or another! Tour de fleece really does seem to be flying by this year, but it sounds like you’ve been making good progress alongside catching up with family. I’ve had an interesting experience with my second half of cotton this week – it looks the same, but a different approach made the process easier and quicker. Sometimes I think the biggest differences aren’t visual, but in the strength of the yarn, or ease of spinning, but I’ll look forward to reading your blog post when you have a chance to write it!
LikeLiked by 1 person