One Fund Boston

I've just made a donation for $170 to One Fund Boston, funded by your generous purchases of the Travelling Hats. Thank you so much for your support, and every penny of your purchase price will help the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.

So far, over $64 million dollars has been donated to the fund, and it will continue to help the victims of the bombing and their families in a number of ways. Thank you again.

(I promise to go back to more fibery-related posting next week, starting off with the plethora of yarn that I've spun during the Tour de Fleece - stay tuned!)

And we have a winner!

Hooray Carroll! The random number generator picked your comment for the copy of American Sock Knitting. I'll PM you on Ravelry and get your mailing address, and I will post out the book to you as soon as I can.

Thanks to all the commenters - I loved your ideas about sock designs. It's been a while since I actually designed a pair of socks, and I think your comments have sparked some ideas!

Have just noticed that pre-orders have been extended to the 25th of July, so apologies to anyone who comes along after this post!

Spun up colourways: Euglena

I've been spinning up the black Shetland fleece I got this year at Wonderwool Wales as one of my Tour de Fleece challenges, but yesterday was a rest day, and I was desparate for something with a bit of color...enter a bag of Euglena Suffolk ends and my Lendrum.

I ended up with 232 yds of wooly green 2-ply that I think are going to become socks somewhere down the line. The leftover singles from one bobbin were chain plied into a wee mini skein I'll hang on to as a sample.

This was the perfect little palate cleanser between chunks of natural colored fleece. Now it's back to Bobbin 3 of Shetland - I want to finish this fleece by Sunday!

Impending deadlines!

Today is a big day. First off: today is the last day to buy one of my Travelling Hat patterns and have the proceeds go to One Fund Boston - more details here.

Second: today is also the last day to enter my contest to win a copy of American Sock Knitting. All you've got to do is go to this post and leave a comment about your favorite place and/or the kind of sock that would be inspired by your favorite place. So far there are only three entries, so your chances are good - go comment!

Third: not an immediate deadline, but yesterday I finished the second bobbin of Shetland and started the third as Chris Froome annihilated Mount Ventoux.



I am getting very interested in going back to some fiber with color...but have to finish off the third bobbin and get plying - the end of Le Tour is next Sunday!

Back to the spinning

This week I've been working on the black (brown, really) Shetland fleece I got at Wonderwool in April. I scoured it and began carding on my borrowed drum carder before the first stage, and today I finished the second pass of carding.

The fleece was really two colors: one a deep, dark black, the other more of a chocolate brown and grey mixed together. I originally thought I was going to keep the colors separate, but as I went through the first carding pass, I decided that this fiber needed to be a sweater, and in order to have enough yardage, I needed to combine the colors.

The yarn is coming out a beautiful final color, and I'm hoping for some really fabulous 3-ply at the end of it.

Bobbin 1 is done, and bobbin 2 is underway.

I've also managed to finish off my Hello Yarn Fiber Club spin for Brenda's Now in a Minute Shawl.

I'm thrilled with how this came out - I'm short by about 10 yds, and it's a bit heavier then called for by the pattern, but I think it will work fine.

So that's what the Tour de Fleece has generated in these parts - hopefully by the end of the race, I should have a sweater's worth of 3-ply Shetland to play with. And maybe a few other bits and bobs - the Shetland is going quickly, but I may feel the need for some color sometime soon! What's on your wheel for the Tour?

PS - If you are in London, or might be in London on or around the 21st of September, and you're interested in joining us in the inaugural Yarn in the City: The Great London Yarn Crawl, head over to the website and get your tickets now!