Tour de Fleece--The Sprint

I've been staying up late to watch the Tour de France as they cycle and climb up the mountainous roads in Corsica. If only I could spin as they spin, but I find I really need a lot of light to see what I'm doing, and our house has a tendency toward darkness....  Plus it would mean carrying the spinning wheel down a flight of stairs to be in front of the big TV set. I try to avoid moving Mr. Schacht as much as possible. He is not a portable appliance.

Anyway, besides spinning and plying the initial pound of fleece, I decided to add another challenge to my Tour. There are different types of challenges in the bicycle race besides riding up a hill at 35 mph and not break into a sweat! There is sprinting. So I decided to use my Jenkins Kuchulus drop spindle to sprint away 2 ounces of wool and make a 2-color ply yarn ... over a few sprints. One ounce is dyed with onion skin and the second is dyed with Brazil wood. It should be a lovely muted orange and muted rose yarn when I finish. (Keep fingers crossed!) Pictured above is the first ounce of onion skin dyed wool. (Wool was dyed by the charming spinners at Windrush Farms, CA.) Much more sprinting to do!

Let's see, is it Day 3 or 4 with the Tour? Okay. It's now Day 4--July 2. At the end of Day 3, I had just filled up the bobbin with 4 oz of the Shetland Wool. Lots more spinning to be done. Will I finish? Well, plying is fun and tends to go pretty fast. Kind of like riding the bicycle down a big, long hill!