Tour de Fleece spins

In the beginning, I wrote about my Tour de Fleece exploits a lot. Here, here, here, and here, not to mention all over Ravelry. But then my doctoral class hit hard, and then I was at the beach without my wheel (because, while I am apparently quite willing to drive 1500 miles with my wheel strapped in the back of my car, I actually do draw the line somewhere), and the next thing I knew Tour de Fleece was over, and then almost as quickly, summer was gone, too, and I had never even posted any kind of wrap- up.

And to be honest, I haven’t spun even one turn of the wheel since July. SAD BUT TRUE. And this, after I set a goal of spinning 13 pounds this year! Instead, here it is September, and I’ve spun precisely 4 pounds 9.1 ounces so far this year. But I knew that my spinning goals were ambitious this year and that I would likely fail. Truth be told, most of my craft goals are ambitious – if I ever get to a point where I am actually meeting all my goals, I will know that I have set the bar too low. (Does this make sense? It does to me. I honestly think that one reason I accomplish so much, craftwise and otherwise, is because I always aim high. Higher than I can actually manage to reach.) Even though I won’t be hitting the 13-pound mark by the end of the year, I know I will finish the year having spun more yarn than ever before. So there’s that.

At any rate, here is what I actually completed for Tour de Fleece:

Mmmm, yarns

• 3.7 oz Spunky Eclectic Mixed BFL, “Forest” – 250 yds sportweight 2-ply
• 1.3 oz Spunky Eclectic Mixed BFL, “Forest,” + Funky Carolina Mixed BFL, “Carrots” – 102 yds 2ply DKish
• 3.1oz Funky Carolina Mixed BFL, “Carrots” – 218 yds DKish 2ply
• 3.6oz Southern Cross Fibre Mixed Shetland “Desert Sun” – 312yds sportweight 2ply
• 1.1oz Southern Cross Fibre Mixed Shetland “Desert Sun” + “Jazzy” – 98yds sportweight 2ply

The ultimate goal with this project is to make a Sugar Maple sweater. I am on-track yardage-wise, and I am really happy with how these colors look together so far; the final colors will be cranberry and brown. This is my first time doing a gradient spin, and I am SO happy with how it is turning out.

I had planned this to be a fall sweater, but at this point even I am willing to admit that might be a tad too ambitious. I could do it if I didn’t have many other crafty plans on the docket for myself, but I do have those plans, and I will have to prioritize accordingly. And since I planned this as a fall sweater, I will probably opt for making it for next fall rather than making it this winter or so.

In the meantime, these happy fall colors sit on my shelf, greeting me every day.

yarn, in situ

Along with some favorite Plucky Knitter, of course!

raveled