Spinning Challenge

Since the Summer Spinning Challenge begins tomorrow, I guess I'd better set my goals. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

I've put some thought into what my goals should be. I want to encourage myself to do more actual spinning; not just prep fiber or buy fiber or admire fiber. But actually sit down and turn it into yarn. Useable yarn. I've got several whole fleeces and a bunch of 1 or 2 pound partial fleeces (fleeci?) According to the spreadsheet I started to track my spinning purchases, I have 1353.44 ounces - or 84.59 pounds - of roving and raw fiber. The spreadsheet also shows how much I spent on all this goodness. We are definitely not going to discuss that.

I have sampled from most of the fleece in my stash. But I've never taken one from start - raw greasy wool - to finish - spun, tagged, ready to crochet yarn. So that's what my summer challenge is going to be.

While I was in Modesto at the Northern California Handweavers Guild conference, I purchased two beautiful fleeces from Hayshed Basin Ranch. One is "Lulu", a 6 pound silver Lincoln-Corriedale cross with the most gorgeous crimp and color I've ever seen. I've washed about a pound, and it is beautiful. I want to spin this one from the lock, without picking or carding.

So that leaves "Grover". Grover is a 7.5 pound Lincoln-Columbia cross in a range of grays from silver to almost black. My challenge is going to be to pick, card (if needed), and spin Grover into yarn I can use to make myself a sweater. I want to spin a minimum of 4 hours a week (washing, picking and carding does not count as spinning time). I think that once I get started, I'll spin more than 4 hours (something about my compulsive nature. . . . . ) And once I have enough yarn for the sweater - and if I still have some of Grover left (7.5 pounds is a LOT of fiber) - I want to experiment by carding some auburn kid mohair and some black kid mohair into separate batches to see how it comes out. I think that would make a great accent to use on the sweater.

Pictures of Grover tomorrow when the sun is out. It's too dark now to get more than boring "yep, that looks sorta like wool" pictures now.

Yarn Tails Tags: Spinning, Spinning Challenge, epscraps