A Priest Crafts: Episode 4, How TDF Went

Slightly belatedly, here are my reflections on Tour de Fleece 2017 – my first time participating. I focused on one big (for me) spin, which challenged me in a couple of ways. I’m happy about how it went, and hope you’ll check out my thoughts about it, and that you share your thoughts as well!

Show Notes

These original three braids are all one-of-a-kind braids from Woolgatherings. For easy reference I call them “blue,” “orange,” and “pink.” They were purchased in May 2010, at the Cloverhill Yarn Shop booth at the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival. (OK true confessions: I think they were actually purchased at the shop, before the festival, when the box arrived and we started unpacking it.) I had actually always envisioned putting them together in some kind of massively multicolor gradient.

IMG_5128_medium2 — Spreading out the top. Isn’t that floofy BFL crimp just gorgeous? I was actually surprised at the amount of VM still present. This was quite comforting; I hope this means it was processed in a relatively low-impact manner. The silk was, for the most part, well-blended in, though there were cut bits of silk I had to pull out at times. There were some nepps as well, but I blame that on how long I left these poor dears in my stash. Two thumbs up; I would definitely recommend woolgatherings! They’re still doing handpainted tops, but have branched out into some interesting color blends and breed specific rovings.

IMG_5129_medium2 — Stripping away on a hot June day in Maryland, while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Top left: Ply #1: 4 bumps blue, 3 orange, 2 pink.
Top right: Ply #2: 3 blue, 3 orange, 3 pink.
Bottom: Ply #3: 2 blue, 3 orange, 4 pink.

I absolutely filled my instagram and ravelry accounts with bobbin shots of this spin, so I will not re-post them here. If you’re interested in more details, here’s the ravelry page for this spin.

The Nerd Numbers:

Total yardage: 884 yards
Total weight: 11.7 oz
Grist: 1208 YPP
Finished by soaking and snapping
WPI (finished): 12 WPI, or about DK-weight
TPI (plied & finished): 3.5
Twist angle: ~35 degrees

Thanks so much for watching and reading.

2 thoughts on “A Priest Crafts: Episode 4, How TDF Went”

I love the way you divided your fibre. It has given a beautiful subtle gradient. Any plans for knitting it?

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Rebecca says:

August 10, 2017 at 3:55 pm

I am quite undecided with how to use it, honestly. The easiest thing would be a shawl, but I have a shawl with similar colors that I never wear; it’s too loud for me! My default idea is to put a bit more ply twist into it, then use it with a contrasting commercial yarn in a sweater. I really don’t know specifically how, though, and I really don’t know what contrast color I would use.

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