Tour de Fleece Shenanigans

I've been slowly collecting photos of all the stuff I managed to spin during Ravelry's Tour de Fleece event. I wanted to showcase them all together and update my shop page at the same time.

This was the first batch from days 1 and 2. The green variegated is from a merino wool braid I purchased from Little Bird Fibers. The top is from a one pound ball of plain wool roving I got on Amazon. I've spun a lot from this ball and am needle felting with it, and there is still a lot left. It goes a long way!

Since this was my first Tour, I was pretty unorganized and just spun for the hell of it when I could. These two skeins came from the Amazon roving. The one on the left is much more balanced, and during the Tour I became more proficient in keeping my threads the same thickness. I still have a long way to go, but the white one is one of my best.

The tan one I had originally tried to dye with pickled beet juice but it all washed out, so I tried again and actually followed some steps (hah). I simmered the wool in a vinegar mordant bath for an hour, let it cool, and cooked up some natural dye with paprika and cloves. I simmered the cooled wool in the dye solution for an hour, and let cool, then hung outside to dry. I was hoping for a paprika color but I'm still pleased with the results. After washing, it still smells like spices, though, so I'm not sure how I'll use it.

On the first challenge day, I spun the Amazon roving and tossed bits of acrylic roving into the twist for my first art yarn. It was very difficult to keep my thickness consistent, and I felt like I had very little control over how much acrylic went into the yarn. It still looks pretty cool, and that's what matters. I have plans to try this again with thinner "extra" material.

Another one of my best skeins was this length of single ply sock yarn. This one actually made it into half a product. This photo is fresh off the bobbin.

Then after a mordant bath the same as the paprika skein, the kids dyed it outside with food coloring.

It got a secondary dye bath with a smidge of blue dye to set the colors, and unfortunately lost a lot of the speckling that the kids had put in it. I will omit the second color the next time I try this. But this green variegated yarn was the result.

And this is how it worked up into one toddler sock. I haven't made the second yet (second sock syndrome) but I really like the coloring.

So that's a summary of my Tour de Fleece projects. I was away for a week during the Tour but I managed to ply and spin a little with my drop spindle. I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but for my first attempt, I'm pleased with my little stash.