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#tourdefleece

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Paws2Spindle
Paws 2 Spindle @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden · Jul 08, 2026
Replying to on sunny.garden
#TourDeFleece Stage #4 Spun a couple more hours last night to finish off the 2:1 fur/wool blend. I was initially going to do only an hour, but it was going so well and I could see the roving getting quickly smaller, so I was inspired to keep going, even if it kept me up later than I'd wanted to! I don't remember much at all of the cycling playing in the background: I'm currently sitting kind of cross-ways to the TV, so I rarely look at it while spinning. And apparently I'm so wrapped up in my spinning process that the race commentary just goes in one ear and out the other!
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Paws2Spindle
Paws 2 Spindle @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden · Jul 09, 2026
Replying to @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden
#TourDeFleece Stage #5 I started on the 3:1 Tibetan Mastiff / merino blend and OMG is this nice to spin! Compared to the previous blend, drafting is so much smoother, with plenty of slip for even drafting and just enough grip to keep the fibers in contact along the way, perfect for long draw drafting. Now I'm wondering if I should blend up something with even less wool, like 10-15%, for comparison. At what point do you lose the benefit of grip from the wool? This is about half the 60g of fiber that I'd blended at this ratio. #TourDeFleece2026
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Paws2Spindle
Paws 2 Spindle @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden · Jul 10, 2026
Replying to @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden
#TourDeFleece Stage #6 Finished the 3:1 TM/merino singles. I have some plying I can do, but it looks like I'll need to do some fiber prep before I can spin singles again! #TourDeFleece2026
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Paws2Spindle
Paws 2 Spindle @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden · Jul 11, 2026
Replying to @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden
#TourDeFleece Stage #7 No photo today. I just wound the white husky blend into a skein ("hank" for the sticklers) for a wash and blueing. It looks whiter than before (wash water was a little dirty) but maybe not as crisp a white as I'd prefer. We'll see once it's dry. I washed and let it dry loose, and it's still rather twisty and energized, so I think I'll re-do it under tension and see if that helps.
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Paws2Spindle
Paws 2 Spindle @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden · Jul 12, 2026
Replying to @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden
#TourDeFleece Stage #8 Making up for no photos yesterday, I guess! This is a 2:1 Tibetan Mastiff/merino blend, but with a lighter, richer brown: "Dark Chocolate" instead of "Espresso". (I may have mixed up the names in previous posts/replies.) I'd weighed it out, but didn't get around to blending it back when I did the Espresso samples. I'd chosen the Espresso for the primary blending work because it matched the dark browns best in the TM fur, but the Dk Chocolate is nice at matching the redder tones that can be found in it too. It's difficult to see a difference on the singles, so I'm really curious how it'll turn out plied and worked into a swatch! Mostly spent my time blending on the drum carder, but I did sneak in time to spin about 1/3 of the batch before calling it a night. [Edit to note that these browns are natural colors from different sheep at Fleecewood Farms where I got the wool.] [Edit #2 to correct the year in the TDF hashtag. Sorry for extra alerts!] #TourDeFleece2026 #HandSpinning
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Paws2Spindle
Paws 2 Spindle @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden · Jul 13, 2026
Replying to @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden
#TourDeFleece Stage #9 I finished the 2:1 Tibetan Mastiff / Dk Chocolate merino blend. When I went to photograph the bobbin next to the one with the 2:1 Espresso merino, it was just way too similar under indoor lights, so I brought them, and the source wool, outdoors to see if natural light would help. The results are different, but I'm not sure if it helps! My usual photo spot on the patio table was in shade, so I started there, and that was worse than indoors! So I dragged a chair into direct morning sun. That's better. You don't have to pretend that you see a difference between the two balls' tints. But, ultimately, at 1/3 wool, the singles are effectively identical. I think I can end this experiment concluding that I don't need to worry about which wool I use to pair with the TM, and in fact I might combine them both just to get a little more visual texture in the yarn. Now for a rest day. I'll probably spend some of it prepping more fiber to spin, not that it's restful, but because I'm anxious to move on to the next project! #TourDeFleece2026
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Paws2Spindle
Paws 2 Spindle @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden · Jul 15, 2026
Replying to @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden
#TourDeFleece Stage 10 No actual spinning, but plenty busy nonetheless! The white husky/wool blend was now dry after a second wash, so I removed it from the PVC frame and wound it into a cake. It's nice and white, and a close enough match for the Rio gray for me to move forward with that double-knit project. I blended up another 4 oz of 1:1 Tibetan Mastiff / Espresso merino for a project where I'm more interested in color than maximizing fur content and character. That came out really well. And finally I transferred the 2:1 TM/Espresso merino singles to 3 cones for plying. More on that in the next post. Overall, a productive day! #TourDeFleece2026 #HandSpinning #FiberArts
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Paws2Spindle
Paws 2 Spindle @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden · Jul 15, 2026
Replying to @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden
A quick video of my fiber transfer setup. Please excuse the mess of my Fiber Corner that is still under construction! Here I'm transferring the 2:1 TM/Espresso merino from the EEW 6.1 bobbin to the cone winder via the yarn counter. According to the counter, the whole bobbin had 319 yards. After accounting for the weight of the cone, this was 63g of singles. The nice thing about the EEW system is that I was then able to wind off of this blue cone onto the two others, again via the counter, but this time automatically set to stop at 105 yd. This resulted in 3 cones with exactly 21g yarn each! Oddly, the EEW cones don't have adapters for the EEW Lazy Kate, so I have to improvise there. (EEW Nano bobbins + chopsticks! See the previous post.) but all together it makes an efficient system. #TourDeFleece #HandSpinning
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consumablejoy
consumableJoy @consumablejoy@wandering.shop · Jul 14, 2026
#TourDeFleece today was a rest day but I spun anyway and will likely take a different day off. I finished plying my Blanket Octopus spin. As I mentioned yesterday, the second bobbin was a lot finer than the first. I ran out of singles from the first while I still had about 1 oz left on the second. I made a center pull ball with what was left and plied from the inside and outside of that ball. It’s been soaked and snapped and is now drying. #Handspinning #TourDeFleece2026 #TextileArts #FiberArts
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stargrace
Stargrace @stargrace@gamepad.club · Jul 08, 2026
#tourdefleece day 5, more yarn on the bobbin ^^ I am hoping to finish spinning all of this alpaca, and maybe ply it with some merino. That's my TDF goal - but we'll see. #fiberarts #fiber #alpaca #spinning
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consumablejoy
consumableJoy @consumablejoy@wandering.shop · Jul 04, 2026
Today is the first day of Tour de France, and therefore also Tour de Fleece, where spinners spin each day the bikers race. I'm starting with spinning up these amazing braids of Rambouillet dyed by Fossil Fibers - Bee Hummingbird colorway. I'll post another pic EOD but this is where I am after the opening TdF Zoom with Darn Knit Anyway. #handspinning #TourDeFleece #TourDeFleece2026 #TextileArts #FiberArts
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