Post by @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden

2026-07-06 12:01 UTC

#TourDeFleece Stage #2: plying the singles from the previous day. The good: The yarn sources were almost perfectly matched for length! The husky blend cake only had a tiny amount left when the 100% husky ball ran out. The bad: It's not my best work. In fact, it's pretty ugly. The center-pull cake of thin and energetic singles required full-time attention from my left hand, leaving my right hand to manage both the meeting point of the singles and occasional tangles from the Turkish ball. It went slower than I'd like AND the results were still uneven and mostly under-twisted. This may be the first yarn I go back and add twist to. I may also not end up using it for the project for which it was originally intended: my Rio heather gray deserves a better pairing than this! #Handspun #TourDeFleece2026

Replies (1)

@Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden 2026-07-07 03:21

#TourDeFleece Stage #3 Added twist to my husky/wool blend 3-ply, and I'm quite a bit happier now. It's a much better match to the Rio heather gray. After a short rest I'll give it a bath with blueing shampoo to see how much whiter I can get it. After that I started spinning singles of 2:1 Tibetan Mastiff/merino blend. This is a project on pause since last winter (fall?), where I started with 50:50 TM/merino blend (the cake and swatch in the 2d photo). My goal is to find a blend that benefits from the structural properties of wool with the fuzzy character of #chiengora. The 1:1 seemed to lose its doggy character, so I'm testing 2:1 and 3:1. So far 2:1 is still spinning nicely! The wool grabs onto the slippery fur, allowing a not-quite-long-draw drafting motion. It wants to be thin, but I've been working to keep it a tad thicker to give it some more loft, squish and body. And yet, I only got through about 1/3 of the 60g prepared tonight. #TourDeFleece2026

Open ##4899099