Tour de Fleece Update, 2nd Bobbin 2025

/ LDSVenus / 9 Comments

This is days 7, 8, 9 (a rest day) and 10, so only 3 days of spinning. I’m closer to having the 2nd bobbin done and then plying, but not there yet :P. I think maybe 3 more days. As long as it’s done by the end of the week I’m ok because it’s going somewhere next week. Then I will start spinning that beautiful camel and red Eri silk. I generally let the singles on the bobbin rest for 24 hrs before plying when I finish to let them settle. So for that next day after I finish the bobbin I will work on some alpaca I have on my Rick Reeves wheel, I’ll insert a picture when I spin on it. That alpaca, from a cria (baby alpaca), is like butter, it’s so soft and spins much faster than the wool I’m spinning now. Smoother fibers means more glide as you spin so it goes faster.

My new Tour de Fleece tee came in, isn’t that just too cute! She always comes up with some cute stuff! Love that this one was in color, now I can be obnoxious with “I’m a spinner” when I go shopping, lol. If anyone wants one you can get it at Fiber Love Diary‘s web site. I also bought a sticker with that same design to go on a 32 oz glass I bought from her last year, that had last years sticker on it. I think I can get two more stickers on it for the next two Tour de Fleeces, lol. For my fellow spinners, she also has spinning fiber!

Our weather is up and down temp wise and storms coming in tomorrow, typical summer weather. Grateful for air conditioning!

Tour de Fleece Update

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

The first picture is day 5. I finished the first bobbin (sitting on the top of my wheel) and started the 2nd bobbin, the one behind it. The 2nd picture is day 6, progress on bobbin 2 :). My hope is that I will have both bobbins finished by the middle of next week and plied. I’m spinning this yarn for my eye doctor because she’s awesome ;). I have 48 grams of singles on the 1st bobbin, and I weighed out 48 grams of roving to spin for the 2nd bobbin. I weighed the bobbins a few years ago and wrote the weight of the bobbin on the side in magic marker, that way I can just weigh the bobbin filled with singles and then subtract the weight of the bobbin from the final weight and I will have the weight of the singles. Who knew math would actually come in handy and the high school math teacher was actually right! Kudos to all my math teachers :). Hopefully that will make it so I don’t have a lot of left over singles on one of the bobbins when the two bobbins are plied together. That will also depend on if I get the singles similar in diameter (thin-ness or thickness). We will see. I think this will be maybe a heavy sport weight, but less than DK (double knit weight).

Tour de Fleece Days 1 -4

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

The first picture is day 1 and 2, tho some of that was already on the bobbin :P. The 2nd picture is day 3 and 4. I have been spinning about 30 minutes a day, I should be finished with this bobbin and ready to start the 2nd bobbin tomorrow :).

Happy Independence Day – 2025

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

Happy Birthday, ie: Independence Day, to the country that I love, the United States of America.  Long may our Flag wave! 

Please continue to pray for Our Heavenly Father’s intervention for the protection of our Country as we work on fixing the things that have gone very wrong, that our freedoms may be preserved.


Below is a link to The United States Army Field Band playing the Star Spangled Banner. Enjoy 🙂
https://youtu.be/DADmZdbQ9x8

It Came!! Camel and Red Eri Silk!

/ LDSVenus / 9 Comments

This is so pretty and soft, it will be fun to spin for Tour de Fleece. The red eri silk is a peace silk, it is interesting to learn about reg silk and peace silk and why it’s called peace silk (they are two different types of moths). First I will need to finish the fiber I have on my Polonaise wheel, a BFL-Corriedale cross 64%, Alpaca 27% and Sari Silk waste 9%, You can see it on my RAGBRI spin. It’s really very pretty and it’s been sitting on my wheel being neglected for too long!!!

New Cria on the Farm!!!

/ LDSVenus / 6 Comments

The mom is named Dori. She’s a first time mom and had this beautiful 18 lb cria, who was born today at 12:30pm. No name yet, but her dad is Charlie Brown, hehe, he’s the same color brown as this little one is, but she is his first daughter, he has thrown 3 males (also his color). Tim and Ev were very happy to have a little female this time. :). The cria that was born in May was a male they named Oreo because he was black with a white face. Boots (Oreo’s mom, is a black female with with white on the lower part of her front legs, thus her name lol) was brought into the herd last year and was already pregnant (we didn’t know) so we don’t know who the father was. All the males and females on that farm were registered and there’s no genetics to our herd, so having a new black male alpaca is a plus :). Only Izabella is left to have her cria but she’s not due until September, bless her heart having to carry through the hot summer.

I’ve been using my wool combs on the 2nds from Leah (a year old cria). This fleece is soooo soft, but dirty and the combs are doing a good job helping to take out the hay pieces. I’m washing after combing instead of before because her fiber is so soft that the hay just sticks to it and I figured that washing it first would just dig it deeper in. I’ll show a picture when I get enough to card into a batt. It’s a slow process but worth it to save this luxury fiber. 🙂