It was a hot and muggy day for it — 87 degrees in the shade and 66 percent humidity — but we spun on valiantly.
Not the best day for an unexpected battle with the Rambouillet of Doom, though. That fluffy, innocent-seeming fiber was neppier than it looked (I should have figured something was up when I saw that my test skein was so small) so I gave up on the "fairly thin yarn" idea and spun it long-draw, pitting my will against its, trying to find a happy medium between where it wanted to go and what I wanted to spin. The result: nearly 2 ounces of hard-won thick and thin singles.
Whew. I restored a little of my sanity by buying an organic batt from SpinSpanSpun. And another. (But they were on sale, and a fellow Tour de Fleecer tempted me with her finished organic yarn!)
Today's Tour de Fleece spinning goal was to clear up a bobbin or two for the other half of the evil red Rambouillet (or possibly to make room for politer fiber), so I dug out the jumbo bobbin and plied the Crazy Corriedale from the long-draw experiment.
Hurrah! I'll see for sure after I wash and block it, but it looks softer and artsier than the short-draw-spun Crazy Corriedale that took me what felt like about the same amount of time to spin. Does this count as art yarn? Does it mean I've met my Breakaway team goal?
My other reward for getting through today was that my vintage Weave-It loom arrived:
The woven square in the photo came with the loom. I haven't played with it yet, except to paw it, but after my initial test square, I'll probably be trying to weave a variant on the Triangle or Rectangle? shawl from WeaveZine.
Tomorrow, if I'm feeling brave, I'll spin some more of the red Rambouillet. If I'm not feeling so brave ... well, we'll see.
