spinning wheels

well I've tried twice to post a movie.. to no avail

but I will give you a sneak peek what I've veen working on while the boys in France are pedaling their brains out.

tour de fleece 09

this is what I finished spinning during the tour de france this year



TOP: grape ice merino 2 ply 450 yards light worsted 361 g
2nd ROW:rio merino finished 2 ply 1272 yds DK 504g
3rd ROW: lincoln longwool... waiting to be measured alpaca... not nearly finished
BOTTOM: hogget finn....480g..... still spinning singles will triple ply

not as much as last year but still not terribly shabby... if you'd like to see what the other ravelers made check out the Tour de Fleece group on flickr.

I was really happy that Lance made it to the podium. Contador did an amazing race he really did deserve the yellow jersey. It will be interesting to see who is on the Radio Shack team with Lance Armstrong next year. Rumor has it that Levi Leipheimer has already been recruited. Time will tell.

day 4 accomplishments

a bit more than 450 yards of 2 ply yarn.. a little thick and thin but mostly worsted. It needs to be washed and thwacked to set the twist... then I'll measure WPI and weight.

So all the purple and white merino is complete. I started on the blue/green roving. and am spinning that thin. It's what I spin better.. but it takes me longer.. so I won't be plowing through that as quickly as I did the purple... perfect for the upcoming mountains!

Team Astana did an incredible job yesterday and this morning Lance held his own.. with the team pushing him ahead. It's going to be a great month of racing I think. Thos men are incredible machines.

The other night I made empanadas for dinner... yummo. Spinach and blue cheese, celery and walnut... I love both kind

Tonight Iron Pigs baseball at the park.. can't wait.

tour de France

starts VERY soon. I can't wait. My wheel is out and I'm spinning that purple fiber in the post below... will post more later :-)

pictures are loaded

from the trip to BA on my on my facebook. If you'd like to see them click here.
I have to say there are a few that are really wonderful.

Happy birthday to my dear brother who is 54 today. I hope you have a wonderful day.

It rained last night (again) and even though DH promised to cut the grass, he didn't so now I can't cuz it's so wet... it's going to eat me first I think.

Maybe tmrw.. cuz the tour de fleece starts on Sat alongside the tour de France. I am so excited for this! Last year was the first year that I watched as well as participated. I brought lots of yummy fleece to spin on the trip. I'll post pictures of that very soon....

great finds, great day :-D

the best find of the year!
Official Tour de France yellow t-shirt...


I am in love <3 new with tags for $3.50

It will adorn both me and louise during this year's tour... can't wait!

and what appears to be a black cashmere twinset in black for $3.50 as well FIber content tag was missing.. but it's got the feel and halo and says handwash or dry clean.

can you see me doing the happy dance????

also i got mom some photo boxes and when the cashier rung them up they were 50%off... YES! Truly it was my day of all days......

last night/this morning I made DD a hippie headband for her retro costume day at school


pattern: hippie
yarn: sugar 'n cream stripes
color: lime stripes
needle: US8
changes: 110 stitches CO, 3 repeats instead of 5

rock on!

go figure

my kids finally get to take swimming lessons tmrw and it's been raining all night long to beat the band. I hope it stops by morning so they can go. Boy that water will be a bit nippy though.

We have a third butterfly (well actually only one again, we let the other 2 go) We tried to coax this one out earlier on Sunday but (s)he didn't seem to want to leave, so I put in a wedge of watermelon to keep it satisfied. That painted lady sucked down on that watermelon for quite some time! One chrysalis to go. (they always emerge when I'm not looking)

I spent my spinning time today plying about 600 yards I think (only measure 365 yards, the rest is still on the bobbin) Tmrw I'll start spinning again. My spinning has certainly evened out since I started this fleece. I hope DH likes the yarn I'm making as it will be a vest for him. I ordered Simply Beautiful Sweaters for Men: Tricoter from amazon because the have LOTS of men's vests patterns in the book that I like and think DH will like as well. He doesn't like wool sweaters because he's so hot (yes, dear read the double entendre) but he loves vests.SO a vest it is. For me this yarn represents a pile of work. There's a lot of love in there. I'll wash it and whack it tmrw.

Once again I got to see the last couple of km of the tour today. Until the kids are asleep at night and I get down to the family room, it's always near the end of the race. Yesterday was the exception. I had to negotiate TV usage with my daughter. We watched the birthday cake bake off (which I must admit was amazing and then I got to watch the tour. It was the final 5 km... which was crazy exciting on Saturday!

I have one other FO but it needs blocking and frankly, I need some sleep. So I'll save that for another post.

happy Crafting