Thick and thin yarn, that is. I have spun four skeins of yarn so far this month as part of the Tour de Fleece. Two are heavy laceweight and the other two are chunky! I've enjoyed the spinning and learned some interesting things along the way.

This is the heavy lace and is a gorgeous merino/silk blend. My first non-Corriedale yarn, and I have about another 80g of fibre left to spin. It's so soft, very slick to draft, but the very thin yarn takes a lot of twist to hold together. I also found out that it's slightly sticky as a single ply. I tried using the Andean plying bracelet technique to make a 2-ply yarn, trying to avoid winding two separate bobbins. It wasn't a complete disaster but I won't be doing that again for a long length of this fibre type. I thought I was going to cut off the circulation to my middle finger permanently winding it, and then the slight stickiness of the fibre meant a lot of tangling as I tried to unravel the bracelet and I lost a fair amount of the singles to knots and felting. Annoying, to have so carefully spun all that yarn, only to have to throw the bird's nest of tangles in the bin.

At the other end of the scale, I've also spun this chunky yarn.

My first 3-ply, this is Corriedale fibre, spun to roughly a fingering weight singles and then chain-plied. The chain-plying was something else I learned during the Tour de Fleece and I'll definitely use that technique again. It's quick, easy, and produces a gorgeously squishy yarn. It is a little over-twisted in places, but I prefer the tighter twisted yarns rather than an undertwisted one.

​So here is my total TdF achievement.

I have more of both fibres still to spin. Ultimately I plan to make a shawl from the red, and a hat (and mitts if there's enough yarn) from the grey. It's likely to be a while before I get enough yarn made for either of those projects yet but watch this space!

My knitting time has been shared somewhat with spinning time over the last week. Since I only started spinning at the tail end of last year, I hadn't really paid much attention to the Tour de Fleece before. That's an online event for spinners, whether wheel or spindle, that runs alongside the Tour de France. I'm not a cycling fan per se so don't follow the Tour de France, but the fibre-y version seemed like a fun way to practise and improve my drop spindling skills. 
Along with the cycling event, the Tour de Fleece began on July 1st and runs until the 23rd, with rest days and challenge days that coincide too. Spinners can set their own targets and challenges and can spin as much or as little as they wish. Some people take part as a personal challenge, others join in groups or Teams on Ravelry or other websites. I'm spinning on Team Rookies on Ravelry.
Personally I decided to set myself a target of a minimum of 15 minutes spinning every day, and to learn to chain-ply, as so far I have only spun 2-ply yarn. I have exceeded the 15 minutes - actually I've been having to make myself put the spinning down and finish up some deadline knitting I needed to do! The first challenge day is tomorrow (Sunday July 9th) and I have a spindle full of roughly fingering weight singles of silver-grey Corriedale wool that I am going to try chain-plying.

Ultimately I hope to end up with a chunky weight yarn that I have design plans for!
I also have a very fine merino-silk on a lighter spindle that I'm going to 2-ply, aiming for lace weight.
If I get chance later in the month, I have some purple and some multi-blue fibre that might get bumped up the spinning list too!

Are you taking part in the Tour de Fleece? What are you spinning?

I have a new sock pattern out! Fans of my earlier designs might recognise a familiar motif here. I've been planning for ages to add to the Fossilised Ferns theme started in my mitts and scarf but it has taken me a while (OK, almost three years!) to bring the next Ferns project to life.
I'm glad I finally did, though. Fossilised Ferns socks were actually designed for my Dad, so these are sized from Small through to Extra-Large foot. I recommend a solid coloured yarn with good stitch definition so you really get the full Fossilised Ferns effect at its best.
As always, you'll find the pattern in my Ravelry store.