The 97th Tour de France started yesterday, and alongside it Le Tour de Fleece. Similar in concept to the Ravelympics/Knitting Olympics, the idea behind it is to set personal crafting goals to achieve during the time period that a major sporting event is taking place. Tour de Fleece is all about spinning. As the bicyclists are spinning their wheels, so shall I be spinning mine. This year the tour runs between July 3 and July 25. (I wonder why there is no knitting World Cup this year... I should have started one. But I digress.)
I don't have any lofty goals for myself. My plan is just to make sure that I spin a little bit every day during the tour. Yesterday I spun for about 15 minutes while we were waiting for company to arrive. It had been a while since I used my wheel. The same pastel colored fiber has been on it for months. It is definitely not my favorite spinning project, and I need to finish it so that I can move on to a fiber that I actually enjoy working with. The remaining bits of fiber are all drafted and ready, I just need to put in the work.
In knitting news, I have been knitting a lot lately. Since my last post, I started and finished my Whisper Cardigan in Knit Picks Shadow kettle dyed lace yarn in the color "Jay". I loved this pattern and yarn together and enjoyed knitting it. I would definitely knit this pattern again. Here is a photo of me wearing it.
When I was at my parents' house for our family reunion weekend, I was given a partially completed knitting project that belonged to my grandmother. She was making a sweater for my dad and it didn't get finished before she passed away. So I told my dad that if he gave it to me I would try and work on it and see if I could finish it for him. I received the pattern booklet, the yarn which appears to be Red Heart yarn in "Warm Brown" and 2 sets of straight needles.
After looking through the booklet and examining the pieces for a while I came to the conclusion that she was working on the "Man's Paneled V-Neck Pullover". The stitch count isn't consistent with the pattern and there are some mistakes in the pieces. My dad said that she told him she had ripped out and restarted it several times because it wasn't coming out right. I was having a bit of an emotional struggle with the whole thing, because I knew that I couldn't just continue with it where she left off and have it be a wearable garment. I purchased another skein of what seems to be the same yarn (no dye lot). I used one partial skein of yarn that was given me and her needles and cast on to start from the beginning on the back panel of the sweater. This is how much I have finished so far.
I will just keep going with it and see what happens. I have the choice of buying more yarn and leaving her pieces intact and knitting from the new yarn, or I can rip out some of the pieces she had been working on and use that yarn for this sweater. I am leaning toward the second choice. The sweater will still be her idea and using her supplies, just with my work. I feel that it will still be something that she started and I finished that will have sentimental value for my dad when he wears it. I just hope it fits him when I finish it!
In other knitting, I've been working on the same projects that I mentioned in my last post plus one dish towel since I always need to have one of those or a dishcloth on the needles for in-public knitting. Here are some progress photos of where I stand with these projects as of today.
Lelah Top:
2nd Glynis Sock:
Evenstar Shawl:
Kitchen Towel:
Well I think that's about it for this update. It's time for me to get busy with today's spinning. Happy 4th of July everyone!
