Tour de Fleece 2013 and other fibery things

I've been a member of Ravelry since February, 2008 but haven't used it extensively until this year.  Oh I'd added some of my books to the library area, put a few yarns into the stash and made some projects.  I even took some photos of my work and yarns and attached them in the appropriate places.  But I didn't use it extensively.  Then for various reasons I put my fiber stuff on the back burner for a few years.  I missed it, but was so busy with other things that there just wasn't time to do much about it.

Then in December 2012 my older son graduated from Marine boot camp at Parris Island, SC.  There were several days of family activities before Graduation Day, as well as a very long trip there and back.  Lots of time to knit and not lots of other things that had to be done!   So I dug into my languishing WIP's (Works in Progress) and found a pair of socks that were a few inches long with lots yet to do and some pretty purple yarn that I decided would become a hat.  I had a book with an interesting construction for a hat, so that's what I took.  I made a small version of the hat to better understand the construction, then made a full sized one.  I finished the hat on that trip except for the I-cord strings, which I finished shortly thereafter.

In the process I reaffirmed how much I love knitting and the fiber arts.  I kept knitting, on the way to and from work, in meetings, on conference calls, while walking the dogs, whenever I had a few minutes with nothing else that had to be done, and whenever I could multitask and do it.  Finished the knee socks.  Knit garters for knee socks.  Made another pair of knee socks.  Started another pair.  Got sidetracked by shawlettes, a shorter, crescent shaped shoulder shawl.  Made 2 of these in very different yarns using the pattern English Ivy.  I now keep them at the office as a bit of extra warmth in the A/C.

Right after Easter my new local fiber studio, Stringtopia, had a 'seasonal activity' where we dyed some tussah silk using Easter egg dyes.  I started to spin up one of the 2 lengths on a trindle, thinking to make a reasonably softly spun 2-ply.   Then a little at a time I started to get back out more of my spinning equipment, first my Mazurka wheel then the Lendrum.  The Lendrum needed new drive bands and treadle connectors, so those got replaced.

Then along comes the end of June and there is talk on Ravelry about Tour de Fleece.  The basic premise is to spin every day that the racers in the Tour de France race.  I decided this was a good way to help me focus on spinning some every day.  I'm posting photos here on Flickr.