Though who am I kidding, I’m going straight on to the Tour des Femmes!

Still unfinished on my EEW Fold is Imitation, the 5th clue in World of Wool’s Golden Fleece mystery spinalong (I was right!) which looks like it’ll be cobweb weight. In the basket from the top, WoW Indulgent Tart, Golden Fleece clues 2 and 4 (Simplicity and Enjoy It – lace and cobweb resp.) – clue 1 is on display in the village for our annual fair – WoW Polypaca (DK), and the three small skeins of Something Fishy (sport). None of these are washed yet, due to clumsy falling over incident.

Interim total (without clue 1) = 4,505m (2.8 miles)!

As is the way, I have expanded my wheel collection – over and above the EEW Fold shown above, which I have named Blaiddyd (Blethud) after a Welsh mythological character, who, like Icarus (my other EEW wheel), attempted to fly. Because the wheel is basically a flyer, ta-doom. I turn 60 this year, so I bought myself an early birthday present of a Louet Jenn-e electric wheel that I’ve been lusting after for a while. She is called Fionnuala, which is roughly equivalent to Jennifer.

Then, after doing a little research on Irish castle wheels after seeing one on the TdF Facebook page (it was a Philadelphia German spin on an Irish castle wheel), I found one on eBay for cheap.

I’m still not sure about the historical provenance, but Bawn (a fortified manor house or “castle” in Ireland) fits rather better into the historical Irish spinning scene. She’s MUCH shorter than the one on FB, and incredibly lightweight, so the spinner could easily tuck it under her arm and go rambling. Of course, there’s only one bobbin, but Bawn still has her flax distaff in place, and there’s a little hollow on the distaff arm for a water bowl. I might try making one, either through a class with Muddy Fingers McGurn or some air-dry clay.

And then I was offered another wheel…

As of Thursday last, I beat the semi-offical goal of TdF – spinning the same number of metres as there are kilometres in the Tour de France!

This year, the Tour is 3,333km, and with the skein pictured (WoW Indulgent Tart, 200g -> 838.3m 2-ply, fingering weight), I’ve spun 3,711.8m!

Since then, I have been thoroughly humiliated by clue #3 of WoW’s Golden Fleece mystery spinalong, Espionage (space-dyed wool, Corriedale and sari silk). I’ve tried to spin it from the fold, long draw, and short forward draw, on 3 different wheels, at different speeds and tensions, and every time it just falls apart on me. So last night I threw it back in the basket to think about its behaviour, and substituted 100g of WoW Polypaca (70% Alpaca, 30% Polwarth) instead.

Update so far (I haven’t been diligent about this as the weather and my finished spins haven’t cooperated until today). Excuse the de-potted soil in the background, I’m doing some emergency gardening.

L-R: WoW Something Fishy – 3 of 4 bumps completed. First is spun straight from the bump, 2nd was put through the drum carder once, 3rd carded 3 times. 416m in total, and I’ll finish them as singles.

Right, at the bottom: WoW’s Golden Fleece mystery spin, 2nd clue, “Simplicity”. It’s a blend of Targhee, Corriedale and Shetland wools. I’ve never spun Targhee before, and it being known as “America’s Merino” did not instil confidence – I prefer fibres with a bit more sass. It wasn’t a particularly easy spin, just like Merino is for me, but it came in at 390m for 50g, so laceweight. I might ply it with the first clue.

Right, at the top: this is a placeholder for the fibre currently on the wheel, WoW Indulgent Tart. This is WoW Indulgent Spotted Dick (it’s a dessert! Behave!), 2ply, 1160m from 200g, a light fingering.

That’s it for today!

A little photoshoot this morning! I had to run some fibre through the drum carder before I could spin today – it’s the pink and grey batt (WoW “Something Fishy”, Corrie/Sari) on the left. That was a single run through the carder. I have already spun 50g of this top without carding (3rd from left), and I have 2 more bumps left. I’ll send one through the drum carder twice, and the 3rd three times. I have vague plans of knitting this into a “texture fade” (as opposed to the usual colour fade) item to demonstrate the effect of carding. Because this colourway is sold out at WoW, I’ll probably have to bulk the project out with some John Arbon Knit By Numbers in a toning shade, like the mini-skein 4th from the left.

Second from the left is a 50g bump of the original top – see how clumpy-lumpy it is!?!

At the top, and in close-up below to avoid distraction, is my Day 1/2 spin of WoW’s TdF mystery spinalong, “A Clue”, wound off onto a storage bobbin with my trusty drill. It’s lovely bits of green, brown and cream that has come out as little runs of barberpoling between all the constituent colours. I’ll probably 2-ply it in the next day or two.

Easing into TdF 26 with #1 of World of Wool’s Golden Fleece – A Spinning Mystery! I still have one bobbin to clear to have a full set free, but whaddever.

For your delectation, I just have pics of the stash I’m hoping to spin (big basket) and some extras in case I blitz right through that (small basket). Sorry the fibre is mostly bagged up but it’s monsoon season here in Darkest Ireland…

On the top layer of the picnic basket, we have World of Wool’s TdF offering, Golden Fleece – a Spinning Mystery (unopened black boxes), and about 150g of WoW Something Fishy (Corrie/Sari) from their 2025 Advent Calendar. There’s also 50g of Something Fishy already spun up beforehand.

This is a bit of a departure for me. Normally, I just spin the fibre as it comes, and end up with fairly fine singles. But this blend of pink Corriedale and beige sari silk absolutely would not cooperate. The result is that the fine Corriedale single is interrupted by lumps and clots of sari. I’m surprisingly okay with this. I am thinking of breaking out the drum carder to blend the remaining 150g better. Maybe one run-through for the first 50g, 2 for the second, and 3 for the third, so I have a gradation?? I also found a John Arbon Knit By Numbers shade, KBN017, which is identical:

I might attempt a texture fade (rather than a colour fade) with this and the KBN. I’ll think more on that.

Then, to the bottom layer. Here we have John Arbon Knit By Numbers 74 ‘Burgundy’ (Merino, 200g) and
Devonia ‘Furbelows’, a mix of black and green (50% Exmoor Blueface / 30% Bluefaced Leicester / 20% Romney, 200g); World of Wool’s Indulgent collection, Apple Pie (white with bits of green), Rhubarb Crumble (coral), Eton Mess (red), and Tart (pinkish purple and blue) (Polwarth with nepps, 200g ea); and as palate cleansers, 50g each of WoW Irish top in black, and Polwarth tops in white and grey. I spun up some WoW Indulgent Spotted Dick earlier this year (not pictured) and absolutely loved it so I had to get the rest.

The backpack basket contains the fibre I might get to if I spin REALLY fast, otherwise it’s scheduled for the Tour Des Femmes and/or La Vuelta. 800g of World of Wool ‘Cover Girl’ (37.5% Merino / 37.5% Bamboo / 12.5% Red Eri Silk/ 12.5% Wool & Viscose Nepps), a peachy-pinky blend with touches of green that just scream “summer top”;

and 4 space-dyed braids from Steph’s Crafty Bits on Etsy AGAIN, after she persuaded me to buy a blue (bleurgh!) braid last year. There’s a lovely purple and green 100% Polwarth braid that reminds me of crocuses, another in shades of green, an autumnal green and yellow 100% Falkland Merino braid, and another Polwarth braid in reds and blues (bleurgh!). I don’t know how she does it…