Category: Hebridean

TdF25 Finale

I couldn’t have imagined this three years ago, when, as a very new spinner, I joined my first TdF, but I have blown all my expectations out of the water!

My TdF25 aim was to work through a 400g 75% Hebridean/25% bio-nylon blend, with a couple of fractal spins as palate cleansers. I thought this would take me all of TdF and maybe Tour des Femmes too. However, I blasted through all the Hebridean blend midway though the second week.

So I added another 400g blend of 75% Herdwick/25% bio-nylon to my task list. And last night – or possibly early this morning – I plied the last two bobbins of that!

I only finished one of the fractal spins. I intended to continue through Tour des Femmes anyway, so I’ll work on the second braid, plus a third that showed up in the mail last week.

What has stunned me is the sheer quantity I’ve spun, without pushing myself hard. On my first TdF, I learned that some people’s goal was to spin as many yards or metres as the cyclists covered in miles or kilometres, calculated in either completed yarn, or as individual singles+plying. “Huh”, thought I. “I’ll never get anywhere near that!” So here are my data for TdF25:

Hebridean/bio-nylon: Completed yarn = 1091.2m; 2 singles+ply = 3273.6m

3-ply Fractal “Mulberry”: Completed yarn = 200.6m; 3 singles+ply = 802.4m

I haven’t had time yet to measure the Herdwick blend, but it must be at least as long as the Shetland blend, as it wanted to spin up finer. So a guess-timate of my totals is 2331.8m in completed yarns, and 7156m as separate singles + the plying.

This year’s Tour de France covers 3,338.8 km. Ahahaha!

A rectangular basket with a tartan pattern, sitting on a garden wall. Inside are 2 cones of 2-ply black Hebridean/bio-nylon, 2 skeins and 2 bobbins of 2-ply Herdwick/bio-nylon, 1 skein of 3-plied fractal-spun merino (Tall Hedge Fibres, Mulberry colourway), and a 40m ball of 2-plied leftovers from the fractal spin.
TdF25 haul!

Also, a pic of Sir Lasair in full winter plumage as penance for blowing my own trumpet here!

Picture of a large long-haired ginger cat with pale green eyes, sitting in loaf form on a sofa.

TdF25 Week 2 update

I did indeed race through my Hebridean/bionylon blend which I thought would take up the whole of TdF! By Monday I had 6 skeins plied, then washed and thwacked on Tuesday, and drying since. I suppose I could have measure the length, but I want to put them all on a single cone using my Royal cone winder – and the cone-hats have yet to arrive.

So, that stalled, I hoked out another 400g sock blend, Herdwick/bionylon. I wanted thick welly socks, but the Herdy isn’t cooperating, as I believe is normal for the breed. Instead of a Sport-cum-DK weight, it is stubbornly coming in as Fingering when 2-plied. It’s a bit like spinning Brillo pads, so hopefully they’ll be sturdy even if thin. In the background are a couple of blackcurrant liqueurs, vodka and whisky, which I started the same day! I just have one dwarf blackcurrant bush. This year it produced over 2kg of fruit!

In the background, 2 Mason jars containing (1) whiskey and (2) vodka, both with added blackcurrants and sugar Foreground: a skein of natural grey Herdwick yarn.

I finished the first fractal spin yesterday! The bobbins are waiting to be plied, and Sir Lasair Lothbrok the Loud approves 🙂

Close-up of 3 bobbins on the integrated Lazy Kate on a Herring Gordon spinning wheel. The singles on the bobbins are bright green and plum.
In the background, a Herring Gordon wheel with 3 bobbins on its integrated Lazy Kate. Foreground: a large ginger cat, looking smug.

TdF25: Day 1 progress

Yesterday I filled roughly half an EEW 6 bobbin with my Hebridean blend top! I was using a mongrel long draw: partly English, partly supported (mainly to coax more fibre into the thread when it was getting too fine), and not all that long due to my osteoarthritis. I call it my Cripple Crutch Drag Til It Hurts Draw…

These bobbins are BIG. They can hold 200g (8oz for the colonials) of singles. That means there’s close to 100g on it already. I bought 500g of this blend originally, and spun a sample to see what it was like. The sample is somewhere in my completed-spins bin. The bag of fibre now weighs around 300g, minus the sample and what’s on the bobbin. I thought it would take all of TdF, including the Tour Des Femmes, to slog through this fibre, but I’ve spun about 20% of it in a few hours, and have a (presumably) 100g sample already done??? This does not compute… I’m going to have to re-jig my TdF goals if this keeps up.

I also made a start on my 3-ply fractal spin on Blaise, my Herring wheel. That was not as epic as the Shetland. The fibre, which is sumptuous, is a bit compacted from being in the braid, so it’s fighting me all the way so far – snapping, not coming out easily despite pre-drafting, and of course I’m not used to the side-to-side drafting necessary to maintain colour separation – I’ve only done one fractal spin before. Blaise can be a little temperamental, too. Sometimes she sings along producing invisible gossamer strands fit for an emperor, then suddenly it’s DK singles or nothing and don’t even think about plying – this lady is not for turning (anti-clockwise).

Top-down vie4w of an acid green and dark wine top, rolled loosely and set on a spinning wheel. There is a small amount of spun yarn on the spinning wheel bobbin.
Impressive, huh?

I should add something about the decision to do a 3-ply fractal spin. There are basically 2 reasons:

  • I tried to pull the released braid into 2 sections, but it insisted on parting into 3*.
  • A 3-ply fractal spin requires 4 bobbins – 1 for each single, and 1 to ply onto. By sheer coincidence, Blaise has 4 bobbins – 1 original, and 3 purchased recently from Frank Herring & Sons.

So obviously, it was a thoroughly-researched, analytically considered, and deliberative choice, as is usual for me.

Stop laughing, there at the back!

I did consider dividing the 2nd length into 2, and the 3rd into 4, before wising up. Instead, Bobbin 2 will consist of 3 x 1/6ths, and Bobbin 3 will have 3 x 1/9ths, as is tradition.

*: This is often the case with commercial combed top. The mills have 3, umm, extruders where the final top is spat out. These are positioned close together in a triangular shape, so the top comes out as one length, even though it’s really 3. IYSWIM.