Herdwick

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.

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!