Tour de Fleece

Ok, so I haven't done much spinning of late. My knee hurt too much until about two weeks ago. I was so happy when I found I could spin again, I jumped right in and spun too long, and my knee ached for days. So I decided to limit the time spinning per day. Which was ok. But I've been spinning this CRAP fiber that I'm so disappointed in. I need to look up where I bought it because I never EVER want to buy fiber there again. I got it directly from the shepard's farm. The breed is Polypay. It's sticky (despite two washings and a dyeing), it's full of VM and coarse black hairs, which I could live with, but it's also full of neps. I mean FULL of neps. I end up pulling out a huge pile of unspinnable fiber every time I spin it, and it just not fun. I finally finished one strip of purple koolaid dyed fiber, washed and skeined it, and it's horrible. I had wanted to use it for the Sheep Thrills hat exchange, but no way would I wear a hat made out of it; it's far too coarse and itchy.

So when I started the Tour de Fleece, (and I haven't missed a day yet!) I finished the purple, started on the red. But this was duty. This was labor. This was a miserable time. Last night I decided if I was going to commit to a project like this, I should enjoy it, dammit! So I took that bobbin off the Majacraft and thought "what would I love to spin?"


Ohhhhh my. I bought this roving at the Santa Monica Fiber and bead Fest last August and have been afraid to touch it. The colors are so amazing! So I threw caution to the wind and loaded up a fresh bobbing and oh my I am in LOVE. The fiber is Tencel and Merino and it feels and looks like silk. The color is copper and brown and purple and green and just gorgeous. My husband thought it looked like a coil of copper wire, but soft! I can't wait to spin this stuff and I finally remember why I love to spin.

The lesson being get good fiber! It's such a shame that the Polypay is such a mess, and purely the shepardess' fault in carding, I think. I have a pound of the roving, and I'll spin it all eventually, but it's too icky to make anything to wear, so I'm wondering why.

Anyone with a suggestion on what to do with it? Compost heap? Maybe dog coats? Rug?