Warming Up for Tour de Fleece

This week is the beginning of ESY (extended school year also known as summer school back in the day). I hate to say I am relieved, but three teens in one house is a little crowded and the bickering is pretty much non-stop. Will and Stephanie go to school from 7:30- 12:00 Monday through Thursday and that gives Katherine and I a little down time. Katherine choses to use it for sleeping late and computer time. I plan to use it for spinning, sewing, and maybe a killer nap or two.

The Tour de Fleece (and Tour de France are approaching soon). I have been training by working on my Mother's day fleece, Petunia. So far I have spun up six skeins (one more has been added since this post). I am enjoying learning about techniques in fleece preparation including washing, carding, and flicking locks. I am enjoying the whole sheepy process.

One does not survive on yarn alone. I am also trying to maintain my sewing skills. I finished my Emmeline apron. I was a fun project from an indi designer. I like to support the newer artists on Etsy . They are very brave to put themselves out in the public arena and need to be acknowledged.

This the 'A' side:

And here's the 'B' side:
I will definitely make more of these aprons in the future.

We also tried converting the Pioneer Woman's cobbler recipe into a gluten-free variation. A substitution of King Arthur's Gluten-free flour blend, an addition of some xanthan gum and a little egg replacer and you would never know the difference. Some flour substitutes are very grainy, but this came out pretty 'normal' tasting.

Not to neglect the stash, I am still plodding along on these socks. They are the Fruit Loops from Knitty using Madelaine Tosh's sock yarn in a Baltic color. It's slow knitting due to some crazy stitch maneuvering but I am loving the results.

Time to get back to the wheel, later peeps!