We have just got back from a lovely weekend with my parents-in-law, including a trip up to Stratford to see the RSC production of Titus Andronicus, and a barbeque today with my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece.

On our return I have done a little weighing and measuring of my longdraw yarns:

1st skein: 3ply, 189g, 140m

2nd Skein: 2ply, 71g, 88m

3rd skein: chain-ply, 52g, 39m

I also did a little bit more spinning of the shetland.

Today’s coin is an Olympic 50p for Chris Froome’s overall win. What an exciting three weeks of racing!

I have got a bit of a busy couple of weeks now so you will be pleased that it will be fairly quiet here for a bit!

Last day in the mountains for the cyclists today, more good scenery! For a change of pace today I thought I would have a go at knitting with my longdraw experiments. This is the 3ply, so far I have tried garter stitch, stocking stitch, 1×1 rib, and 2×2 rib. I am also planning to try some moss stitch, a cable or two, and possibly some lace.

Today’s coin is the other side of the old Irish 10p that I showed on Wednesday. No connection to the racing but it is so much fun 🙂

Another hard day in the Alps for the cyclists. Luckily things are looking much more reasonable here 🙂 The weather has cooled a little, there are no clouds in the sky, and there is a breeze today which overall makes for lovely weather. Paul is quite a bit improved. I had a daft moment yesterday and failed to drink enough giving me a headache which lasted most of the night, stupid Heather. I have been remembering to drink lots of water today though 🙂

Despite all that I have done a bit more of my Shetland spinning. Here is my first bobbin so far. Majacraft bobbins are huge! I think I can cram a bit more on 🙂

Today’s coin is a Spanish 1 Euro. Rui Costa was today’s winner with a very well timed escape, to make his second stage victory. Rui is Portuguese but his team Movistar is Spanish (there, I managed a link to the coin!).

A dramatic day in the mountains for the cyclists, including the Alp d’Huez twice!

It is still hot here but at least there is a little bit of a breeze today which has been nice. Poor Paul has a nasty bug and had a very unpleasant night. Fortunately he has stopped being sick today but has still felt dreadful and absolutely wiped out, and hasn’t been able to eat anything. Hopefully he will be able to sleep a bit better tonight and will feel a bit better tomorrow. Fortunately for me I don’t seem to have caught it yet.

Today I started spinning some shetland. I bought a kilo of this from the Shetland Sheep Society at Wonderwool Wales last year, so there is enough for a jumper. I started off by making myself a reference card.

I am a slow spinner, and spinning a kilo will take me several months. My reference card is handy to make sure that my yarn at the beginning is at least similar to the yarn at the end, and so I wont end up with a jumper with one thin sleeve or something odd 🙂 At least that is the theory!

Today’s coin is a French 50 Euro Cents for Christophe Riblon’s very impressive win.

A very dramatic time-trial for the cyclists today. With the rain affecting some riders and not others it certainly made for nail-biting viewing. Well done to Chris Froome for his third stage win of this year’s Tour.

Today I spun up a sample that I picked up from Wonderwool Wales last year, from one of the mills, although I’m afraid now I can’t remember which one. I totally failed to take a picture before I spun it, but it was prepared as a fine pencil roving, approximately 5mm diameter. With this I hardly did any drafting at all, just added twist. The fibre is wool, but I am not sure which breed, possibly Romney. I then chain-plied, giving me yarn which is approximately a DK or possibly aran weight.

It was interesting to spin, and I quite like the result – I intentionally over-plied a little and this seems to have worked well to hold the yarn together and make it more springy. I’m not sure I would want to spin huge quantities from this kind of preparation, although maybe practice would make me better at it. Since the roving is quite fine it doesn’t take much to pull it apart, which meant one had to be quite careful about pulling it out of its cheese-shape.

Today’s coin is an old Irish 10p sent to me by the wonderful Sue 🙂 (the other side is great too, and I shall be using that too asap). It has no connection at all to the cycling, but is just so lovely I had to use it 🙂

An exciting breakaway stage today for the cyclists, with a fair bit of attacking of the General Classification too. Another hot day here today, I am not very good at the heat! I would prefer it if it was a bit cooler over night, I shall keep hoping!

I finished plying my longdraw singles. The last skein is chain-plyed, and as expected this is the lumpiest of the lot. Chain-plying has a tendency to magnify thick and thin sections because of the way it is constructed. I think this is the least favourite of my plying experiments.

I am looking forward to them drying properly so I can have a go knitting them. I am planning to try some different stitch patterns and different tensions if I have enough yarn, to get a feel of how these yarns behave.

Today’s coin is a Chinese 1 Yi Yuan, for no reason other than that it is pretty 🙂 Apologies to today’s winner Rui Costa, I don’t have a Portuguese coin.

Another fun discovery of the day is the Australian programme Taste le Tour, fun recipes and info about food in the different areas of France that the Tour is cycling through 🙂

Today was the second rest day for the cyclists, so I had a bit of a change from the spinning too. I did some cleaning, which isn’t terribly photogenic, and some organising, which is possibly even less photogenic.

I also weighed and measured my second finished skein of the Tour, now that it is dry.

I have 142g and 504m, and it is a good weight for socks, and should certainly be enough. I just need to select a pattern now 🙂

Today’s coin is an old penny, because it is good fun 🙂

Another hot day here, 30°C when we went out to get my parents-in-law’s birthday present this afternoon. The longest stage of this year’s Tour for the cyclists, ending with the Giant of Provence, the Mont Ventoux. A very exciting day of cycling-watching, amazingly well done to Chris Froome! How they can accelerate when they are already riding up a hill like that is just astonishing!

Today I did my next plying experiment. This one is a 2ply. As expected it is more variable than the 3ply, since the more plies you have, then statistically speaking it is less likely that all of their thick bits will coincide.

I think it is still an OK yarn though, although I personally prefer the 3ply.

Thank you to Sally for the suggestion to wait til the yarn was dry before panicking about the lack of elasticity. One of the advantages of the ridiculously hot weather is that my yarn from yesterday is quite well on its way to being dry, and is definitely feeling more elastic, whew!

Today’s coin is an old French 1 Franc, for Bastille day. Today would also have been my grandmother’s 100th birthday, except that she died on Christmas Day aged 99 and 5 months. To get that close to 100 is still pretty impressive.

It has been a jolly hot day here today! 32°C this afternoon while I was playing in an outdoor concert. Luckily we were in a marquee and had a bit of shade but it was still pretty warm.

An exciting day for the breakaway for the cyclists today. More lovely countryside for us to look at on the telly.

I did my first plying session with my longdraw singles, and created a 3ply. It is quite thick, probably an aran or chunky weight.

I think the yarn has come out quite well, and as hoped the plying has evened out some of the worst of the lumpiness. One thing I am still puzzling over, is that it is not very elastic. I was expecting a woollen-spun yarn to be quite bouncy and elastic, and while it is certainly lighter and fluffier than my usual worsted spinning, it is not particularly elastic. Hmm. I shall have to think on that one, and possibly watch some more of my spinning DVDs again.

Today’s coin is an Italian 1 Euro for Matteo Trentin’s win.

After a busy day in front of the telly we have finally caught back up with the cyclists (unlike several of the cyclists themselves). Luckily there were no high winds in the living room, and we didn’t have to divide into echelons on the settee.

The spinning has been coming along. My carding is still a bit lumpy and there was still quite a lot of snapping of my thread, but overall I think I have got a bit better, and I have now finished my final bobbin of singles.

My plan is to do a 3ply, a 2ply, and a chain ply, to see how they come out, and how they differ. I shall start on the 3ply tomorrow.

Today’s coin is a £2 celebrating the discovery of DNA, for Cav’s second win of this Tour.