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.

I am still miles behind the cyclists, but am starting to catch up a bit, at least compared to yesterday!

My neck is a lot better today, so I managed to finish off my second bobbin of longdraw.

There are definitely some wonky bits in this! I think also although I thought I was being picky about which fibre so card, I need to be more selective. There were some bits that definitely didn’t draft out smoothly. All a learning curve 🙂

Today’s coin is a German 10 Euro Cent for Marcel Kittel’s hat-trick.

I am slipping further behind the cyclists today. I definitely need some more hours in the day!

Today was spinning group. I had a lovely time, it was so nice to catch up with everyone and see the lovely things they are working on. I have done a bit more longdraw, though not that much because I have a bit of a sore neck. I’m not sure whether that is spinning-induced, or whether I slept in an odd position, but I thought it would be better not to overdo it.

Today’s coin is a German 50 Euro Cent for Tony Martin’s win in today’s time trial.

Some beautiful Breton scenery for the cyclists today. I haven’t quite caught up with today’s stage yet, but it is past my bedtime so I shall watch a bit more while I eat my breakfast in the morning.

I have been attempting to put into practice some of the tips I picked up from the carding DVD and I think my rolags are definitely more even. I had been having some trouble with stair-steps in them before. It certainly makes it easier to spin a more even yarn when the preparation is better. Still a lot of practising to do.

Here is the start of my second bobbin of longdraw.

Today’s coin is a German 2 Euro to celebrate Marcel Kittel’s second win of this year’s Tour.

Today is a well-deserved rest day for the cyclists. I have been using the time away from the telly to start to catch up with a few bits and pieces. I also managed to watch the first part of my carding DVD and have lots of ideas to try out to improve my carding tomorrow.

I weighed and measured my first yarn of the Tour:

There is 133g, and 492m which should be plenty enough for a pair of socks. I haven’t decided on a pattern yet.

I also did a bit more knitting on the re-knit of the simple Faroese shawl I am making.

The re-knitted yarn is looking a bit uneven, but hopefully that will come out in the wash.

Another long day in the mountains for the cyclists. Also a day where they showed the whole stage on the telly which was great. I recorded it again because for me my spinning and watching was punctuated by playing in a concert this afternoon. It was quite hot, but luckily we were mostly in the shade (and I had my hat and my factor 30 anyway).

More lovely mountainous scenery in France to admire today. It is one of the things I love about the Tour, seeing all the varied and beautiful countryside.

The spinning has been coming along quite well. I have finished my first bobbin. My carding style seems to have changed. Today I carded my left hand whereas yesterday I carded my right, I’m not sure if this is necessarily an improvement. As there is no cycling on the telly tomorrow it might be an opportunity to watch my carding DVD and see if I can work out where I am going wrong.

The spinning part is improving, although at a fairly glacial pace. At least today I broke the yarn less, and threw less away. I think there are longer stretches where it seems to be going fairly well, between the bits where it all goes pear-shaped 🙂

Today’s coin is an Olympic Games 50p. Dan Martin who won today’s stage is Irish but grew up in the Midlands (and I don’t have any Irish coins).

The cyclists had a bit of a change of pace as they had their first Hors Categorie climb today, and the highest peak of this year’s Tour.

I had a lovely day out at a patchwork knitting get together. It was lovely to see everyone and catch up with what they are up to, and we had a very interesting discussion on colour lead by Mary. There are so many different ways of approaching colour, I find the whole subject fascinating. I’m afraid I was having such a lovely time I completely forgot to take any photos, so just imagine the scene of nine knitters having a wonderful day 🙂

This evening I caught up with the recorded Tour and have also started my personal challenge. I decided that this year I would like to learn how to card and how to do longdraw to create a woollen yarn (the yarn I usually spin is more worsted style).

I think my carding is improving, I have only drawn blood once so I am calling that success! I think I need to watch my carding DVD several more times though 🙂 My longdraw is also improving, there are fewer failed bits put in the bin than there were when I first started, and my yarn is getting a little more even. It is still quite lumpy but I am trying to embrace the texture and not stress about it.

The fibre I am using is a mixture of wool and alpaca oddments which fell off the machines at John Arbon. I think occaisionally he sells bags of this at shows, but it isn’t part of their usual line.

I don’t have a real feel yet for whether I am putting an appropriate amount of twist into this yarn. It is certainly quite light, airy, and hairy, all good characteristics for a woollen yarn, but I think I wont really be able to tell til I have plied it whether it is a good yarn or not. I shall plough on with more practising tomorrow!

Today’s coin is a Commonwealth Games £2 for Chris Froome’s win. It was great to see first and second for Sky, and to see quite a lot of action for the main General Classification contenders. Exciting racing!

For the cyclists today was the last flattish day before heading into the Pyrenees tomorrow. Even still it was a bit too lumpy for some of the sprinters. Sagan looked very relieved to get his first win after three second places.

I have been doing well with my spinning. I finished off the last single, then plied the multicoloured merino. Here it is still a little damp from its wash:

You can definitely still see quite a lot of pink in the finished yarn. I am reserving judgement until I have knitted with it.

Today’s coin is a French 20 Euro Cents to celebrate Blel Kadri going into the polka dot jersey.

Another flattish day today for the cyclists, lovely scenery in the Camargue.

I finished off my second bobbin of multicoloured merino, and made a good start on the third.

I am still a little worried about the bright pink in this blend, although I am hoping that plying will tone it down a little. I really enjoy seeing how spinning mixes all the colours up – a bit like mixing all the paints as a small child 🙂

Today’s coin is a South African 1 Rand , to celebrate Daryl Impey being the first South African to ever wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de France!