Tour de Fleece 2023 – Project #1

My plan for these three braids is a combo spin/progression:

1 – half of Bright Caterpillar, split lengthwise in two. Spin first part end to end on one bobbin. Split second part lengthwise and spin end to end on second bobbin. Ply these two bobbins together.

2 – Spin second half of Bright Caterpillar end to end (or split in two lengthwise first, not sure yet) for first bobbin. Split Shetland Jellyfish in half. Spin first half end to end (or split first). Ply these two bobbins together.

3 – Spin second half of Shetland Jellyfish and first half of Unnamed. Ply.

4 – Split and spin second half of Unnamed. Ply.

Goal is to end up with a four skein progression of these three colors.

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7/3 – I’m still working on Part 1 of this spin.

7/24 – At this point, I’ve spun and plied Part 1 and Part 2 of this spin. After plying Part 2, I had a good bit of the Bright Caterpillar singles left, so I wound it into a center pull ball and plied from the inside and outside to end up with an extra little skein of Part 1. I’m now onto spinning the singles of Shetland Jellyfish for the first part of Part 3.

8/3 – Just finished part 3. Added a picture of the first three skeins. (Part 1 skein has the small secondary skein twisted in with it.)

8/13 – Finished spinning the singles of the second half of Braid 3. Picture shows my highly unequally filled bobbins. LOL I had a lot left over on the bobbin from the 3rd braid spin, and I probably should have estimated a better division of the leftover fiber. As I was doing this part as a fractal, the smaller volume bobbin is the end to end spin off the fiber, so I don’t want to add fiber from the fuller bobbin to it, but then maybe it wouldn’t really matter, as whatever remains will need to be plied with itself and is going to look somewhat different anyway? :shrug: I’m not super worried about it either way.

8/15 – The last skein is now plied! As I knew would happen, I had a bunch left over on the one bobbin, so I wound it into a center pull ball and plied it to itself that way. I’m really coming to like that technique, because there’s no guessing involved for using up all of the singles. Who knew? LOL

Yarn is soaking now. I’ll update my final yardages once it’s dry, but my estimate is that it will end up right around 1,280ish yards.

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(Copied my notes on yardage from my Notes app here.)

TdF 2023 – Project #1
3 Braid Combo

#1 – First half of Bright Caterpillar BFL/Silk, 2-plyed with itself
99 wraps; 49 grams. 165 yd unsoaked. 143 finished.

#1.5 – Leftover singles from plying with Shetland Jellyfish, plied from center pull ball
40 wraps; 15 grams. 66 yd unsoaked. 57 finished.

#2 – Second half of Bright Caterpillar 2-plied with first half of Shetland Jellyfish (BFL?)
187 wraps; 80 grams. 311 yd unsoaked. 270 finished.

#3 – Second half of Shetland Jellyfish 2-plied with first half of Unknown (BFL?)
223 wraps; 75 grams. 371 yd unsoaked. 322 finished.

#4 – Second half of Unknown 2-plied with itself.
215 wraps; 59 grams. 358 yd unsoaked. 310 finished.

#4.5 – Leftover singles plied from center pull ball.
95 wraps; 30 grams. 158 yd unsoaked. 137 finished.

1,239 yards total.