Motif #16

In addition to the Tour de Fleece, I'm also working on a tatted doily. I was asked to provide an item for the silent auction fundraiser for St. Francis High School. The money raised from the silent auction will go towards tuition scholarships. I have to finish it by the end of August.

I'm making the Clover Doily by Eileen Stafford.  It's a very easy doily so far.  This is through round 3.

Tour de Fleece 2013

Today starts the 2013 Tour de Fleece spin-along on Ravelry and Nimblestix during the Tour de France. The purpose is to challenge ourselves in a fun way. The rules are simple: 1) Spin every day the Tour rides, if possible; 2) Spin something challenging on the challenge day [usually the toughest high mountain stage]; 3) post photos of your progress every day; and 4) Wear yellow on the last day to announce victory.  There are prizes at the end.  I've attempted this in the past but didn't stick with it for very long. This is the first year I'm going to make a concerted effort to spin the entire time.  Well, I will have to split my time between spinning and tatting.

Here's a photo of the yarn I started with. It's 4 oz of blue faced leicester. The color is blue variegated with some dark grey in it.

I started the race this morning at 6:30. The original plan was to spin for an hour and then mow some grass. Well, it seems Mother Nature has other plans. It's going to rain on and off all day.  So there goes mowing for today.  I found the TV channel that's broadcasting the Tour de France so I get to watch the race on TV while I spin. That's exciting. 

I've been spinning for about 2 hours and here's my progress so far:

I figure if I can get a lot done today, it will make up for those days when I'm really busy and can't get a lot of spinning done.

Motif #15

Last night I took an online class through a yahoo group I belong to on cluny tatting.  The class concentrated on making the cluny using a loom.  Today I watched a video today on using your hand as the loom.  I like that method so much better.  Here is my first attempt at making the cluny stitch.  I don't know if this counts as a motif for the 25 motif challenge or not.  Since I eventually want to get into tatting flowers, I need to practice this technique since it's used in leaves a lot.  It's real easy to get out of rhythm if you allow your mind to wander.

In order to take the photo so that the cluny is more visible, I had to learn the setting on my camera.  So, without further ado, here are 2 clunies.  I used size 10 Coat's crochet thread.