Fine-ally

Today's a rest day in the Tour de France as well as in the Tour de Fleece I signed up for on Ravelry. A chance to get caught up on a lot of things.

Yesterday was the first big stage in the Alps, and I had set myself the challenge of spinning a quantity of fine linen bookbinding thread. Imagine my surprise when I finished plying to discover that I had spun slightly over 10 yards (10 m) of really consistent two-ply thread (pictured above)!

Even more impressive (well, to me!) is that it only took me an hour to spin the single, create a wrap on my hand to let me ply the two ends together (Andean plying, for you technical spinning folks), untangle the mess it turned into when I made the mistake of trying to work on it when the day's Tour stage got exciting, and then finish it up.

If you're thinking gee Linda, it's been awhile since you've blogged, you haven't had a lot of pictures up on Flickr, you don't answer emails lately and this is all you have been doing?, well, you're wrong.

I've also finished spinning all the yarn for the chessboard portion of My Past Life (now updated with more details and pictures), which has been a major accomplishment, getting my proposals ready to send off to teach at Olds College next year (lots of samples and models created), and swatching the yarn I ended up buying for a contest I'm planning to enter.

Last, but not least, I am trying to do more "real" writing -- not just here on the blog. I know I said I was going to do this in May 2007, and I do keep a list of things I think have potential (not dissimilar to my book project tally).

Soon, very soon, one is going to be delivered kicking and screaming into the light of day.

Stay tuned, sports fans....