Tour de Fleece, Days 17, 18, and 19...

...totally forgot that yesterday was Wednesday and didn't post. Guess that's a sign that I'm enjoying my vacation!

Day 17: 

Monday was a rest day and I took it; that is, I didn't spin. However, I did finish the top for the baby quilt and spent a few hours weaving.

Day 18:
I pieced together the backing for the baby quilt and got everything pressed. I'm ready to pin baste it.

On the spinning front, I decided to challenge myself and try core spinning. I used the Yarn Wench Glimmer Wild Card Bling Batts from my stash because there were two of them - if I blew the first one, I could spin the second one "normally."

The first thing I did was remove the Cotswold locks that were in the center of each batt. I wasn't sure how to incorporate them yet, so I decided to hold them for later.

Here are the finished yarns:

1st batt: I split the batt into four or five strips and attempted to core-spin. I ended up with a thick and thin single with some of the thick areas not having enough twist. I plied it with a rayon thread to hold things together.

The close up:

Specs:
Started and finished 7/16/13;
Glimmer Wild Card Bling batt (2 oz) from Yarn Wench;
core-spun single plied with variegated blue rayon thread, 20.5 yds bulky;

2nd batt: I split the batt into many thinner strips and predrafted them. The core-spinning went a little better with this one. I'm keeping it as a single. It’s very energized, but I like the way the colors look.

The close up:

Specs:
Started and finished 7/16/13;
Glimmer Wild Card Bling batt (2 oz) from Yarn Wench;
Core-spun single, 24.2 yds, bulky

Day 19:
I pin basted the quilt and am letting it hang until I can start machine quilting it (today, maybe...).

I continued to experiment with core-spun yarns. I'd watched a YouTube tutorial on core-spinning locks that I wanted to try. Another tutorial showed a technique called auto-wrapping, where you basically let a thread wrap itself around the single as you spun it.

I core-spun the Cotswold locks leftover from the Glimmer batt I spun on Day 18 and auto-wrapped it with a variegated aqua thread.

and the close up:

Specs:
Started and finished 7/17/13;
Cotswold locks from Glimmer Wild Card Bling batt (2 oz) from Yarn Wench;
core-spun single auto-wrapped with variegated aqua rayon thread;
9.3 yds bulky; 

Next, I core-spun a Black Peacock batt from the Yarn Wench, auto-wrapping it with silver thread. The first silver thread I trying was too heavy and was a little stiff. It didn't wrap well and kept getting tangled. I switched to a lighter thread and it worked much better. This yarn is highly energized and I hope some of that comes out after washing.

and the close-up:

Specs:
Started and finished 7/17/13;
Black Peacock Tweed Wild Card Bling batt (3.6 oz) from Yarn Wench;
core-spun single auto-wrapped with silver metallic thread
37.2 yds bulky

Today is a day 20 and a challenge day, and I'm not sure if I can do anything more challenging that what I have been doing!
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