Tour de Fleece 2026

It was my first Tour de Fleece, and for my initial challenge, I wanted to spin a fractal yarn. To that end, I bought a Malabrigo Cloud braid in shades of green which, although I found the preparation very annoying to work with, turned into two decent skeins of yarn after all (left and curled over the top). I was so frustrated by its matted nature that for my next challenge, I said I'd finish up the Lilac Mist top (second from left), plying, washing and setting the twist in the Malabrigo when I needed a break. Once the Lilac Mist was done, I did a build-your-own fractal, again not too pleased with the preparation, but it did make a cool yarn (third from left). Then I really went off the deep end, and set myself the task of learning to spin on an e-spinner (Electric Eel Nano, center). Since I had plenty of natural white Corriedale wool, I used that (third from the right), and it turned out so nicely that it's going in the county fair (not the state fair). I was so pleased with the e-spinner that I asked myself if I was brave enough to try spinning cotton on it, which was primarily what I wanted to use it for. My first half-ounce skein (second from right) is a little rough, but by the time I was done with it, I had figured out most of the foibles and immediately put more cotton on the Nano (that's what's on it in the photo). For the final leg of Tour de Fleece 2026, I said, "I'm just going to see how much of the mixed greens I can get out of the way, and I'm going to Navajo-ply it." Out of enough wool for three skeins of equal size, one is completely done, one is ready to be plied as of this morning, and I'll start the final one today. The yarn and full bobbin are shown on the right. For a first Tour, I don't think I did half bad!