Tour de Fleece

Did you know even crafters have sporting events? I just found out myself. This year, a couple of my friends told me about the Tour de Fleece. It's a spinning event that takes place during the Tour de France, only instead of spinning on a bicycle, you work toward yarn spinning goals.

I have already made some progress spinning the beautiful wool that I recieved for Christmas. My goal is to have it all spun, plied, washed, and ready to knit by July 24th, when the Tour ends. The challenge for me will be plying, because so far the only two skeins I have spun have been single-ply. It will be fun to learn a new spinning skill as part of this experience.

Besides the joy of making my own yarn, part of the fun is joining a team. This is mostly because it's nice to have people with whom to share your work while you also admire theirs and you all support each other. In addition to my regular craft group, which fits all these categories, I have joined Team Tale Spinners on Ravelry. They have a fairy tale and fable theme, which is right up my alley!

The tour started on July 2nd, and I actually missed the first day. Here is my progress from the next two:

Ready to spin! Counterclockwise we have: the yarn I have spun from this batt so far, the wool I have left to spin, and my Ashford spindle, all ready to go!

Day 2: I spun for about 1 hour. It doesn't look like I did that much, but I'm hoping that's because I'm getting better at keeping my yarn from getting too bulky.

Day 3: 2 hours of spinning on top of  the one from the previous day. It's looking a little more impressive.

Stay tuned to see my progress, I'll need all your support when I get to plying!

-Assunta