D'NALI

Everyone has heard of Tour De France, but what the heck is Tour De Fleece?  LOLOL!

As the word fleece suggests it has to do with raw fleece, roving, carded tops — in a nutshell, all the things yarn spinners go crazy over.  It’s an annual yarn spinning challenge run on Ravelry during the same time frame as Tour De France.  This year it’ll go from July 4th – July 26th, 2015.

source

The official guidelines as posted on Ravelry are as follows:

Welcome to our group for participants in the annual Tour de Fleece spin-along during the Tour de France. They spin, we spin. A real spinning-themed spin-along.

The concept is simple:

Challenge Yourself.
Spin.
Have fun.

Guidelines (NOT RULES):

• Spin every day the Tour rides, if possible. Saturday July 4 through Sunday July 26th. Days of rest: Monday, July 13th and Tuesday, July 21st. (Just like the actual tour.)
• Spin something challenging on the challenge day (usually the toughest high mountain stage: this year, it’s Stage 18, on Thursday, July 23rd, when they will climb 5 mountains, including the 1,924m high Col du Glandon).
• Wear yellow on Sunday July 26th to announce victory. Why not wear yellow on any day you feel particularly successful? (Yellow is the color of the race leader in the Tour – but here we are all ‘race leaders’) Other colors if desired: Green (sprinter – think FAST), Polka-dot (climber – as in uphill), and white (rookie).

Honestly, I didn’t think I would have been able to participate this year.  I’ve been spinning on my spindles but if you read this blog often enough, you’ll know that my spinning wheel and I finally started communicating with each other last Sunday after almost 2 years of  …. errrrr … non communication.  So although I’m not on a team, I’ll be joining my buddy Elisa (from our Knit Picks & More Stashdown group) and a few other members to do an unofficial spin-along.

My goals are to:

• Spin more consistent singles
• Spin 4 ozs of mixed bfl (update on that … this should be changed.  I got spin happy on Wednesday night and just had to start finishing it.)  New goal is to spin what is left.
• Spin 4 ozs of undyed Wensleydale
• Dye 4 ozs of Wensleydale then spin it
• Spin a 2 ply combo
• Although this is not a spin, I want to card 4 ozs of fiber I got from an independent dyer that’s kinda matted (possibly from the dyeing process) so I could spin it later.

from l to r: 4 ozs mixed bfl, 8 ozs wensleydale

This is my TdF2015 basket but errrr … I already spun the teal Wednesday night and … errr … guess where that pink fiber is

LOLOLOLOL!!!!

Yeah … I’ve been kinda spinning everyday.  Can you blame me?  😀

Whatever your plans — whether you go out, hang out with friends and family, barbeque, go to the beach or pool, or spend your 4th playing with yarn, fiber or whatever your creative medium is — Happy 4th of July!!!!