spinning 2015

Tour De Fleece 2015

Nicky18 Comments

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.

TourdeFleeceRavelry

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.

 

Planned Spinning Fibersfrom l to r: 4 ozs mixed bfl, 8 ozs wensleydale

TdF15 basketThis is my TdF2015 basket but errrr … I already spun the teal Wednesday night and … errr … guess where that pink fiber is

Knitpicks Peruvian FiberLOLOLOLOL!!!!

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!!!!

Houston, We Have Lift Off!!!!

Nicky12 Comments

My Sunday morning devotional reading was devoted to the Proverbs 31 woman.  What stood out to me specifically:

13 She seeks wool and flax,
And willingly works with her hands..

&

19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
And her hand holds the spindle.

What?!!!!!  Obviously my mind was not where it should have been.  Or was it? After reading how she rocked her distaff and her spindle, me and this chic right here, Ms Olga if you please, had to have a serious chat.

I had to set her straight and let her know that I too wanted to rock my spindle and distaff (that would be her).   After a brake band change to fix her uptake issues, and a test run on some commercial yarn to get used to feeding and treadling.  We moved from:

Seeing uptake with commercial yarn

Lift Off I

to getting impatient (despite my most sincere promise to practice only feeding and treadling for a week) and adding fiber … to end up with … dun, dun, dun …

IMG-20150630-WA0003

The skein is under spun, overspun, thick, thin, messy but deliciously mine. I have no idea what the fiber content is, it was given to me by the talented lady who taught me to knit (Monique R) but there’s no label.  I don’t even care about the fiber content.  What the resulting skein does is remind me that perseverance does pay off.   Now to set my Ravelry Tour De Fleece 2015 goals (I’ll be back on Thursday to tell you what those are).   I’ve already wiped down Ms. Olga and given her a good oiling and ready to go on Saturday!!!!   By the time those games are done (on July 26th), I want to be able to call myself a spinner.

After almost 2 years, Houston, we have lift off!  😀