Everything is ready: an overflowing stash, a nicely oiled wheel, empty spindles... I'm ready to go! I'm part of the Fondant Fibre team this year, my first TdF, so I'm spinning predominantly FF fibre, with possibly some Spin City or some Nunoco, maybe some Countess Ablaze if I run out of FF or if I just fancy a change. I'll be spinning mostly on Zelda, my Ashford electric spinner, though weekends I'll be spindle spinning because that's when I'm at my boyfriend's place and Zelda is just too clunky to move back and forth! 

The Tour guidelines are as follows:

  • 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).

My own personal goals:

  • Spin at least 30 minutes each day, Saturday 4th to Saturday 26th
  • Take a rest day 13th and 21st
  • Post a weekly update on the blog, showing work in progress and finished handspun
  • Post in the Ravelry group for my team - Team Fondant Fibre!
  • Challenge: spinning punis backwards long draw - I find this difficult and want to practice more!
And with all that said: ready, set, spin! :)


So, here we are! It's already July, Tour de Fleece is starting tomorrow, and I've got a pile of handspun skeins that are yet to be photographed and written about. As it happens, June has just been insane. The school year finished so the girls were driving me crazy occupying more of my time; I've been job hunting and filling in applications and doing online tests and attending interviews left right and centre; and although weekends are my prime spinning time, it's also the only time I have to spend with my boyfriend lately. So! As a result, these lovely handspun skeins have been languishing in the cupboard, waiting for some attention.

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Okay, so I missed it by a week. Oops.

Early June 2014, I ordered a "learn to spin" kit online. Inside, a clunky wooden spindle, and a few balls of natural Finn wool (it's still one of my favourites breeds, even now). A few YouTube videos later, and I was park-and-drafting, and making some kind of super slubby rope that wouldn't really come in handy for anything in particular. A few days later, the slubs started to even out, and I was spinning some kind of fairly-even-if-a-little-fat rope. And then, 10th June 2014, I plied, washed, skeined and photographed my first handspun yarn. I called it Cappucino. Super bulky, probably underplied, but even now it's stashed away in London as a reminder of where I started.

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Technically, most of these were spun in April. I've been ridiculously busy with preparations for a big family party abroad (more on that in another post!) and spinning got pushed to the side. I had four lovely skeins all ready to reskein and photograph, and they just got waylaid... Not to mention my #spin15in15 goal - I've been so good with it, only missing about four days so far, and then bam! over a week with no spinning...

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So, I have a ton of wool. I have a ton of wool that's just squished up in a box, waiting to be spun, and no time to do it all. So what do I do? I buy more wool. I'm nothing if not totally pragmatic and logical.*

*Wool is considered an exception to the "must act reasonably" rule, and as such it is completely allowed, obligatory even, to increase the stash at any given opportunity.

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