Every year, spinners all over the world stand in solidarity with cyclists and take to our wheels during the Tour De France. The Tour De Fleece is a fun challenge for me – I often don’t spin as much as I’d like, so having the excuse and motivation to focus on spinning is a nice change of pace.
This year, my goal is to simply spin at least half an hour a day. I’ve got no huge projects or big plans, just the practice of spinning. It’s a relaxing, fun exercise, and so far has had great results.
To start with, I did the second half of a beautiful braid from Good Fibrations. This was a merino/tencel blend in beautiful reds and browns. It reminded me of roses and I just had to buy it. I had already finished one half, but had put it aside because spinning lace weight is a long process. Filling the second bobbin didn’t take as long as I had expected (a couple movies might have helped), and I ended up with 560 m of beautiful smooshy lace weight.
With those bobbins cleared, it was on to something new – some beautiful superwash BFL that I snagged from my local yarn store. I’m doing this from the fold, supported long draw and it’s been bliss to spin. It’s so smooth and the finished yarn is going to be so light. Generally, I spin high twist, so this is a bit different from me, but I just love the airy, fluffy results.
Finally, my spindles have been getting some love as well. I took my mini Turkish spindle when we went on a family trip to Fundy National Park, and I’ve been using my suport spindle as well. On the mini is a camel silk blend that I’ve been slowly working on for years. It’s my travel project, I generally only do a handful of fluff at a time, but I don’t mind working through it slowly. On the support spindle is some merino silk that I have also been working on for a while – leftovers from a lace project that I got tired of.
In my stash I’ve got a shetland fleece I’ve been carding, some Alpaca, a merino/quiviut blend and some linen that I might dig out and try my hand at.
Yarns and Fluff 