TdF - Days 4 & 5

Playing catch up over here! There's been a helluva lot of spinning going on.

Day Four:


This is about 750 yards of mystery fiber (and so much sparkle!) in gigantic batts from ironjohn. I had been unsure of what to do with them as the colors all seemed fairly disparate and I was afraid they would just muddy themselves up. I opted for the color progression option.

The Spunky Club Singles-A-Long/Knit-A-Long project from earlier this year played a giant part in my being able to make this yarn. A year ago I would have been afraid to take on such a large lace spinning project, as well as being afraid of the properties of a laceweight single. I'm happy with how this came out, and I'm excited to see how it knits up!

Day Five:



This is a 5-ply - my first! - made from Southern Cross Fiber Club batts from May 2009 in the "Fire" colorway. They are a lovely 80% Superfine Australian Merino/20% Tussah Silk blend. I ended up with about 170 yards, along with a little bundle of 3-ply. This yarn is delectably soft and wonderful.

Meanwhile, in France - WOW! The Time Trials were tricky and incredible, and today's stage was also pretty crazy! Large lead group and the battle is getting heated.

TdF - Day Two

I continued to spin up that mystery wool today, and finished up the singles!



There's one more bobbin that I finished up after this photo was taken - I wanted to make sure I had some semi-decent light. Tomorrow will be a day of plying and freeing up all those bobbins in order to move on to the next big project - I'm thinking of breaking things up and working on my 5-ply from the Southern Cross Fiber "Fire" colorway series of batts.

That bobbin on the right is 1/3 of a Superwash Corriedale/Nylon blend in the "Soul Windows" colorway from Spunky Eclectic. I'm aiming for some 3-ply sock yarn.

Meanwhile, in France:
Today's race was beautiful to watch! While most all of the race today was held on pavement, early races were primarily on cobblestones or unpaved stretches. The competitors rode on bicycles with wooden rims! The weight of the rims alone must have impeded their progress significantly.

TdF - Day One

I love watching the Tour de France, and the Tour de Fleece is a wonderful excuse for me to actually get through some of my stash while watching it. I have lofty goals this year - 2 sweaters' worth of wool, a 3-ply sock project, a 5-ply (my first), and a few lace projects. I'm hoping to be able to accomplish all of this, though I remain apprehensive. I plan on spinning every day that the tour is happening (including rest days!) through (at least) the duration of the live coverage. We'll see what it gets me.

Today's bounty:


These are my first 2 bobbins of what will soon be a 2-ply. This is mystery wool from Rhinebeck (in researching the seller, I am lead to believe that it is mohair and the rather vague "wool") that I am LOVING to spin. It's wonderfully soft. I plan on spinning all of it up as singles first, followed by some mixed plying action (bobbins 1 & 6, 2 & 5, 3 &4 or somesuch) in order to account for any inconsistencies in my spinning through the Tour. It's more than likely this will happen because things in the race can get TENSE!

For those of you who cannot comprehend the idea of watching 180 men (to start) bicycle 2100+ km around France:
The Tour de France is really lovely to watch as not only a sport, but as a travelogue - it's a wonderful, er, tour, of France, and it varies every year. Due to the duration of the race, one is able to really get an idea of the nuances of the actual race (which also vary by year) and understand the technical aspects involved. Of course, the entire idea of the race is fairly mindblowing. In early races, the riders did the whole thing on fixed-gear bikes! They also had to do any repairs along the way by themselves. Things have improved significantly since then!