Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Tour de Fleece 2011

The cycling has started, and therefore so has the spinning. For those that have no idea what I'm talking about, the Tour de Fleece is a group of fibery people that use the Tour de France bike race as an impetus to challenge themselves to spin...more, differently, or even at all. Everyone is welcome, all skill levels and modalities are well represented. This year I'm spinning with Team Superfleece, led by the ever intrepid spin enabler Clara Parkes, the oh so subtle and elegantly simple dying talent Chris of Briar Rose Fibers, and the mastermind behind SpiritTrail Fiberworks and the amazingly prolific Anne Hanson of KnitSpot. (kind of enough to make you weak inthe knees just there isn't it?) An amazing stable of spinners has flocked to their banner to spin together and cheer each other on to their goals.

...all of which provided enough impetus for me to FINALLY sort through my fiber and bring out the spindles again. This is what I'll be attacking, what I lovingly refer to as my "guilt fiber" (poor unloved stash of beauty left languishing in the dark since 2008 AT LEAST...insert blush here):


...and the spindles I'll be using:


My goal is simple: to spin it all, working at heavier than laceweight. (I'm good at that already thanks to an amazing little Golding spindle that is a DREAM to work with)