On the eve of this year’s Tour de Fleece (TDF) I thought I should layout my intentions. This is my 4th year taking part in the event and is when most of my spinning happens.
If you don’t know, Tour de Fleece is a spinning fibre event that happens on Ravelry and/or Facebook. It runs alongside the Tour de France, with both events having challenge days and rest days. If you are interest, there is more information on the Ravelry page.
This year I am the team captain of a small group of ladies from the Highland Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (#TeamHighlandGuild2021). This is our team’s 2nd year.
I like Tour de Fleece, it is a good opportunity to establish a routine of spinning as it runs from tomorrow, 26th June to 18th July, with a couple of scheduled rest days. You can spin as much or as little as you like.
You can join multiple teams but this year I am just going to join in with the general Facebook chatter and the Highland Guild team chat on Ravelry, so that there’s more spinning time and a bit less iPad/phone time.
At last year’s TDF I was doing the woollen spinning of the John Arbon Harvest Hues fibre. It is still not all spun yet, so that’s my main target. Based on the fibre remaining and 21 days spinning, I need to spin around 12.2g per day of this fibre to finish it during the event on my Ashford Traditional spinning wheel. This is my main goal…I really want to finish this!
I also have some BFL and Seacell fibre that I haven’t finished spinning yet. I have previously spun enough to make a pair of socks with it, but I thought the remainder I would spin a bit chunkier.
This year I will have 2 wheels on the go! So the BFL and possibly some breed yarns I will do on my Ashford Traveller and the John Arbon fibre finish on the Traditional.
There are two challenge days and for the life of me I can’t remember what I said I was going to spin on those 2 days! Hopefully I will find where I wrote it down, worst case I will make some other challenge plans. My Russian supported spindle doesn’t get much love so perhaps I could get some practice on that…if it gets warm enough to lie in my hammock I could even try spinning whilst in the hammock!! That would be a challenge indeed. I hope summer arrives properly so I can spin in the garden. 🤞🏻
Are you taking part? If so what team are you joining and what are your plans? Best of luck to the spinners out there.
*The Tour de Fleece picture is taken from Ravelry, but I don’t see a name to credit, but I don’t have the copyright, but believe we are allowed to use to blog about it.
HighlandHeffalump 
Good luck, Liz!
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😁
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Beautiful fiber you’ve picked out to spin – good luck with all your plans. I haven’t participated in the Tour the last couple of years, but I decided to toss my hat in with my friend Laura’s group (The Corner of Knit and Tea) since I’m spinning a bit every day trying to finish a couple of braids of roving at the minimum by the end of the Tour. I’m currently in the middle of some of it, but I’m going for kind of a casual approach to just spin SOMETHING every day, so anything that gets finished is a win in my book.
I probably should have added in some spinning for my YOP goals but I’ve been so focused on yarn stash I kind of forgot about the fiber stash too! Maybe for next year 🙂
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Oh that’s so funny. I was in Laura’s team the last 3 years! I won some lovely fibre years 1 and 3 so good luck. You can always add it now to your list…or add it later after you see how you are doing. Enjoy the spinning.
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Good luck reaching your Tour de Fleece goals!
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Thanks Kathy
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This is my first year to officially participate…but I’m only part of the large FB group rather than joining a particular team. I plan to spin every day for as long as my back will allow. I probably won’t do challenges, unless they happen to coincide with what I’m already spinning. I’ll mostly be spinning fiber from my raw fleeces, but I may spin some commercial roving too. I’ll be documenting my daily progress on my blog, so we’ll see how it goes!
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Enjoy, I hope you end up with some lovely yarns you are happy with
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Good luck, Liz! Looking forward to hearing about all your spinning!
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Thanks x
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Good luck!
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Thanks AJ x
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Beautiful colours – will look forward to seeing what you spin. This is my first year doing Tour de Fleece and I’m looking forward to the challenge (I’m not part of any groups though, documenting on my blog instead). I’m curious to see how much I manage to spin when I have specific time allotted to it each day, but I think the amount of spinning I want to get through might be a bit ambitious! 🙂
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Just like I would be with cycling I usually start with gusto and do loads the first 7 days and then as my knees or wrists play up it gets less and less…I don’t seem to be able to pace myself. Good luck with your 1st TDF journey.
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