Tour de Fleece - get your wheels going by guest blogger Annie

Tour de Fleece - get your wheels going by guest blogger Annie

I can’t believe it’s the end of June and you know that for me and lots of other spinners that means it’s time for the Tour de Fleece! What is the Tour de Fleece? It’s a spin along on Ravelry with the Tour de France bicycle race! The goal is that each day the Tour races you also spin, when they take a rest day we take a rest day. If you’re competitive you can join one of the many teams on Ravelry, upload pictures of your progress and compete for prizes but here at Looking Glass we just do it for fun and bragging rights. This year the Tour runs from June 30 – July 22 with rest days on July 10^th & 17^th.  Those of you who are interested in watching the Tour De France can find daily coverage online or on NBC Sports network if you have basic cable or Dish.

I do like a bit of friendly competition but mostly this is just a fun way to concentrate some time on reducing the fiber stash. When I learned to spin I was very dedicated to spinning at least one evening a week, as time has passed I tend to only spin in fits & starts, usually only close to the monthly spinning group at the shop. The fact that I spin very little has not slowed my fiber acquisition, especially since the shop has so many really lovely hand dyed and special fibers for sale. One of my favorite fiber producers is Abstract Fibers and the shop carries quite a good selection from them in various blends including Alpaca/Silk, Merino/Alpaca, Merino/Silk, and on. 

Last year during the Tour I was able to reduce my stash by several pounds which allowed me to reward myself with several more. This year the goal is 10 pounds – yikes that is such a big number in print. I think if I get a good jump on it this week then I can maybe buy some new fiber to motivate me at the big anniversary sale next week!