Le Tour de Fleece

Today is the first day of the Tour de Fleece. For those of you know don't know what that means, it's a 3-week spinning journey; we spin every day from Saturday July 3rd through Sunday, July 25th. There are two days of rest: the 12th and 21st, and there is the day of (greatest) challenge, Thursday the 22nd.

I hear there's a little bicycle race fashioned after the Tour de Fleece; they ride their bikes somewhere in France on the same days we use our spinning wheels. Cute, non?

Last year, my theme was to finish up some spinning WIPs, and as the-job-that-is-now-fortunately-in-my-past started during the tour, I pretty much failed miserably at completing my goal. This year my theme is the unknown; fibers and fiber blends I haven't experienced before. Some are WIPs, some are new projects.

This is a Merino-Silk blend from A Verb For Keeping Warm that I bought at Stitches West this year (color way is Chocolate Cherries):

I've spun up about half and want to finish this ASAP.

I also have some gorgeous Cormo. Spinning all-white isn't that exciting but my intent is to dye it after I finish spinning it. I want a semi-solid but no barber-poling.


Behold the WooLee Winder Brian got me for my birthday! Love, love, love it already and I've only spent a few hours with it. I hope it's not considered an unfair advantage during the tour and I don't eventually get accused of doping by Floyd Landis.

Here's another fiber I have yet to experience - 'Meriboo' - a Merino/Bamboo blend, that's destined to become a fine two-ply laceweight.

I have some other things I'd like to spin up but we'll see if I get that far.

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch....

I turned another year older on June 10th, and I think it was one of the nicest birthdays ever. No giant bash or anything but a lot of acknowledgment, a lot of good wishes, and lots of (3 guesses....) fiber.

Cashmere from Kathy

Some cash with which I've purchased these:



I also decided to try out some Polwarth from Crown Mountain Farms (The top one is Silk Road the other, Shadow on the Wall)


And this, the aforementioned WooLee Winder from Brian; something I've been dying to have for a while now. Pretty sweet, huh?


I've been busy with other things too: In spite of crazy amounts of overtime at work (it's all good), I've managed to knit a bit:

Continued progress on Madli's Scarf

On a quick business trip to Omaha last week I got a start on Flutter Scarf by Miriam Felton, using some silk/merino laceweight I had in stash (from Pigeonroof Studios).

Last, I recently finished this:

And felted it last night.

Another Booga Bag; this one is a late birthday present for the lovely Hannah (no blog so no link), in her colors. I love this pattern and it's great for using up project leftovers. One of these days I'll make one for myself.

In other wildly exciting news, we got rid of our old couch and got a new one:

I've always wanted a high-quality leather couch and it's nice not to feel a wood frame digging through the cushions. It has a slightly smaller footprint which opens up the room a bit, and the leather smells nice. But best of all,

The doggies like it.