handmade by stefanie

I just returned from a long weekend visiting family in Kansas City, only to realize that the Tour de Fleece has snuck up on me. I can't believe that it starts tomorrow! I'll be spinning with Team CKT  again this year, which is a super laid-back team hosted by one of my fellow Team Louet Spinners and host of The Corner of Knit and Te a podcast/blog, FluffyK . After spending half of this month traveling, I feel woefully unprepared for this event. Luckily, the point is to spin every day the tour rides and the amount of yarn you spin is less important (if this were Spinzilla, I'd be screwed!!). I was hoping to take stock of my stash and have a more specific plan for this event, but the reality is that I'll have to fly by the seat of my pants. On the plus side, I have plenty of fiber to keep me going: At least I'm not in danger of running out of spinning fiber.... Are you going to spin during this year's Tour de Fleece ? I'd love to hear about ...

I've only added two finished skeins to my Tour de Fleece basket since last week. First, I finished a two-ply spun from some rolags I made on my Louet Blending Board that are a blend of shetland, merino, cashmere, alpaca, and other random bits. My second project was finished over the weekend, I spun a thick-and-thin 2-ply from 4oz of mixed merino roving from Yarn Hollow. I kind of like the way they look together - perhaps they will end up in a future project together? For now, they join the skeins I spun in the first week of the Tour de Fleece: Thank goodness the point of this event isn't to spin as much yardage as possible, because I'd really be failing miserably - there just aren't enough hours in the day! But I have managed to spin every day, even on the rest day, which is totally fine by me. Hope you are enjoying the TDF, if you're spinning - see you back here for WIPs & SIPs on Wednesday!

It's come to my attention that I once again have too much spinning fiber (ie, all of it does not fit in the very large 60-gallon bin I have earmarked for it). Thank goodness the Tour de Fleece is almost here - it's a great reason for me to dust off my spinning wheel. It's been a month or two since I last finished a spinning project; with all of the travel and weird arm issues, spinning was something that just fell by the wayside. Usually I spin rogue for the TDF, but one of my podcaster friends (who also was on my Spinzilla team last fall), Laura from the Corner of Knit and Tea , is hosting a TDF team this year. There aren't a huge amount of rules to be a part of the team, so of course I joined up - here is the deal with Team CKT : This year, the Tour de Fleece starts on Saturday July 2 and runs until Sunday July 24th, 2016. Guidelines (NOT RULES): Spin every day the Tour rides, if possible. Saturday July 2 through Sunday July 24th. Days of rest: Monday, July...