Tour de Fleece/latest projects

Today and yesterday I have been mostly spinning. Aided by four hours' attendance at the Alternative Village Fete outside the National Theatre on the South Bank. I spun Wensleydale, then when I ran out of Wensleydale, (apart from the extremely mucky bits that needed washing) I went on to Bowmont. The Wensleydale is shown below.



The whole time we were entertained by morris dancing, the Bollywood Brass Band and several other acts, and we knitted, spun and made bits for the Great British Sheep.



This is one of the current socks that are on the go, shown here in Noro sock yarn. I don't really like knitting with this, it is rough on the hands and has a tendency to twist. Hopefully it will improve on washing.



This is the Ribbed Lace Bolero knitted in the Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran that has been hanging around for a couple of years now. It looks quite good I think, although the pic isn't great because the Curse is not here to help me with the photography at the moment. See that look of concentration on my face as I try to point the camera in the right direction!



And this is the harvest from the blueberry bush on the balcony. Not as impressive as last year's tomatoes, it's true, but still gratifying and delicious!

Tour de Fleece

Out of curiosity more than anything else, I have joined the Tour de Fleece group on Ravelry. I like the fact that they have guidelines (NOT rules!) and that if you forget/slip up/lose interest you don't get scolded for it! Since I'm a cyclist as well as a spinner, it seemed quite appropriate. Don't get the wrong idea though, me and sporty definitely do not mix.

The idea is that your wheel spins along with the spinning of the wheels of the cyclists in the race - ie you try and spin every day of the tour. That's from 5 July to 27 July, with rest days on 15 July and 21 July. On 23 July, which is the hardest stage of the tour, you should try and spin something challenging. You can wear yellow if you feel like you've had a successful day, and there are prizes too.

It's all about personal goals and doing your best. I'm not sure if we are allowed performance-enhancing drugs (I'm thinking Nurofen natch) but since there are no drug tests I guess we can get away with it.