The First Week of the Tour de Fleece

I decided that there aren't enough hours in the day to spin and blog during the Tour de France (Fleece) and also because I have a specific project in mind for my spinning it would probably be more than a little repetitive. So far I have managed to spin every afternoon while Mr S has watched the riders on TV (Mark Cavendish finally got to win two stages!!!) - and I have to say that my afternoons have been far more productive than his!

















So far I have spun 100 grams of the orange, and 50 grams of the yellow, pink and lime plus about 30grams of the purple so well on target for finishing at the end of the second week. Spinning during the third week will be much more what have I got in my stash - so more like 'free spinning'


Life hasn't been just about spinning. I have managed to wash and dry Lucy (my Leicester Long Wool fleece) and take part in a KAL on Ravelry - Summer Flies Shawl - which I finished on Thursday evening after I had to pick back 396 stitches because the pattern said knit and it should have been purl!!!!! My fault I suppose I should have not blindly followed the pattern without thinking what I was doing! In my defence I was watching an episode of Outnumbered on G.O.L.D and was knitting on auto-pilot.....
















Also on Friday I treated myself to a day at The Spinning Weal learning the art of stain-glass patchwork.

It wasn't until right at the end that I realised that I should have aligned one of the petals north-south rather than east-west. But I am really chuffed with the result so far (I still have to stitch around the 'leadwork' and attached a backing piece - but I have the basics sorted. Best for me is that it doesn't required any hand sewing which I find impossible since my accident.

On Saturday I gave my paper at South West Women's History Network Conference in Salisbury. Despite my misgivings all went and I received a lot of interesting questions at the end - phew. The day ended in a guided tour of the Cathedral Close - so all in all a very pleasant day and I even managed to do some spinning in the cool of the evening. So today I am having a quiet day..... and Mr S is making a stand for my new loom - now all I have to do is learn to warp up the darn thing.

Next week I am going to be dyeing some fibres for the Fibreholics boxes - am wondering what I have let myself in for - but it will be a challenge. Just trying to decide what constitutes 'summer sun' ...............