TDF

So apparently everyone has been missing my eloquent and fascinating posts.

And when I say "everyone" I mostly just mean Bran and my family. Because they are obviously not biased at all.

But anyways today I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart. The TDF.



TDF is most widely recognizable as The Tour de France. The epic 21 day cycling race around France. I am probably, at best, a casual follower of pro-cycling. When talking to average Americans who know nothing about cycling I sound quite knowledgeable. When talking to average cycling fans I probably sound like I know nothing. But I like watching the race quite a bit. It's fun.

But more importantly TDF also stands for the Tour de Fleece! The Tour de Fleece is an annual spin-along during the Tour de France. Every day that they spin on the bikes, we spin yarn. This year marks my 4th year of TDF participation. Over those years my spinning abilities have grown by leaps and bounds. And that growth is probably in large part due to the goals and challenges I make for myself with TDF spinning.

This year I have the following projects in mind:



8 ounces of alpaca prepped and ready to be spun into a dk weight yarn. All of the fiber came from Noah the alpaca who lives with my friend back home. I prepared it entirely on my own which is kinda crazy but awesome.



1.4 ounces of angora. I purchased this fiber 2 years ago I think from a local, but not close enough to visit regularly, yarn/fiber shop. It was my prize from myself to myself for a successful TDF. I was on the fence about blending it with another fiber or not but I have finally decided just to spin it using a trindle entirely on its own as a super lux wonderful amazing lace weight yarn.



4 ounces of "Snapdragon". This tussah silk/merino blend was purchased last year at MDSW. I love the muted mixed colors and the fiber itself is incredibly soft and amazing. I'm aiming for a very fine lace weight that I can use to knit myself a shawl.



8 ounces of this dyed Coopworth. Another MDSW purchase I think from last year. I love the colors of this fiber. They make me think of a Monet painting. I'm aiming for a lace weight and likely will only spin up half of the fiber during this TDF. But eventually I think I ought to be able to stretch the fiber out enough to knit up a sweater.



5.7 ounces of Tunis. Believe it or not you have seen this fiber before on my blog! From the Tunis fleece I purchased in May at MDSW I have washed, flicked, hackled, and then finally dyed with food coloring each of these little balls of roving. The whole project has been tons of fun as I learn lots about dying. I can't wait to see how each of the colors spins up!

I have one last "art yarn" project in my head but I need to prep more fiber first so if it happens more on that later.

Today was in fact Day1 of the 2014 TDF but I'll be reporting on my progress tomorrow after I am able to take pictures of my spun fiber in the daylight.

Here's hoping the daily nature of things will keep me blogging this time!