Ready, Steady, Spin! ~ Tour de Fleece 2011

It's been a few days since my last post and that's because I've been in pattern writing hibernation. I'm getting ready to launch my next new design and I'm excited to share it with you. I have all the kinks worked out and now it's time for a final write up and I want to make a couple more samples. By Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, I should be all set to launch the Regensburg Scarf Pattern.

In the meantime, I've also been getting ready for this year's Tour de Fleece. The Tour de Fleece is an online spin-along that coincides with the Tour de France. When the bikers ride, we spinners spin. Basically, you try to spin every day of the Tour de France. You can also have your spinning reflect the event by spinning more difficult styles of yarn on days when the riders are facing steep climbs.

The race begins tomorrow and I've joined back up with the Team of Wonder on Ravelry. It's much more fun to spin in the TdF if you're on a team. You get to share pictures of your spinning projects and cheer each other on. The Team of Wonder is led by WonderWhyGal of the Wisdom Begins in Wonder Blog. You know, I can't remember how we first met, Etsy maybe, but I've been following her blog for some time now and feel a bond over our mutual love of all things fiber.

As WonderWhyGal runs an alpaca farm, most of the team members are alpaca people. I like to be a team player, so in a show of solidarity, I've ordered myself some raw alpaca locks. I've got a little bit of black Suri and a nice supply of award winning fawn Huacaya locks. These haven't been washed or anything yet, but as they're alpaca, they're already pretty clean and will be gorgeous after a bath.

I've also used this year's tour as an excuse to treat myself to an Ashford Wild Drum Carder. It's designed with longer teeth you you can add fun things to your batts like bits of fabric, ribbons, feathers, noils, cocoons, etc. I'm in the mood to make some novelty yarn, but not crazy, chunky stuff. I'm interested in trying to create novelty yarn that's more of a sport weight. That's one of my goals for this year's TdF.

I'm also hoping to just increase my inventory of handspun so I have some skeins ready and waiting for me when I'm crocheting my designs. I'll be sure to post my projects along the way and hey, if you're a spinner, why not join the fun?