Tour de Fleece 2016
Hello everyone! It’s Freya here, taking over the blog to get excited about this year’s Tour de Fleece!
What is this, I hear you ask? The Tour de Fleece is an annual spin-a-long that takes place during the Tour de France. The concept is simple: spin some fibre, every day, for the period the cyclists are spinning through France. You can use wheels, drop spindles, supported spindles – anything you can spin yarn with!
This year, the Tour rides from Saturday July 2nd to Sunday July 24th. The idea is to try and spin every day, aside from the days of rest - Monday, July 11th (which happens to be my birthday!) and Tuesday, July 19th (just like the real tour). Try spinning something challenging on the Tour challenge days (usually the toughest mountain stage: this year, it’s Stage 8, on Saturday, July 9th, when they will climb 4 mountains, including the 2115m high Col du Tourmalet, and Stage 15, on Sunday, July 17th, when they take on the Grand Columbier!
On Sunday July 24th, wear yellow to announce your victory!
If you don’t manage every day, don’t worry – it’s not a hard and fast rule. The TdF is for enjoying yourself and maybe pushing your abilities a little! I will be working on an undyed gradient set of Icelandic and Norwegian fibres, and some lovely turquoise hand-dyed top that I’m going to be plying with some pre-spun singles.
The shop will have a specially themed window for the length of the Tour, which I will be installing on Friday – and we have a variety of SweetGeorgia Yarns, Malabrigo and Porpoise Fur fibres as well as drop spindle kits in stock if you’d like to join in!
Looking forwards to seeing you over the course of the Tour!
- Freya