So About the Tour De Fleece

Yes, I am going to try my hand to help a team at Tour de Fleece.

It all goes back to sewing in a way.  The more sewing felt good and natural to fit in my days and the more garments I completed, the more I knew that if I could still knit all afternoon and still get plenty of things completed, enough to keep me warm at least, then I would be knitting enough for my soul.  There were days when it felt like suddenly, I had a much more balanced life.  I wasn't consumed by knitting.  I love knitting beyond anything, but it can feel like I am consumed by the need to knit and that is not healthy.  Suddenly I had found that there were other things that I fit into a daily routine that gave me a huge sense of satisfaction and pleasure and fulfillment in the same way that knitting did.  

I have not been spinning regularly since before the pandemic and I was really starting to miss it.  Sometimes I would pick it up and play a bit with the parts and repairs that my S51 wheel needed and I would dream of all the pretty braids of roving that the dyers out there seem to make.  But I just never got going.  

I was also running out of bobbins.  I only have three bobbins for my little Victoria wheel and the S 51 came with one.  I had been planning to order more bobbins from Akerworks for a long time.  When I sat down to order the Vic bobbins,  Akerworks had just announced that they were putting out a new kind of Kate system, a portable one that could be mounted to anywhere and anything.  I have never been happy with my kate situation.  I had two kinds and found they would fall over or slip and slide on my floors.  That lack of stability made me even more tense doing something that made me tense to start with.  

I decided to wait till Akerworks had this cool new Kate ready.  Such things always take a while but I kept watching and waiting and thinking about it.  The only thing I did not do was spin.  And then one day, Akerworks released the Clampy Kates for sale.  I was going to order but right about then, they announced that they were sending out their Irish tension bobbins for Louet wheels like my S 51 for testing.  I was floored.  I thought they were never going to get there!  But I made the choice to wait again.  

I like the blue.  I love the yellow.  Seriously love it.  These are the big bobbins for the S51 and I now have a fleet of three big bobbins.  i decided that with the new fleet of bobbins for a wheel I prefer to ply on, I really ought to try working with just the three bobbins for the Victoria.  The plan is to be able to ply off and keep the Victoria bobbins empty so they are always ready for spinning.

Two Clampy Kates!  My original intention was to purchase one of the beautiful AkerKates  But these will work so much better for me.  I can attach them to any of my many bookcases and they will be still!  Plus, the little tensi tamer they come with will ensure that the bobbins remain on the Kate with only minimal bouncing around as fibre unwinds.  

I am really looking forward to trying all my pretty new things out.

And then along comes changes in the world and all most of the local ladies who have been zooming with me are going back to meet ups at libraries and coffee shops as the worlds steps back from its Covid responses and starts to treat the beastie as more of an endemic sort of creature.  I am not really interested in driving to the city all the time to meet them.  Its a wonderful group and I miss them all but the cost to drive in would take all of my fun money.  There would be no picking up supper from the local food places, no fancy deserts once in a while from the grocery here (which carries M&M products).  There couldn't be the odd bottle of Baileys.  And there surely wouldn't be anything I could save up to get the odd bit of really special yarn.

I went looking for other groups of Zoom knitter's on Ravelry and got in contact with one of them, the IVKN group, The International Virtual Knit Nights group, and have been knitting with them the last few weeks.  They are a subscription sort of group but it yearly and less then the cost of a trip to the city.  I have no problem with this at all.  It doesn't break my budget at all.  I have really enjoyed meeting them and knitting and chatting with people from all around the world.  And not having to go out and buy a fancy coffee, I can just have my own?  Kind of priceless.

They asked right away if I was a spinner.  With Tour De Fleece coming up, they are madly prepping to be ready for the start of it on July 1 and there is a lot of spinning talk.  I've been a bit energised by this and when the call was put out to put your name in or hold your peace, I put my name in.  

I would really like to get through some of the very large stash of rovings I have.  Eventually, I want to get through my fleeces, but with the layer of carding they need to prep it, I didn't feel ready.  So bags of ready prepped rovings it is.  I would like to get at least one bag done.  It feels like a really good starting goal to me.  I can see the single bags end.

The whole shebang of the fibre stash. On the bottom, two giant tubs of fleeces, one partially filled with prepped rovings.  The first blue lidded tub from the bottom is al prepared rovings.  The top one is more of a mixed bag.  It is all prepared fibre but it comes from several sources and a bit is dyed as you can see here.

The only dyed fibre I have at the moment.  All the rest of it is plain sheep colours.

I pulled out these carded preps for now.  It is just a plain bit of fibre from a local mill. I will use them as a warm up, to get the S 51 wheel working and to get a feel for spinning back into my hands and feet.  And then, at the start of the tour,  I am going to get a start on one of the other bags of roving.  So many kinds.  Such good stuff to play with.

I have never done this before and I am going to have to read up on the rules and ways and means of the competition. I am generally not a MKal joiner but this fits in so neatly with my plans anyway and it will be fun to learn a bit more about all the lovely people in this new group.  Focussing and getting ready is going to keep my busy the rest of the week.