TdF2025

I’ve been noticing all the TV adverts on ITV for the Tour de France. why was I watching ITV, you might ask? I was binge-watching box xets of Buffy The Vampire Slayer – don’t judge! But of course if it’s time for the “real” cycling TdF, that means it’s also time for the Tour de Fleece.

It never ends. My own self-doubt when it comes to my ability to do arts & crafts. I do spin (not every day – I take months off, but I keep coming back to it). I have a couple of spinning wheels (well, 3) and a couple of lazy kates (just the 2), and some hand carders. And of course the other “essentials” like a niddy-noddy and a swift (well, 2) and a ball winder and a cone winder (OK, not essential, but kinda cool). I’ve taken a couple of spinning classes and nobody has laughed at me or mocked my work. I’ve made it half way through processing and spinning a fleece (of Shetland, that I got when I was on Fair Isle and took part in Sheep Hill, so I feel like I earned it!).

But I’m not an expert spinner, I don’t spin for a job, nobody would buy the yarn I spin etc etc. The inner dialog starts up again.

I saw a mail from Ginger Twist about their Ravelry TdF group, and I joined it. But when it came to announcing myself, saying hello – I didn’t. That old self-doubt kicked in again.

I’m actually up on Shetland just now – and since I came up on the ferry with my car, so I brought a bunch of hobby things with me – including a drum kit – but also one of my spinning wheels. My EEW 6.0 e-spinner – so nice and portable (so much more so than my drum kit). I just grabbed some prepared fibre as I was running out the door – think it’s a merino/silk blend – and I have managed to spin a small amount of it. I’ve been prioritising long dog walks, swimming in the (cold) sea, going puffin-hunting, and of course practicing drums (since I went to all the effort of bringing them up here).

But still – as soon as I thought about TdF I thought – does it even count if you are starting with ready-to-spin fibre? Shouldn’t TdF be done from a fleece? Especially since – being me – I do still have half of that Fair Isle fleece to spin, but I also have a full fleece that I bought from Jamieson & Smith about a year ago that I planned to spin in the grease after a spinning class with Elizabeth Johnston (aka the Shetland Spinner). That first fleece – I scoured it because it was quite far from pristine, coming from a sheep that roamed wild on the North side of Fair Isle. After talking with – and spinning with – Elizabeth, I decided to go buy a second fleece so I could see if spinning in the grease really was easier.

Of course this is a dangerous journey likely to send me off spending more money. Preparing the fleece. I’ve been hand-carding the first one. When I did that class with Elizabeth, she brought along a drum carder and let us do the prep with that. Clearly a much faster way to work – and probably much better than my hand carding skills. Definitely faster.

My plans are always so unrealistically time consuming. As I type this, I am realising that there’s clearly no time for me to buy a drum carder, learn to use it, and then prep and spin a full fleece – even from a diminutive Shetland. But TdF could be a good nudge to get back to hand carding and spinning the half of the Shetland fleece that is already scoured. I think I’ve decided on my project.

I don’t get home til Monday – so if I want to spin for at least part of the first 2 days of the Tour, my spinning will be “getting back in the groove” spinning with the fibre I brought here. But as soon as I get home…