As I blogged about last year, July marks the Tour de France and, for us fiber spinners, the Tour de Fleece.  Tour de Fleece is probably my favorite part of summer. I really enjoy watching the Tour de France, and I spend countless hours spinning at my wheel. I love that I spend three weeks concentrating on only one of my crafts, spinning, and I feel like I move mountains…. of fiber of course!

This year I receive support from friends and viewers of the podcast who hoped that I would start a Tour de Fleece team.  As you know I’m no big fan of rules; I like to keep it easy and simple so everyone can participate.  When it came time to do so, I set up Team CKT 2016 for 2016. Please come and join us in the Ravelry group.  To join the team all you have to do is SPIN. You can come post in the thread, cheer others along and post your progress for a chance to win prizes. The only other rule is that you must be a member of The Corner of Knit & Tea group to win prizes. It’s that simple!

This weekend the lovely Stefanie surprised me by offering to create some art for Ravatars and Instagram posts.  Please visit her blog to see what she created and to adopt one for yourself if you so choose. Thank you Stefanie – I love them!

So now let’s get down to the nitty gritty… what will I spin this year?

First off I selected a variety of beautiful braids to spin up for the shop.

From the top left corner, proceeding clockwise I chose:

• Southern Cross Fibre, Falkland/Alpaca/Silk in Cavern
• Southern Cross Fibre, Polwarth/Silk in Resistance is Futile (sort of apt that my resistance was too futile to wait for the tour to start and I’m spinning it now, right?)
• Hello Yarn, Polwarth in Millenium Hand & Shrimp
• Hello Yarn, Rambouillet in Shy Creature
• Wooly Wonka Fibers, Superwash Merino in Bazinga
• Owl About Yarn, Polwarth/Merino in Velvet Waistcoat

I also decided that I wanted to spin a project for myself for this year.  I’ve been eyeing beautiful hap shawls for a while and I’ve very seriously had my eye on spinning for making Gudrun Johnson’s Hansel.  With that in mind I pulled out a few things to spin:

The front 5 bundles are 2oz each of Shetland in different colors and part of a kit from Woolgatherings.  The blue in the background is indigo dyed Jacob from Stefania that I bought a few years ago when I went to the Estes Park Wool Market.  The only problem with the Jacob is that it is full of vegetable matter (straw, little bits of sticks, etc.). So I’m tempted to have a look over at Louet or Woolgatherings and see if I find something I like a bit more.

So that’s what I’m planning, with a bit of a plot twist at the end. Have to keep you guessing right?