Hello all,
Did you know that Tour De France is coming in just a couple of months? July 1 - 24 are the dates this year.
What type of Spin De Fleece do you want this year? Any activities that you really liked in previous years ? Any new ideas you’d like to see ?
Do you want door prizes ? Points kept for fun?
Any and all ideas are welcome.
What about a watch party?
Thanks !
@rkennell - are you spinning this year for the tour?
Wow - before you know it it will be here! I’m not a spinner but I do love seeing what folks spin. 
Yes! Thanks for taking this and getting it started! I definitely want to join in! Prizes are fun and a watch party would also be a fun activity! Let’s make this a fun summer event! I’ll mark my calendar. I will be happy to donate some prizes as well.
A fun idea–let me know if you think this will work–how about having a Fiberkind colorway of sorts? The gray and purple? Any suggestions on how to make that work?
Another suggestion–try a new breed of wool or fiber you’ve not spun yet? Maybe have that for a challenge day?
Also, most of us find it hard to set aside even an hour of spinning. Could we have one day where we spin all day? (I know, our legs and feet (and our posterior) would probably protest, so we can stop and take a break, say, every half hour)
How about a “spin outdoors” day? (If it’s not too hot!) Maybe each person can choose one day a week that the weather and your schedule is cooperating and then post pictures of your spinning that day. So often I dream about spinning outside and then another year has gone by and I haven’t done it! Going camping? Take your spindle or e-wheel or even your foot-powered wheel if you want! There’s something so relaxing about sitting outside and spinning. We could have a prize for the person who does once a week or even for the most hours spent outside.
Also, our very own @MaineTopMill has wonderful spinning fiber! It’s so luxurious and easy to spin! I’m working on some BFL/Rambouillet from her now that is super soft and drafts so smoothly!
Let’s get our wheels ready and plan our fiber! @PurlgirlButtons, @Carlota, @KikiKnits, @snickerdoodle, @Gisela, @strawberryroan, @Stitch81, @AmazedbyGrace, @Floppy2, @Downthefleecehole, @HeatherAthebyne, @SpinsterJulieB, @Bettymo, @Grammaresa, @yarnforall, @love2knit, @dapncat, @SushiRolag, @Sommerfugl, @crosstitchlinda – I’m trying to find some regulars and some who’ve maybe been too busy or forgot about our annual event–we hope you can join us!
I’ll be spinning! I don’t think I’d do an all day spin, my joints would not love me for it. I would spin for a certain amount of time. Spinning outside is great, I have brought my wheel out to the front porch many times to spin. A Fiberkind color would be nice, if someone could find a good source, would the Woolery (an affiliate) have something we could suggest.
I probably wouldn’t do a watch party, but maybe a Spin zoom?
Yay! So glad you can join us! Let me check the Woolery. I know we have some dyers in our FK group, but not sure if any of them dye fiber (instead of yarn).
I’ve just purchased our first prize for the SdF 2022! It’s a 3D Andean plying tool from Etsy. I can’t seem to download the picture so I’ll just include the link below. This will save those poor fingers from getting those circulation cut off when you have a small batch of singles that needs to be plied. (My fingers are nearly blue sometimes due to not keeping my loops loose enough when wrapping them around my hand!)
Aw thanks so much @rkennel. And thanks for tagging me. I have a tendency to forget when Tour de Fleece is. I wish I knew what box my dyeing stuff is in, since I’d be willing to dye some fiber. Alas that box is somewhere here, where exactly is anyone’s best guess.
@MaineTopMill - is this something you can do if we purchase the fiber from you? Do you do custom dyeing? If so, would you have enough time to do this? If not a multicolor, maybe 2 separate ones using FK’s gray and purple?
I bought one of these at a fiber festival. It was nice, but I broke the wooden finger that sticks out. Used it for a year or two at least. I also have a very nice yarn bowl from the same vendor
I can set up a spin zoom any time Just let me know when.
@crosstitchlinda, I saw those yarn bowls; they do look nice! I wonder if you could replace the wooden stick with a small dowel rod? They do look handy!
No the stick that comes with it is fine, I think I just might wind very tightly, and when I broke it part of the stick was left in the plastic and I didn’t feel like trying to remove it. I think it is some type of dowel rod actually. Just know to wind loosely!
@rkennell I’d have to buy everything I need, including the pans and dyes. I just took a look, and I couldn’t easily see where all of my dyeing stuff is. I have another place I can check, but that’ll have to wait until most likely next week. It’s rather hot here. I have enough of 17 of the different blends we make to dye. I have a very limited amount of the gotland/rambouillet, but I could see if trying to overdye that with pale purple would make a nice mix of natural grey & purple. We are unfortunately out of the gotland/purple silk blend we make. If enough people are interested, I’d be willing to figure out if there’s a way I can do it. Doing multicolor is pretty easy the way I do things. I do have a some hand dyed turquoise, pinks and wine/purple top now which kind of shows how differently the merino/rambouillet and polwarth/rambouillet will take dye since they were in the same dye lot.
I’ve never done custom dyeing before, but if say there are enough people who’d want at least 3lbs dyed I’d be willing to do it. After all, part of what we offer are custom blends & yarns so custom dyeing is the next logical step. 
I’d need to have an idea of interest by the end of the week, so I can plan and get supplies.
Blends I have a lot of are the various yak blends (not mulberry silk/yak though), the merino blends, the superwash blends, the mixed BFL/rambouillet and polwarth/rambouillet.
@rkennell you mean this tool ?
Also, with all of your ideas, what about a Bingo Card this year ? There are websites that you can have custom cards made up with your square selections, and everyone can download one for the prize drawing… then just show an image of the “bingo” when they get a line or four corners, or something. Does that sound like a fun idea ?
@MaineTopMill I would be interested in a custom hand dyed wool… I like the idea of mixed BFL/rambouillet and polwarth/rambouillet, but also like merino and SW blends. I’m not very fond of the yak blends. How much would you need to charge ? I could probably by a minimum of 4 oz, maybe more depending on cost.
You can get an idea of what our prices are for blends here. https://mainetopmill.com/mill-store/mainely-blends
I’d probably have to add another $1.50-1.80 an ounce for hand dyeing, depending on the blend & what it’s going to cost me to buy new dyeing stuff. Sorry, I got rather cooked taking care of the farm critters here today & my brain isn’t quite right. I have some already dyed polwarth/rambouillet and merino/rambouillet. If there are enough people who want a total of at least 2-3lbs of dyed fiber, I can do a bit better on pricing.
This is the list of what I have in sufficient quantities.
14.5 micron merino/yak (with either brown yak, light brown yak or white yak)
rambouillet/yak (with either brown yak, light brown yak or white yak)
cArctis (a blend of merino/rambouillet & sparkly nylon)
baby camel/merino/rambouillet
gotland/rambouillet
mixed BFL/rambouillet
polwarth/rambouillet
merino
merino/rambouillet
merino/mulberry silk
merino/rose
superwash merino/faux cashmere (faux cashmere is extremely soft nylon)
superwash merino/mint/faux cashmere
superwash merino/nylon 80/20
superwash merino/nylon 70/30
superwash merino/nylon 60/40
Oh, yes. I had almost forgotten about Spin De Fleece! I’m glad I signed in. Thanks for reminding me! I’m short on time lately. but I’ll try to join in as time permits.
@Pegg Thomas may also be interested.
@Pegg Thomas - can you join us this year? You’re a production spinner and we’d love to have you!
@Spice2s , yes, that is the one I got! Can’t wait! Confession, I may have ordered one for myself as well, so if I happen to be a winner, I’ll redonate the free one.
We need to let @MaineTopMill know by this weekend if we want her to dye it. So don’t hesitate to sign up! What is everyone’s suggestion for type of fiber (see her list above)?
@PurlgirlButtons , @Carlota, are ya’ll joining us?
Yes, a Bingo card sounds fun!
I’m in, but will probably be more low-key as we will be doing some major house projects this Summer. I think an extended Zoom Spin would be fun. (IF Char can’t host, I could do it.) I would be up for a longer period of time…a drop-in type of thing if you can’t stay all afternoon. That would be fun to do outside, too, if the weather would cooperate. I’ll donate a prize, perhaps one of my new Snappy Spinning Bags.
I don’t think I’ll be purchasing new fiber. sorry. I plan to continue a WIP and I kinda need to work from stash at the moment anyway.