Part of July and sometimes August of most years in this house is dedicated to the Tour de Fleece. It’s a 23 day annual event where we spinners sort of mirror the Tour de France. We spin the same days, take the same rest days and have challenge days. It’s a great chance to dedicate some time to spinning and other related crafting. This year, there was the regular race and the women’s race so we spun from July 1 to the 31st. It’s a great opportunity to try to clear a few UFOs.
I also thought I’d post a few of my new “spinning hacks” and my new favourite tool off the lathe in this post.

Here’s what I committed to working on for this year’s TdF.
From the top:
- A cotton sweater with yarn I over-dyed last year. The original colorway was “Desert” and I added a Jeans blue to get this much more comfortable for me colour. It changes a lot in various lights. This is outside and relatively true to colour here. It was an unofficial goal but I’d had it on the needles for a year. It was time.
- Some Merino/Tencel rolags in white/green/purple. I began calling this one “Grape Vines” somewhere along the way. These are the only rolags I’ve ever bought – usually I make my own but this was a few years ago and a great experience in spinning other people’s preparations.
- Then the last fibre is cotton. Continue reading My Own Way to Roll – spinning hacks and the 2022 TdF