Tour de Fleece day one, 2026

Well, here we are again, I'm thinking about spinning natural coloured fleece that I have prepped myself on the Ashford 3, The World of wool dyed 50gm packs on the Louet Victoria, the dyed fibre from Petes Fibre Studio on the Argonaut and if I happen to need to take a spindle anywhere I will have some Shetland to hand.

I may reassess at some point but I have plenty of bobbins for the Argonaut and the Ashford so I will be able to swap around if needed.

quick update, builders turning up on Monday so replace kitchen ceiling so it looks like I won't be spinning in public quite as much as anticipated!

Also my senior !! bus pass has turned up, not sure if I have to wait until actual retirement date to use it but will try on the bus on Saturday, fingers crossed. Update... it works :-)

Day one

 New T-shirts and empty bobbins, let the games commence.

I was awake early so I had a little practise and spun 100gm Texel quite thick but tested out new brake band etc.

My plan for today was to head into town, grab a coffee then catch a bus over to Wollaton Hall and Deer park as they are holding an open weekend in the walled garden which isn't often open to the public.

Coffee done, off to the garden. I arrived a little early so wandered round with my camera for a few minutes.

There are a few old tree stumps scattered around, the decaying remains revealing interesting patterns.

Once inside the walls I explored the gardens and grabbed a few pics of the flowers before buying a cup of tea and getting my wheel out.

However, once my wheel was out on the table, I had a steady stream of people wanting to ask about it and the spinning, my brief tea break lasted for two hours !

As I made my way from the park I spotted a squirrel and he obviously saw me, ran up the tree and froze. Not a flicker until I passed by,

I'm home now, trying to decide whether to stitch or spin tonight, whichever it is will be revealed in the next post.

Final TDF prep 2026

 Here we are, poised to start spinning on Saturday morning. Most of my bobbins are empty, just one on the Victoria that I need to finish and ply but I will be ready.

My fibre choices are  a little different this year, I have the usual selection of Ryeland, Jacob, texel, Shetland etc all combed and ready to go.

I also have some more commercial fibres ( I know, so not like me ! ) including this selection from world of wool as I couldn't resist the colours. 50gm of each to be spun as a 4ply weight for some fair isle knitting.

I also have a selection from Petes Fibre Studio on facebook just because I love how his dyeing has progressed over the years. These may end up as a holiday spin later in the year if I don't get round to them during TDF

Usually we end up with a couple of festivals in July but this year they are later in the year so I will be looking at local locations to spin. I will be getting my senior bus pass halfway through so I may be heading out a little further around Nottingham.

As usual posts will be either daily or 2/3 days depending on how busy I am, wish me luck :-)

Tour de Fleece 2026 prep and chat

 I know that it is only June but its less than a month until the start of the 2026 TDF and I really don't have  a lot of fleece prepped at all !

I have some washed ready for combing, I have lots that needs a wash including this large bag that I found on my doorstep last week. Nearly 5 kilos of what I suspect ( from previous fleece from the same source) is going to be texel. I am waiting for a dry day to make a start on washing and maybe even dyeing it ready to spin. Seriously, its rained pretty much everyday since it turned up

My plans for TDF are the same as ever, work on spinning down the stash, make use of my wheels and maybe finish a couple of half spun projects before it starts.

I could just use the texel as my challenge but I may get bored spinning the same breed for three weeks. I do plan to take my wheel to as many local destinations as possible, we won't be going away as Ian will probably be doing his bike thing down south and the van will be back at the dealers for annual service, mot etc but I will be getting my bus pass halfway through so I might see where else I can get with it.

later

between showers today I popped 300gm or so of raw fleece into a net bag and started to wash it.

Surprisingly its really not that dirty and not looking to bad considering the fact that someone who knows absolutely nothing about fleece volunteered to grab me a bag full just after the sheep were sheared.

Once washed and rinsed I'm left with this which will go in the dye pot for a change.

It looks like I am going to busy over the next couple of weeks or so prepping ready for the big spin. Also I'm hoping to get out and about most days with a wheel of some kind or maybe even just a spindle.

Now out of the dye pot weighing in at 250gm 

am I still knitting?

 Hi, Sorry I've been quiet but we've had a bit of house drama which I will fill you in on in another post.

Back to the fibre crafts, I have actually been spinning and knitting and more importantly prepping fleece ready for or next trip.

There's a bit of everything in here, Romney, Shetland, Jacob and some of Pete's dyed fibres. I'm not sure how much will be spun up but it doesn't weigh much.

On the Argonaut I have some Portland, one bobbin down so far and its nestling on a rather colourful hat that I'm thinking of embroidering with tapestry wools that I've been hanging on to for years.

On the needles I have mitten, I'm still using up a lot of old hand spun that been lying around for years.

My last spin of Jacob and white faced woodland has now morphed into a couple of hats ( nearly) and there should be enough yarn left over for another one.

Also on the needles is something rather unusual for me, some commercial yarn which I will review in another post as I have had a few thoughts about it. This is the first time I've knit with anything other than my own yarn for a good long time but I'm knitting these mitts as a KAL with some friends as they venture into stranded knitting.

I will gift them once finished and that has dictated the colour choice. The pattern is Starla Mitts by Traci Scott, a free pattern on Ravelry.

First Fleece wash of the year

 I ordered this fleece a couple of weeks ago but its been sitting in the kitchen untouched due to a minor domestic disaster involving water and a ceiling!

Today, the forecast isn't too bad and in fact next week is looking even better so I thought that I had better get my finger out and wash it. Also, having had to remove the raw fleece stash from its hiding place ( the disused outside loo) it has become apparent to both of us how much I actually have.

This is a Shetland fleece, just over a kilo in weight. It looks pretty clean and open so hopefully it will be an easy spin. 

sorry if the photos aren't brilliant but I had to use my phone as the battery had run out on my camera.

It washed up pretty clean and very soft.

In the meantime I found another box, this one dated July  2025 containing a black cheviot shearling so guess what I'm doing tomorrow.

Its nearly that time of year again......... Tour de fleece 2025 !!

  Here we go again, I've lost count of how many times I've taken part in this challenge 😁 but the sun is  out so the fleece needs to be washed. 

I've no idea how much I need but to be honest I really need to carry on spinning into August to restock my yarn supplies. At the moment I'm knitting hats from scraps !

So far I have about 1200 gm prepped, mainly fleece to be spun on the Ashford E-spinner, I'm thinking of a separate project for the nano as I have had a braid of Merino/baby alpaca in my stash for some time now so it makes sense to spin it us as a laceweight for a future project for myself. I know it goes against my usual ethic of only spinning from fleece but its just been sitting around for years.

So, Romney is next up to be washed and then its a case of see what is in the bags in the shed

prepping bfl x texel fleece

 

This fleece was cheap, in fact the postage cost more than the fleece ! Still its not bad but some staining which became more apparent as I spun the first three skeins. They will be overdyed but will probably still stripe once knitted.

This time I combed as usual then blended further on the drum carder so fingers crossed.

There is about 580gm here so I'll probably prep a bit more tomorrow and hopefully spin it up during the week.

tour de fleece Sampling the Bowmont

 Disclaimer.... I love combed fibre in spite of the amount of wastage and having seen these photos, I've realise that the last time I dropped my camera might have done more damage that I realised.

Bowmont Fleece.

I have had a bag of Bowmont in the past, the locks were really short and to be honest I didn't get very far with it but when I spotted an advert for some on Facebook, I thought that I would give it another shot. I ordered my usual 1 kilo ( I generally buy at least a kilo of any fleece so I have plenty to play with) thinking that it would be a good spin to have on my Nano during TDF this year.

Beautiful clean fibre, I washed a good handful as soon as the rain stopped and started to play with it.

I'm aiming for a light 4-ply once plyed. Before washing.....

After washing .....

After washing, 16 wpi which is about where I want to be  with this. I'm hoping to knit a shawl or two with this. Its lovely and soft and I think it will block out nicely but I haven't tried that yet.

Small sample with 3mm needles.

Todays forecast doesn't look so bad so I'll probably pop some more on the line.