Ah, Tour De Fleece! My favorite part of the summer!
UPDATE for 2022: Little Texas Yarns is having a team this year! Join Team Armadillo for a laid back fun time by clicking HERE
Tour De Fleece Dates
Start: June 26, 2021
End: July 18, 2021
Challenge/Mountain Days: July 4th, 2021 & July 11th 2021
Rest Days: July 5th, 2021 & July 12th, 2021
If you've been following Little Texas Yarns on Facebook and Instagram you'll see I mentioned it quite a lot. For those that don't know what Tour De Fleece is or maybe this is the first year joining in I'll go over it in more detail. If you have any questions about these dates, what they are, or what they mean there are sections below to explain.
Tour De Fleece started off as a fun way for spinners to get together and spin. Star Athena and some friends came up with the idea of spinning with the spinners of Tour De France. They started this on Ravelry long before Spinzilla was a thing. Now there are 3 major events during the year for spinners. Spin Her Free, Tour De Fleece, and Spinzilla.
Some more about the other events at a later time, but for right now let's get back to Tour De Fleece. So, what is Tour De Fleece? Well, it's very simple really. It's during the Tour De France and when they spin we spin. That's basically what it boils down to, but you know us creative types make it MUCH more exciting!
For spinners we set a goal for ourselves. It's about getting better or trying something new. Maybe you want to learn to chain ply, core spin, or even try new fiber. Maybe you just want to spin everyday to get in the habit of spinning some each day. All of those are great goals for Tour De Fleece! There are teams you can join on Facebook and Ravelry, but it's not required to join in on the fun.
The most frequent question I see is do I have to have a wheel to join in on the fun? The answer to this is absolutely not! There are categories for drop spindles and for wheels. Many teams do give out prizes for each category and usually for the most yardage or weight for either using a drop spindle or wheel, but again it is not required to be on a team to join in!
So when does Tour De Fleece start? It begins on June 26th and runs through July 18th. On "Mountain Days" those are your challenge days. For example, if your goal is to spin 30 minutes everyday during the Tour De Fleece on the mountain days you'd spin a little more i.e. 5, 10, 15 minutes. You set the goal. There are rest days as well.
Rest days are usually after the challenge days. Even if you or your team don't do challenges everyone rests on the rest days and does not spin during those days. Some teams are different and I would check with different ones to find one to fit your needs.
I hope this has answered most if not all of your questions about Tour De Fleece! Tour De Fleece is all about fun, self improvement, and encouragement! Feel free to also join our Facebook group Fiber Wranglers. Even if you don't join in for Tour De Fleece we still want to help encourage your fiber journey and keep this beautiful art form alive. We love seeing all the pretty things!
Links to Groups Below:
Fiber Wranglers - A Little Texas Yarns Community
- Happy Spinning!
