And We're Off!

Saturday marked the start of the Tour de France, and for us Fiberheads, it was also the start of Tour de Fleece. I've had a tough time narrowing down my choices. So much fiber! So little time!

I think I have it figured out, though. On the Jensen wheel is fiber from Rogue Adventures.

It's the Blueberry Cobbler colorway on Bluefaced Leicester. I have two braids, and I'm splitting each one, then spinning and plying them back together.

I'm a little concerned about how well the color sections will match up. I don't think I split the first braid very evenly. But I had a wee brainstorm yesterday evening as I was fretting over it, and realized I could split the second braid into roughly the same thicknesses as I had the first one, and match the fatter part from the first braid to the fatter part of the second braid. The color sections still may not be exact since they're different braids and the sections may be slightly longer or shorter, but I have a feeling that it will be a bit closer if I do it that way. I'm trying to relax and just let it be however it's going to be, but that's not easy! Perfectionism, I haz it. Well, at least in fiber projects. Housekeeping, not so much.

Also for TdF, I'm trying to finish some of the smaller projects on the spindles. I showed a picture of some of those a couple of posts back (and totally gave away my fondness for PINK!!) but I have a few others that I want to get done.

Clockwise from top: Spanish Peacock, Kundert, Sp. Peacock, Trindle, Houndesign, Butterfly Girl

Some of these were fiber samples that I got when I was planning the now-defunct Etsy shop, so I'm not even 100% sure what they all are. So much for my record-keeping skills. I can tell which ones have silk in them, though. I love spinning silk on a spindle. And you can see that I do spin colors other than PINK!!!

I'm in a couple of TdF teams on Ravelry, but I haven't actually posted any pictures there yet. I like having challenges like this--it keeps me focused--but what with the 10K Challenge and the One-flower Wednesday SAL, I'm kind of busy. I think the blog will give me enough "accountability" to keep on track.

Speaking of challenges, off to play violin! See you tomorrow for OFW*!

*One-flower Wednesday

The First Few Hours

As of this moment, I've practiced 6.5 hours on the violin this week. An hour a day seems to be the most I've been able to manage, and I have to break it up. After half an hour, my brain feels like mush and I start playing worse and worse. So I put the violin down and go off to do some knitting or spinning. When I come back to it later, I can feel and hear that I'm much better. So apparently my brain can only  handle 30 minutes of new info at a time.

My lovely violin

And that's fine, because my body has to adapt as well. My muscles have to be toned and built up for playing violin just as they would have to be for any kind of sport. Well, maybe not quite as much as, say, a weightlifter or something, but still. And since I've had whiplash on the left side of my neck and I have muscle spasms in the whole "shoulder girdle" (the massage therapist's term for it), I have to proceed slowly. One of the things I really have to think about while I'm playing is keeping my neck and shoulders relaxed. As the pieces become more difficult, I start tensing up and before I know it the muscle just below my left shoulder is burning. So half an hour at a time is plenty for right now.

A Bach piece I'm working on

On the knitting/spinning front, I'm trying to decide which projects I'll work on for Tour de Fleece. I'm not sure how TdF started, but it's where you spin every day that the Tour de France race is going on. You can set goals for yourself--some people want to spin a mile of yarn (which is not as hard as it sounds) and some challenge themselves to use a new fiber or technique. I think I'll focus on getting all the spindle projects done. Last time I counted, I had nine spindles with fiber on them. I've joined a couple of "teams" on Ravelry, so I'll be posting my progress and seeing what everyone else is doing in each team's thread. It's good fun

A few of the prospective TdF spindles

Don't forget about the giveaway. Comments on this post count as a chance to win!