Tour de Fleece?

Many of my "fibery friends" that spin their own yarn like to participate in the annual "Tour de Fleece", an event that mirrors the Tour de France. Each spinner is to set a goal, something challenging, and to focus on that goal throughout the time of the tour. Well, I'm not that focused and my time has been a bit scattered recently since we're taking a "staycation" this year and I'm working around the entire family's schedules. So, my goal was simply to do more spinning.

I've discovered that I really enjoy "spinning outside the box", (ie. art yarns), so that's what I've been doing. I've discovered Wensleydale fleece, love it! The funnest thing is spinning it completely raw, I love the way it forms little loops and has such gorgeous, lustrous texture.

Unfortunately, I'm having trouble downloading photos of my favorite yarn from my camera and the best pictures are on there. With the oppressing heat continuing, it's looking like I'll be spending more time in my comfy studio spinning!

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Friends, Fun, Food, Fiber

I had a great time collaborating with some of my creative NE Ohio friends for a fiber arts retreat at our friend Cheryl's gorgeous place, nestled between nature-filled wetlands in a rural area east of Cleveland. I've had the pleasure of watching the progress on her beautiful home for several years, and Cheryl was anxious to break in the newly-completed studio. Wow, it would be a dream come true for any artist- tons of space with sitting areas, a central table for gathering, a deep sink and tiled space for working with wet stuff, and even a huge and luxurious sleeping area with room for several friends to sleep over (which we did!)

There were five of us, and everyone contributed some bit of knowledge and taught it to the others. It was soooo neat to learn how to card colorful art batts and then spin them into art yarns of several types (here are some of mine- I can't wait to do more!).

Robbie and Donna are alpaca-owning friends who have focused on making incredible and original products in the Alpaca Fiber Studio in Chagrin Falls, and it was easy to see why so many people enjoy taking their classes, as they're very patient and encouraging teachers!

I hadn't met Barb before, but soon discovered that she's a real sweetheart and also a great knitter and crocheter. She finished this beautiful shawl and modeled it for us at the end of our retreat.

Donna and Robbie had just put on a fashion show at a local country club, so they showed us some of their unique nuno felt fashions they had made for it (some of the items were modeled over pajamas, so there was lots of hamming it up and laughter!).

Having lived in Kentucky for more than half of my life now, snow is a big deal for us but not for the tough Northeasters! Here's what my car looked like on the second morning, and at one point it looked like a blizzard outside but my spunky friends never even commented on the weather except for an occasional blase remark, "hmmm, it looks a bit bad out there." The rare flash of sunshine elicited a lot more attention!

As is usually the case with my woman friends, there was a lot of laughing, excellent food, and good wine to be shared. We all compared our sources, techniques and ideas, it was so much fun! The only time it was quiet was when everyone was concentrating on learning something new, such as when I taught the others how to make a felted birdhouse.

They all turned out beautifully! Robbie's heart-shaped "love nest" was especially cute, and I hope to make some of these in time for valentine's day as well.

Thank you so much to Cheryl and my other friends for including this "southern friend" in the retreat and I hope this will be at least an annual event! Alpaca breeding originally introduced us, but the fiber of friendship still holds us together, and for that I am very grateful.

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