nails in the road

midway through the actual tour, several riders were hampered by this unexpected event. equipment was compromised causing many to lose time and some to leave the race. sadly, i did not complete my tour this year. a series of unexpected life twists not only slowed me down, but knocked me out. nothing tragic or horrible, just small things that kept adding up to slow me down. when i finally admitted to myself that there was not a snow ball's chance in shortsville that i would complete it, i was okay with that. i still learned something about my fiber and my spinning and my equipment .... and really that is what the tour is all about for me. to stretch myself, get pushed out of my comfort zone and discover.
so, i discovered that....
1) i really love the merino roving. it's soft and springy and fun to spin. even though i'm spinning it super fine, it is still meeting all those characteristics.
2) spinning it super fine is taking f o r e v e r! and that's okay because i'll get what i want.
3) my wheel is a wonderful, quirky piece of equipment. it needs to be tended and pampered. it developed a wicked bad squeak after the foot-pedal adjustment that required research and care. not hard, just necessary.

so i'll keep on going and try to finish this project.

back and ready for the tour

just returning from a fabulous week of vacation. it is becoming an annual event to meet my family (and their families) at the shore. we each rent a house for the week and have all the fun that we can possibly have.

i take my wheel for some early morning spinning, and my knitting for the car ride and beach time. yes, i take wool to the beach. this year as i was strolling along in the surf i spotted cross-stitch being done in the sun. i'm not sure what it means, but in my mind it decreases my weirdness. the days were hot and sunny so we did lots of this..

the water was warm (by ocean standards) at a balmy 72. it was a perfect match for the 90+ heat of the day and the golden ball of fire in the sky. we shopped, ate lots of shore food, sipped sangria's and totally relaxed.   the sunrises were awesome, except that they arrived at 5:35....am.

still, it was worth dragging out of bed to see dolphin tales and scenes like this.
as i was coming home, i realized that i needed to get my plan in place for the 'tour defleece'. the tour runs from the 1-22 of july, and dang-it if it isn't july first! i decided to go with my definition of exotics this year. i have several unique to my spinning story fibers and will focus on those.

the bright pink, blue and multi rovings on the right are merino pindrafted roving, next is a braid of targhee combed top, then bfl & tussah silk top and finally superwash merino and bamboo. in all about 27 ounces of fun.
so i'm off..... riding kind of slow today as i'm still recovering from all that vacation fun!