Tour de Fleece is nearly here!

So what are you planning on spinning for this years Tour de Fleece?
I have a bag of all the odds and ends from this years team fibre so I will work my way through as much of those as I can, I also would like to top up the ramie supplies to use in woven projects, so if I get time I'll add in some of that. I love the event as a chance to really spend time with my wheel, eve if it's 5 minutes on evenings when I'm busy, over in The Fellowship of Yarn there are lots of people commenting on how doing the event last year really helped them make big step forwards with their spinning skills and confidence!
For anyone new, the "rules" are very simple,  we spin for every day the cyclists ride, for the entirety of the Tour de France cycle race which is 21 days (plus 2 rest days), and last year we extended the event to include the week long Tour de France Femmes, so we shall do the same again this year. We start on July 1st. Watching the race is entirely optional, but many of us do also enjoy the cycling along with the spinning. 

The event for Hilltop Cloud is over in The Fellowship of Yarn, where there's a specific space devoted to all things Tour de Fleece. Each day at 7am UK time a post will pop up, in it will be lots of interesting things about the area the route passes through, plus some regional food to make you hungry! 
There's special Team Hilltop Cloud fibre each year, and anything spare from making up the packs of fibre will go live in the shop at the start of each day, and to accompany the fibre the daily posts also have information about the sailing vessel that inspired the fibre. 
It doesn't matter what you spin, or for how long you spin, just that each day you make a little time for making yarn. If you use Hilltop Cloud fibre you might win a prize, but you are still welcome to share your days work no mater what fibre you use. Some people set ambitious goals, others just gather a pile of fibre, start spinning and see how far they get, I do hope you'll come and join us.

Speaking of winning prizes, Nellie and I won our first rosette in a scentwork competition this weekend. We took part in a Nosework Games, and whilst we didn't win any of the individual challenges she was so consistent that we amassed enough points to come 4th overall out of a field of 13. We're off to another competition on Saturday, so fingers crossed she can perform just as well. 

The garden has just about clung on through our most recent hot and dry spell, and is now coming to life after some much needed rain. There's been lots of nesting birds, including this new arrival, which is a Redstart, they're not a common bird, and we've definitely had a pair flying about feeding young for the past couple of week.