Month: July 2016

I had a list of great things to accomplish during the month of July.  July is the month during which the world’s top professional bicyclists tackle the physically intense, scenically beautiful Tour de France.  It is also the month that thousands of yarn spinners around the world follow along, watching the bike race and pedaling on their own spinning machines.  My list of fiber to spin during the Tour now seems embarrassingly optimistic.

In the past three weeks, I managed to: 1. create a couple skeins of yarn which were already half spun when I started, and 2. spin a tiny bit of new fiber into singles.

The thing about France is – it’s beautiful countryside.  The thing about the Tour de France is – it’s fascinating to watch from the air, which is of course how the majority of it is broadcast.  It’s like watching water flow over rocks in a stream, or like watching ocean waves.  It’s mesmerizing.  Similar to watching fiber slip through your fingers, really.  Except you can watch fiber slip through your fingers at any time of the year, and the Tour de France is only in July.  I could hardly bring myself to look away from the screen, and as a result, much less spinning of fiber was accomplished.

Also, I got distracted.  See that little blue ceramic bowl in that first photo, on the left?  I made that.  In fact, I got so excited about making it that I signed up for a ceramics class and made more of them.  It turns out, three hours per week is a lot more time out of your week than you think it is, in some ways, and a lot less time than you want it to be, in others.  Throw in a few family gatherings and a wedding weekend, and – well.  I discovered I’d run myself out of fiber time!

Knitting also proved to be a huge distraction during July.  I found a shawl pattern in the very colors of Esmerelda, the proceeds of which go to benefit blind people in Congo DR.  It’s called Bright Tomorrow, and the benefit group is the Sight is Life project.   I found it soon after it was published, bought it on the spot and started spinning for it.

A week and a half later, I fell in love with the first clue of a mystery knit-a-long, at the exact same time that one of the local yarn dyers in the city was having a 10th anniversary sale/ weekend – and down I went.  Here’s my Clue#1:

Next month, August, is going to bring a fabulous, and much needed, vacation.  Me and My Guy are going to Maine!  We’re staying with friends, and are really looking forward to music and relaxing, and the stunning vistas and cool breezes of the coast.  I’m pretty much all packed – that is, except for anything not involving wool…