Back after a bit of catching up yesterday. We seem to have had all the weather today! It has been sunny with blue sky, then a bit of drizzle, then torrential rain, thunder, lightning, enormous hail, and then back to sunny again. They are now issueing a flood alert for our local river, but luckily the closest it comes to us is about three miles away. I am a bit worried about my sister’s back garden of their house in the UK, though the house will be fine because it is at the top of a hill (the garden slopes down the hill to a mill leat which flows into our local river).

In among the exciting weather it has also been spinning group today, and I luckily managed to dodge the rain getting the wheel in and out of the car. It was lovely to catch up with everyone and admire their lovely spinning, knitting, and weaving.

We watched today’s stage of the cycling this evening, and what an exciting race! It seemed a very hard fought battle to the finish line but well done Thomas Voeckler! There were times when he seemed to be trying to win France a medal in face pulling but it obviously did the trick! I’m sure your cheering him on Avril made all the difference 🙂

I did do some spinning today too, I finished the rainbow merino singles at spinning group:

The coin here is a £2, to celebrate Bradley and Chris’s amazing time trial on Monday.

Then this evening I plied it:

This is a 3ply, and I think is destined for socks, though I haven’t measured it yet. This is a French 10 Cent for Thomas Voeckler’s win today.

The colour reminds me of purple heather plants, like the North York Moors in summer. I am very pleased with the way it has come out. I was a bit worried that the colours would all mix together and turn to mud, but I think the end result is ok 🙂

This evening was spinning guild annual Show and Tell so we are only half way through watching today’s cycling, and will catch up while they are having a rest day tomorrow. The Show and Tell was great fun, with loads of inspiring and varied things to look at. I’m afraid I was so busy looking and feeling and asking questions that I completely failed to take any photos.

I have done a bit of spinning today though, this is my start on some rainbow merino from Wingham, bought at their sampling day earlier in the year.

Today’s coin is a Guernsey 50p, which has no relevance to the racing whatsoever 🙂

Wow! That was an exciting day’s racing! We didn’t quite feel the need to hang out of the window and shout for our rider to keep going in the way that the directeur sportif of FDJ did, but we were on the edge of our seats, and I think some of my spinning may be a bit wonky 🙂

Today I plied up the merino / seacell from yesterday. I love how this has come out, and hopefully it will make some nice socks, although I haven’t yet measured how many metres I have. It was lovely stuff to spin though I did have a couple of little lumps of seacell, and the plying has a couple of rather dodgy joins where the racing was a bit too exciting. Hopefully these wont be too noticeable in the finished knitting.

Today’s coin is a French 20 Cent to celebrate Thibaut Pinot’s win today.

First day in the mountains for the cyclists, and after a hard day in front of the telly (its a hard job but someone’s got to do it!) we have finally caught up.

A couple of very exciting stages to watch, and I managed to get quite a bit of spinning done. This is the last of the alpaca / merino, this skein is chain plied.

I have given it a wash, and once it has all dried I shall weigh and measure it. I am really looking forward to knitting with it!

I’m afraid I don’t have any Slovakian coins to celebrate Peter Sagan’s win yesterday, so this is a Japanese 100 Yen coin, because it is pretty 🙂

While we watched today’s race I have been spinning some Coast, 75% superwash merino, 25% seacell from Picperfic. I surprised myself by finishing the 100g today.

This is the first time I have spun seacell, it felt a bit like the merino silk blends, but perhaps not quite so static. I am looking forward to plying it tomorrow.

The coin here is a British 50p to celebrate Chris Froome winning the stage and the polka dot jersey, and Bradley Wiggins taking the yellow jersey. A good day for Team Sky!

Just a small skein of plied alpaca / merino today. This is the last of the proper 3ply. Tomorrow I will chain ply the left overs.

Today’s coin is a German 2 Euro, to celebrate André Greipel winning the stage again yesterday (we are still a day behind the cyclists).

The weather has cheered right up today. It has been warm, but not as humid as yesterday and we have had the first day without rain in what feels like yonks! I grabbed the opportunity to dash outside and catch up with some much needed things in the garden. I am still losing the battle with the foliage generally, but at least I don’t need a machete to open the back door now 🙂

We are inching our way along catching up with the cyclists. We finished watching yesterday’s racing, and were very relieved when we started watching today’s coverage that no-one had been too badly hurt in the crash near the end. Hopefully we shall catch up with real time at the weekend.

While watching I have plied up another skein of alpaca / merino.

Today’s coin is a German 5 Cent, to celebrate André Greipel’s win yesterday.

I think I probably have one or maybe two more skein’s of plying left to go. I was so worried about over-plying this, that I think I have gone the other way and slightly under-plied it. Hopefully it will be ok anyway. I am really looking forward to starting to knit with it.

We are now a day behind the cyclists, but have had a very enjoyable evening eating curry and playing Race To The Galaxy with Ian (I came last both games 🙂 ).

I have also done the next skein of plying my alpaca / merino. I’m afraid the photo is rather dark because it has been wet again here, and I didn’t finish the plying til late when it was even darker. I shall give this a wash in the morning, and the measure it when it has dried.

Today’s coin is another French one, a 2 Euro Cent.

We are still half a day behind watching the cyclists, but are having a lovely time watching all the beautiful Belgian and now French countryside, and interesting buildings. It really does work as a wonderful advert for visiting that part of the world.

I have started the plying on my alpaca / merino. One skein done!

This was actually using the three bobbins worth of singles that I spun before the tour started. It is a 3ply but I haven’t measured how much it weighs or how many metres I have yet, I shall do that when it has finished drying.

Today’s coin is a French 1 Euro as the tour has now entered France.

First off a quick correction, the other day I said that Fabian Cancellara was Italian, which is complete rubbish, he is actually Swiss. I knew that, so I don’t know what I was on about. Hopefully my brain will return soon.

Today was spinning group at Ash so I had a lovely time spinning some more of my alpaca / merino and catching up with everyone. I spun some more this evening while we caught up with yesterday’s cycling, and started watching today’s. We are still half a stage behind real life, but perhaps tomorrow will be the day we catch up 🙂

Today’s coin is a Belgian 10 cent, since this is the last day in Belgium.

I have finished my fibre, and this is the last of the singles! (I bet you are glad I wont be showing you three weeks worth of brown!)

I am planning to 3ply this, and am looking forward to starting that tomorrow.