Start spinning...

So, today begins the Tour de France, the annual bike race. I enjoyed riding my bike as a kid as much as any other kid, but it was not something that carried on into adulthood with me. The fact that I grew up in a rural farmland-ish area that didn't allow for safe riding on very windy and remote roads probably contributed to this, as I only really ever rode my bike when we were camping and had a nice paved campground loop to ride on. 

As an adult, the closest I've come to bike riding was one ill-fated spinning class I signed up for at the gym. It nearly killed me. Seriously? There is something wrong with an activity that you choose to do voluntarily but then your feet are locked into the equipment so you can't leave even if you want to...and they probably know you're going to want, especially if it is your first spinning class and you are out of shape and you feel like your lungs are going to explode within the first ten minutes. Have you ever almost fallen off a stationary bicycle only you can't fall off because your feet are fastened into the pedals, and you can't manage to reach down and unfasten them because you're suffering an aneurysm from the insane exertion that you voluntarily put yourself through, and even though the class teacher is saying, "Feel free to go at your own pace!" you really can't because the freakin' bike has taken on a life of its own and won't stop spinning? Yeah. It's not pretty.

Thus, anytime you hear me refer to "spinning" as an activity that I'm taking part in, you can be pretty well assured I am not talking about the kind that has to do with two wheels, but instead the kind that has to do with wool. And that's what I'm talkin' about today...its time to start spinning because it is not only the start of the Tour de France, but also the first day of the Tour de Fleece. Now that's totally up my alley!

The idea is to set your own personal spinning goal to try and accomplish during the time frame of the Tour de France. (Specifically, this year's challenge is supposed to be completed with only stash fiber, which is not a problem for me because even though my roving stash is quite small, I'm sure I've got more roving than I'll be able to deal with in the next 22 days.) Seeing as I'm a very inexperienced spinner, and I only spin on a drop spindle as I don't own a wheel, I thought I'd keep my goal small: spin some small amount of yarn that I can actually DO something with. However, I have rethought this and I'm thinking maybe an even better goal for me would be to spin regularly throughout this challenge and work toward becoming more proficient at it...then maybe I'll be able to spin enough of something that I can actually use it. 

So...between now and July 27th, I'm going to try and spin a little bit every day and get better at this craft. We'll see how it goes! I'll post progress updates as I go.