What is the Tour de Fleece?

The Tour de Fleece is an annual spinning event that takes place during the same time as the Tour de France.  Spanning the course of three weeks, July 1st to July 23rd. 2023, participants commit to spinning every day the cyclists ride, challenging themselves to complete a set of personal spinning goals. These goals can vary from trying spinning for the first time, to spinning a certain quantity of yarn, trying new techniques, or even finishing a long-standing spinning project.

A Brief History

The Tour de Fleece was born in 2006, inspired by the Tour de France, one of the most prestigious cycling races in the world. It was the brainchild of hand spinner and avid cyclist, Star Athena, who wanted to combine her passions for both spinning and cycling. She designed the Tour de Fleece as a spinning challenge, taking place over the same period as Tour de France. The original concepts are few and simple:

• They spin-we spin.
• Spin, learn, have fun.

The Tour de Fleece gained popularity quickly, thanks to the rise of social media platforms and online spinning communities. Spinners from all skill levels joined the challenge, setting personal goals and sharing their progress online. Today, the event has grown exponentially, capturing the attention of spinners worldwide.

While the Tour de Fleece primarily focuses on spinning, it encompasses much more than that. It fosters a sense of community, creativity, and learning. Spinners join teams or create their own, building camaraderie, engaging in friendly competition and sharing knowledge. Through social media platforms, participants share their daily progress, offer encouragement, and seek inspiration from others.

Benefits - why join Tour de Fleece:

• Motivation: you can set some special goals for your spinning. It is easier to motivate yourself with the sense of community of fellow spinners, working towards the same goals.

• Challenge: you can try new things, fibers, preparations or techniques - you know it is no big deal if it does not work out :-) the important thing is to try!

• Contacts: you can find many like-minded fibre friends and have someone to shop for fibers with! :-D

• Inspiration: you can get inspired and learn new things (and find out where they got that cool spindle :-D)

• Community: you can share your work and progress with community. We do not encourage hard competition in spinning, everyone can have their personal incomparable goals!

• Safe space: you can get valuable feedback from very friendly people :-D

• Learning: you can find new sources and knowledge for your spinning craft and grow it while having fun!

The Tour de Fleece is a celebration of the art of spinning, bringing spinners from around the world together for a three-week spinning extravaganza. It has evolved into a fun and popular tradition, encouraging personal growth, fostering community, and igniting creativity. Whether you're a seasoned spinner or just starting, the Tour de Fleece offers an inclusive and welcoming environment for spinners of all levels.

How will Tour de Fleece with Mokoša work?

We want to spin with you, are you with us?

Cyclists in the Tour de France have designated days when they ride flat, hilly or mountainous terrain, and rest days. We have created the Tour de Fleece calendar for you as inspiration, marking those mountainous challenges and rest days. 

• During the days marked as "Výzva" you can come up with something more demanding for spinning - try spinning new fibers, learn a new technique that has intrigued you, try a different yarn design, etc. You can choose one challenge during these days and work on it in stages or try something different for each Challenge.
• During the rest days "oddych", of course, you can admire your work, enjoy your new skills, or buy some more fibers :-D

Facebook Group

We have created a group on Facebook for all of us to share our work and progress (and our work IN progress), ask and answer questions, encourage and inspire each other. You are welcome to join! You can spin whatever fibers you want, share where you have them from, just please - no sales and promotional posts.

Hashtag: dont forget to use tag #tourdefleecemokosa - we will enjoy seeing your work very much!

Competition

If you, however, are going to spin our MOKOŠA combed tops, you can join our friendly competition at the end of Tour de Fleece! When the time comes, we will collect pictures of your handspun slovak breedspecific skeins and let the vox populi speak to determine their favourite one! The winner will receive some nice fiber for more spinning from us. 😃

Spinbox

Of course, we have prepared something special for your spinning! This is SPINBOX - a goodie gift box, full of breedspecific combed tops of slovak wool! You can choose from several varieties: natural, or combined with hand-carded fibers (and you can choose one of five colourways in that case)! If you want to start spinning or give something special to someone who wants to, we have also SPINBOX DE LUXE edition, with the book "Hand Processing of Wool" (unfortunately that one is in Slovak only) and a drop spindle to get you going!