Inspiration Saturday: Ready, set, spin!

Here it is again, the Tour de Fleece.  The yearly reminder that hey, I might have yarn waiting to turn into a cardigan on my needles, but I also have fiber on the tip of my spindle that hasn't even realized its dreams of becoming yarn yet.

Last year I took a 4 oz braid of fiber all the way from start to finish for my first ever yarn:

This year, I have some fiber already in progress, so I'm confident I should at least be able to finish that.  It began as a 4 oz braid, 100% wool merino top from Frabjous Fibers that I bought in last year's Yarn Crawl at Hill Country Weavers:

Currently, it's a Ravelry drawstring bag full of fiber and two single cops:

Once I get the rest of the fiber 'singled out', then I have to decide how I want to ply it.  I'd like to try and create a single-ply yarn sometime, but I know that I overspin and right now I'm relying on plying to even that out a little.  With my first yarn each center-pull cop became a hank plied against itself.  I might try unwinding the cops onto a tennis ball so I can have a longer 2-ply hank from two cops.  Lots of ideas, and I'm open to suggestion.

Speaking of lots of ideas, if I'm spinning every day I should hopefully finish this yarn with miles to spare before the cyclists end up in Paris, so then the question becomes: what to spin next?  Here are just a few of the entries in my roving stash to consider:

Merino Wool Top from WC Mercantile: Neon Pink

It's pink!  I feel like it would be impossible not to smile as I spun this.  I received it in the Favorite Color swap, and it's the perfect representation of the pink I love.  I also love this fiber artist, they were at the Yellow Rose Fiber Fiesta this year, where I brought home more from their wall of colors.

Merino/Tussah Silk (80/20) from Fiber Obsessions: Spring Green

A little different from me, this is a slightly more muted tone.  A light and lovely green, the silk makes it absolutely gorgeous to the touch.  I had to have it when I found it in Yarnorama when I came up with the idea of spinning singles from it and then plying it with a pink or purple thread, to make it floral.  Having never plied with thread, this would be an experiment.

New Zealand Polwarth from Maude & Me: Southern Hospitality

Another braid which was gifted to me from a Raveller in New Zealand, I love the mix of colors here.  Might be a good opportunity to try N-plying.  And after seeing some of this same colorway spun up in the seller's Etsy store, I'm even more excited to see how the colors would turn out.

Is anyone else spinning in the Tour de Fleece?  What are your goals?  Any advice for this still-feel-like-a-newbie-despite-sort-of-spinning-for-a-few-years-now?

For more inspiration, go to Woolen Diversions.