Spinning the Romney Fleece

This Romney fleece, brought home from BSG, isn't so greasy. And not so dirty. So I've tried spinning some from the lock and in the grease and I'm really liking how it spins. The grease helps hold this not very crimpy fleece together, and I'm finding it easy to spin a fine, fairly smooth single.

But, for the sake of learning, I washed up a small sample to spin clean. I didn't expect that much of a color change! Here are some washed and unwashed locks side by side. The top sample is washed with soap and hot water.

Here's how it looks on the bobbin, the top bit is the washed.

To further my education, and because I don't want to store raw wool inside the house, I've soaked some of the locks in cold water to see how they'll spin with less dirt. And I was surprised by the amount of dirt that fell out. These locks really brightened up.

 And they spin nicely too; here we are again on the bobbin.

Even though I didn't use any hot water and detergent on the wool, it feels less greasy than before. It doesn't stick together as much as it did raw, and I find I have to pay attention or I end up spinning cobweb fine singles. I'll try spinning that fine again, to see if I can do it on purpose. But for now, this spinning is sample work for the Armchair project. After I put a little more yarn on this bobbin I'll make up a two ply and weave up a small sample. I don't want to get to far ahead of myself.