Not Exactly Lemons

But that's what came to mind, making the best of the weather. The last few days have been hot. Especially Friday, oh my goodness! I think it hit 93 or 94 F. Too hot to do anything that didn't need doing. But, a good day for a Friday Fall fleece flout. (hehehe) A hot, dry sunny day is a good time to haul the fleeces out of the closet, remind myself what I have, and check for fleece pests. Here is what I pulled out of my closet. This is like a fleece buffet, and I want to take a little of everything and spin it right now.

All out enjoying the sun

Those, plus a few other bags in the shed equals 24 bags. Mostly wool, mostly colored, which surprised me. Mostly luscious too. There are 4 bags of alpaca in there too. Not counted; commercially prepped fiber in batts or rovings, and various bags of dog hair suitable for spinning, and a few ounces of flax and hemp. I guess I'll go through all that another day, that would be a good rainy day activity. If we ever get another rainy day. Here is a link an album, but there are no notations on the pictures.

Sudsy Sunday

Washing fleece today. Did some yesterday too. I feel a little bit guilty about the water use. I'm hoping to make up for some of it by turning the landscape irrigation down. And maybe I'll skip a shower. The humidity is up and the temps are down a bit so I'm hopeful things can finally go to a Fall irrigation schedule. The drought. So many areas of my landscape that, over the various drought years, have been allowed to die off. This winter I'm thinking about revamping much of the remaining irrigation to save more water. However, I'm worried that it will be money down the drain, so to speak, if the drought continues and harsher restrictions are implemented. Likewise replacing dead/disappeared plants with more drought tolerant ones. They all need water to get established.

Well, that went off on a tangent.

Okay. Washing. Wool. Yesterday I washed the CVM fleece I picked up at OFFF last month. I like the quality of the fleece, and would definitely buy from Cedar Glen Sheep Farm again, if I was fleece shopping. I wasn't really fleece shopping at OFFF, but gosh, I didn't have any CVM in my stash. Heh. This fleece is very well skirted, very clean and every bit looks usable. Spinner's dream. Here is a pre-wash photo.

The sheep's name is Butterfly. At lower left is a bag containing a washed sample. Very thoughtful. The fleece looks tan or oatmeal in this photo, but washes up to a soft grey.

Today I'm washing Navajo-Churro. White from Dovey and brown from Kayla, both ewes at Morgan River Ranch. Navajo-Churro sheep maybe aren't the best fit for Oregon weather, and some of both fleeces cotted near the skin. But there is still plenty of usable fiber. Dovey's fleece is very long and strong and should make some good rug yarn. Kayla's fleece has a softer hand, and might make a nice throw or blanket. Her lamb fleece is almost next-to-skin soft.

Dovey

Kayla

I have so much wonderful fiber to spin. I am very lucky.

Baa Baa Black Sheep...

Everybody sing along!  I consider myself quite lucky to call this fleece mine.

Details: Fine Shetland, this fleece is from Bing of Boulderneigh. I just finished washing it today and I can't believe how black this black is. In the sunlight, it almost looks blue! Happy visions of future projects with this wonderful wool!
(gripe session: I just spent about an hour trying to figure out how to post a picture from the new flickr page format. It involved a work-around. Why oh Why did they change things?)

Ridiculous

Heat waves in early May aren't unheard of here, but Santa Ana winds? I don't remember that ever. Temps are well into the 90s and right now there is one rather big brush fire to the south east of us. The winds are mostly from the east, so for now we are out of harm's way. I haven't heard of any homes burning, but many folks near the fire have evacuated. I hope they can all return soon.

On a knitterly note, I re-knit the sleeves for the Lattice Be Warm sweater, adding more decreases. Its like magic! The sleeves are slimmer now, and yes, there was enough yarn to finish the lengths. Now the sweater sits, while I make another design decision. I'll add dark blue cuffs to the sleeves, and I'm considering adding a dark blue button/zipper band up the fronts. But, I don't think I have enough of the dark blue yarn. And I don't find any in stock. In fact, I'm not finding much heavy weight yarn in stock right now, probably because summer is nearly here. It's okay, I don't think I'll be needing to wear this sweater in the next few months.

In the meantime, I've started another set of socks. Oh, and I have a gorgeous new fleece to show you, just as soon as I get some pictures.

Lets Get to the Fluffy Stuff

Did I go to the Black Sheep Gathering? You betcha! Did I spend a lot of money? NO!

No? Yup.  While I don't believe I qualify as STABLE (STash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy), I do have enough fiber to keep me busy for some time, especially as my current project output level seems pretty low.  And, oddly, I wasn't on the hunt for any particular fleece. You know, a certain type or color, or one that jumps up and says. 'You Can't Live Without Me!' So I went to BSG, fully planning to not buy fleece. (Not that this strategy has worked before, because it is usually just a downfall waiting to happen.) Weird, huh?

What I did do was spend hours in the 'wool barn' watching and listening to Judith McKenzie judge fleeces. Wow. What a great education. What an outpouring of information. What an eye opener too! Judith would pick up a fleece and extol the virtues of that particular type of fleece and I'd think to myself, "Well, I'd never thought of using that kind of fleece before, but clearly I need a fleece like that." Dangerous stuff when you're on a fleece diet. I'll be getting back to fleece in a minute.

My apologies to all the vendors at BSG. Your wares were all just as enticing as always; the fibers, the colorways, the tools. It seems I had more than my fair share of self restraint this year, I bought only 2 things. I promise to do better next year. Here is my haul; a crochet hook, because I couldn't find the one I knew was in my notions case,

don't worry, of course the missing hook showed up after I brought this one back. What is 'knooking'? the package said this type is for knooking. It will work fine for knit repairs.

And this lovely little 1 oz. batt, purchased from a young man who creates and sells them to put toward his college fund. I couldn't resist. I think his name is Colton.

Now we get back to fleece. Remember, diet doesn't mean abstinence. My wonderful pal Dusty, of the ranch, decided to add a few wool sheep to her small flock of sheep, in order enable my fleece habit. That's what friends are for, right? She decided on Navajo-Churros and brought home two ewe lambs from Dot Ranch. One of them was due for shearing during my visit. Here is a (cell phone) picture of Kayla just before shearing. I love love love the color of her fleece, especially the golden color of the tips.

Here is what she looks like after shearing.

Yup, dark chocolate brown. At least for now. Her color will probably lighten up as she gets older. Here is the result.

Eye candy. As this is her lamb fleece, that inner wool is pretty soft. Maybe soft enough for next to skin. Maybe. I played around with a little bit, you know, just to get acquainted.

From right to left; intact locks, longer outer wool, shorter and finer inner wool. Without washing, I spun singles from the locks.

From left to right; intact lock spun worsted style, intact lock spun woolen style, outer wool spun worsted, inner wool spun woolen. The samples were washed after spinning, and they're over spun as singles. I was thinking I'd ply them, then didn't. The first 3 are pretty tough, not for next to skin, but I wasn't expecting that. However, I think they'll work wonderfully for weaving. The 3rd sample, the longer outer wool? That is tough stuff and I think would make great warp. The 4th sample might work for next to skin if I'm more careful with my spinning, taking care to keep it light and airy. Otherwise, it works well spun without separating the locks.  Bonus - spending time getting to know the Susie Pro.

See! I did bring home a fleece!

Off the Diet

The fleece diet. I'd gone almost 12 months without buying any fleece, and I was feeling pretty good about that. Mostly. But a deep, dark, secret part of me was longing for a soft touch of fleece, the heady scent of raw wool, the caress of lanolin. But I knew I could hold out, I was strong, no longer a slave to my desires. Right up until my friend Michelle at Boulderneigh mentioned having half a fleece for sale. Half? Why, that's like sharing desert, it hardly counts as breaking a diet. Right? (don't answer, my logic is working for me.)

So yesterday's mail brought my half-desert, er, fleece. Here is one half of Bart's very conscientious and successful effort at being a Shetland Sheep. Which he is.

I pulled a lock, and it just kept on coming out.

I haven't measured the staple, but this should give you an idea.

Whee! I can't wait to get started!

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.

Oregon Update

Last time I checked in, I was getting ready to head north. First a far as Davis, CA; to drop Evan off for summer sessions at UCD. Then a bit farther up the road to Orland, stopping to visit Sue at her Cormo sheep farm.  http://www.cormo.us
Wow, what a wonderful person and shepherdess! She raises her sheep to preserve the breed, and to produce incredible fleeces for hand spinners. There were still some fleeces from the last shearing in the wool barn. Very clean, very well skirted, very soft and crimpy. You should take a look at the pictures on  her website, really. Her place isn't very far off my return route. I think I might need to make another stop.
I made good time getting to my friend Dusty's place, and I'm still here. Busy with all sorts of things. The weather has been mostly rainy, especially the weekend of BSG. I went on Friday, and found a Romney fleece in the wool sale area that should work well for my chair project. I also bought a few odds-n-ends for weaving.
That's all for now, I can barely keep my eyes open.

Getting to Know Border Leicester Wool

One of the benefits of planning for a new fiber project is playing with new fibers. My 'Cover that Armchair' project meanders along, in no hurry at this point, whilst I consider project requirements and suitable materials. The stuff I normally choose for spinning, knitting and even weaving is normally geared toward clothing items, things that feel nice against the skin. Something like an armchair should feel comfortable, but I think the fabric needs greater durability than what I'd expect from a scarf, or even mittens or socks. Plus, this project will take hours and hours and hours. If I make it, I want it to last longer than the time I put into making it.

Good arguements for sampling new fibers. I've played around a bit with the Finn/Dorsett/Targhee. It has luster, it would make great socks, its almost next to skin soft, it should take dye beautifully. I almost want to save it for something else. Some days.

Next up is Border Leicester. Purchased from SuDan Farms in Oregon. This fleece is different from the fleeces I've played with before. Maybe because its a true luster longwool? I don't know. The locks are curly, wavy, shiny. They look silky, and almost like doll hair.

Until the comb runs through them.

Pulling the combed fiber into top is where this wool feels really different to me. It doesn't want to hang together like the other fleeces I've combed. I tried using the diz, (heeheee, it's such a fun word) but found it easier to pull the wool without it. Adding a bit of twist while I pulled helped keep the top together.

The Border Leicester drum cards differently too, still not wanting to 'stick together'. I might try carding with the drums set closer together. I know longwools have larger scales, so maybe there aren't as many grabby bits along the fiber shaft. I wonder if this stuff can felt at all? It spins nicely, and I keep reminding myself to add in a bit more twist than I usually would, seeing how this wool slides around.

I keep trying to get a nice, smooth single, and sometimes I think I've managed. But the yarn has a mind of its own. Look at all those fuzzy bits!

Spinning for knitting I'm comfortable with, but I've got questions about spinning for weaving, especially for making a durable fabric. Is a 2 ply with larger singles as durable as more plies with smaller singles? What will hold up better, a thin fabric or a thick one. Is one type of weave more durable than another, like twill verses plain? Hopefully the next few months bring answers. In the meantime, The Black Sheep Gathering is soon. I'll be on there, on the lookout for more fleece.

More Fun than a Barrel of Monkeys

A box full of fleece. This is a portion of  fleece from a Finn/Dorset/Targhee sheep who lives at Merry Meadows Farm.

I've a mind to make a cover for an armchair, the chair that goes with the ottoman I covered awhile ago. So I've been on the lookout for some stronger wool than what I'm used to spinning and knitting. I've always been happy with the wool I get from Merry Meadows, so when I saw this fleece, I decided to give it a try. If it's too soft, it will make lovely outerwear or socks or mittens, or something. Maybe warp yarn. Or I could try plying it with an even stronger wool, for durability.

When I saw the deep golden color of the grease, I thought the fleece might take extra washing, but I'm pleasantly surprised at how easy the lanolin is washing out. And how white it is after washing. See?

A Sampling

Now that all the lovely grey Merino is washed, I need to figure out what to do with it. I love the color, I love the softness, and there is enough fleece for at least 2 or more projects. In keeping with my dabbling with project driven spinning, I've decided to make some samples. Maybe this exercise in discipline will spill over into other areas of my life?

The staple on the fleece is long enough for the wool combs, hooray! I love using the combs. I even made a diz, fashioned from the corner of a plastic gallon milk jug. I used a soldering iron to melt the holes. And the bit of copper braid in the picture below is solder wick, working as a make do diz threader.

This is the first time I've really played around with using a diz, and I think the resulting top came out more even than when I just pull the fiber hand over hand.

Wow, spinning from fresh combed fleece is awesome! Lately I've also been spinning from some commercial dyed top and there is a huge difference. Maybe due to the tendency of the dying process to mat or compact the fiber just a bit, I don't know. But this fresh stuff is d-lish. Springy and soft and just melts into the draft zone.

One of the projects in my mind is a jumper/top/sweater, something lighter weight worn next to the skin. Sleeve length undecided. Maybe something a little dressy (hmmm, beads maybe?). Because I'm pretty much lazy, something knit on US 4 or 5 needles, so it will get finished in my lifetime.

Determined to do a proper job of sampling, I made 3 bumps of combed top, spun the singles, wound the singles onto separate bobbins toilet paper cores (abundant and cheap, and works well enough) and then made a 3 ply.

Winding the plied yarn onto the niddy-noddy, I noticed it didn't have as much elasticity as I expected. And the size was smaller than I was aiming for. More of a sock or fingering weight, than the sport or DK I think I want. A tighter twist too. It would make good sock yarn.  It did get stretchier after washing.

The sample is okay, but I decided to spin another sample. Slightly larger singles, a bit less twist, a little softer. More like this. (oops, I pulled it off the n-n before I took the picture, so not exactly an apples to apples visual.) This yarn is loftier, squishier and slightly fuzzier. I wonder if it would 'pill' to much?

Here are the 2 samples. The first yarn is the one on the right, knit on size US 3/2, the second sample on the left knit on size US 5/4/3 needles. Both samples were wet blocked. I'm learning. Blocking definitely 'opens up' my knitting. Now, I need to find my pattern. Or maybe first I should sample a 4 ply or a cabled yarn.

Now, that's a lot of...

Wool. And that's not even all of it.

Purchased last October at Lambtown 2011 in Dixon, California. Listed as 9 pounds, its a fine, soft and wispy merino, in various shades of grey. With a little bit of brown. I'm finally finishing the scouring today. What a pile of potential! Now to comb and or card some, and see how it spins up.

The WOW Factor

I wish I could see this in person. I wish I could have this in my house. Or at least see someone else spin on it. Or at least get a better picture.  Here is the flyer;

The photos were uploaded back in 2003, but that was long before I was spinning. So this is new to me. Maybe to you too. The wheel was built by Bill Fox, up in the Pacific Northwest, and is made of myrtlewood. That's pretty much all I know.

 
Yesterday was spin group day. That's where I heard about the myrtlewood wheel. (thanks for the link Juli) Spin group is always a treat, but as everyone set up their wheels, there was something very different about our circle. All of a sudden, being close to an electric outlet was a concern. Care to take a guess? Its the e-spinner invasion. (Cue the scary music.)

In our little group of 5, three spinners were using e-spinners. And the 2 'real' wheels were Pocket Wheels. Bravely soldiering on, doing their part to uphold the old-fashioned foot powered tradition of hand spinning. Maybe in the future when we say 'hand'- spinning, we'll be talking about powered spinning, and we'll say 'hand and foot' spinning to mean using a wheel with treadles.

The day before yesterday was wash-and-dye day. I'm still washing up the great grey fleece, and I'd been thinking that some of it would look cool dyed shades of blue and or purple. Dyeing as part of the washing process sounds sensible. The wool is still wet and recently soaked in a water/vinegar rinse. And I have some blue dye and some red dye. Plus, recent rains mean I've turned off the irrigation system, so I don't feel so guilty about washing fleece. This bit just soaked outside in cold water for a couple of days. I think I let it set out in the (predicted) rain today for a rinse. It is sort of stinky. Maybe I'll try spinning some of it just so I can say I've tried spinning in the grease. Its not a really greasy fleece to start with.

Here are some of the dyed bits.

The light blue wool near the middle isn't merino, but something else I grabbed and tossed into the dye pot just to use up the rest of the dye. See that blue squarish bit nearby? That's a little pile of silk hankies I made from cocoons given to me by my friend, Fluffy's Garden. I sort of got the hang of hanky making, after a bit. Sort of.

Once all the dyed bits are dry, I'll weigh everything so I know how much I have, and then decide, uh, how to use it.

And Then There Were 2

My two. The spare college kids went home, or to other family room sofas, or where ever. It was fun while they were here, and its nice now that they've gone. I can actually take my coffee and sit on the sofa in the morning. I can turn the water heater up to "VERY HOT!" to wash fleece, and not worry about anyone getting accidentally scalded during the mid-day wake up.  They didn't eat nearly as much food as I expected.

shucks, the picture doesn't do the texture justice.

Since then, I've been combing more Shetland, and carding the leftovers. I tried some novelty type spinning with the drum carded batts, and ended up with 2 little funky skeins of yarn, one from each spinning wheel. Both wheels worked pretty well for spinning the singles, but the Ashford with the jumbo flyer is a thumbs up for plying lumpy novelty yarn. The sliding hooks on the Pocket Wheel seemed a bit small, and sometimes the lumpy yarn caught on the sliding hooks.

The best part is I loved playing around with making this yarn, and I love how it turned out. I already have a little project in mind for these 2 little skeins.

Speaking of washing fleece, I just finished up a few pounds of crimpy, soft, silky merino, and another few pounds of soft, crisp, resilient cormo. The cormo wants to be a sweater of some sort, maybe with cables. I think this fiber will make great cables. The merino wants to be a sweater too, but something lightweight and cozy.

rich dark cormo

squishy soft merino

Dog!

Oh yeah, dog hair. This last bit comes from Jombee (I really don't know how its spelled), a Great Pyrenees  belonging to my brother's roommate. There seem to be 3 types of hair in there; short soft and fluffy undercoat or down, outer coat that might be like not quite fine alpaca and then the guard-hairs longest and strongest could be used for sock heel and toe reinforcement. I hand carded a few bits and removed most of the guard hair and spun a bit into a two ply. Its not bad. I'll post a picture later.

Spinning My (Creative) Wheels

Grumbledy, grumbledy grumbledy.  Summer feels like its flying by, and from a fiber-y  standpoint, I feel I've  nothing to show for it. I want to spin, but I don't know what I want to spin.  I'm trying to focus on intentional spinning, and I keep running myself into little road blocks.
"How about a Shetland lace weight yarn?"
"Okay, that sounds good. But, I hardly ever knit lace.:
"Well, you could give the yarn to someone else."
"I supose. But what if they don't like it?"
"Alright then, how about trying to make some funky yarn? You've been wanting to practice that."
"Yeah, but what would I do with it then?"
"Well, how about washing some fleece, you like doing that. And you really should finish that up."
"I don't really feel like it today."
"Fine. Go clean up your mess in the garage."
"I think I'll wash fleece today."

I'll spare us all the similar nonsense regarding knitting, felting, woodworking and just general "really ought to get to that" conversations. I guess I should be glad that I'm not complaining about being bored.

Road Trippin' part 3

Well, this is embarrassing. There was a reason why I split the road-trip into 3 parts, and I can't remember why.  I mean, I can't remember much of anything significant for the 3rd part. I feel like I've left the house and forgotten to don an article of clothing.

The drive south from the Ranch to Davis was just as enchanting as the drive north. BTW, my dog is a champion road-tripper. Never whines, doesn't get car sick, and never, ever asks if we are there yet. Mount Shasta is just as impressive from the north as from the south. Shasta lake was still completely full.  You know, I drove almost the entire trip, both directions without listening to the radio (or any other music player) at all. About 75% I think. Weird.

I stayed in the Davis area for the night. The room next door had a barking dog. But he didn't start in until about, oh, 11:45 pm. And then he only barked when someone left his room, or walked by the door. As long as nobody thought is was my dog.

The next day, I  met up with Evan in the morning so we could take care of some business, and then I headed for home around noon. Like I mentioned in a earlier post, this part of the drive is becoming routine. I did notice something that had escaped my attention before. At the north end of the Grapevine on highway 5 is a rest area, near Lebec. Caltrans is refurbishing the rest area, so it is closed right now. The sign below the "closed" sign states "next rest area 202 miles" or something near that. (There's one of those truck stop travel plazas at the next exit, stop there.) As I was passing that sign, it occurred to me that the refered to rest area could only be the one located along the stretch of the 5 running through Camp Pendelton, only 35  or 40 minutes from my house. Trust me, you don't want to wait that long if you need a rest stop.

Dog and I made it home safely, the cat was sure happy to see us.

I still feel like there was something in particular to blog about the return trip, but can't dredge anything useful up from the dregs of my mind. Oh well. Instead here are a couple of pictures; progress on the ottoman cover,

Some lovely, fluffy lumps of combed (by me! Sqweeee!) Shetland,

and a picture of Scipio, in his favorite cat wallow. That's right, cat wallow. Anytime I let him outside, the first thing he does is sprint over to this spot and roll, no roll doesn't begin to cover it, rub and swim through the dirt in this spot.

I'm headed out of town for about 10 days, and don't expect to have computer access, everybody be safe!  By the way, my friend at the Ranch had shoulder surgery today, everybody please keep good thoughts for Dusty.

Road Trippin'; the interim

While in Oregon, I stayed with my friends at Morgan River Ranch. I showed up a few days before BSG in order to spend some time just hanging out with friends. We took morning walks with all the dogs; my one and their four. We had great, rambling discussions of just about anything and everything, but a lot about dogs. I admired the countryside, the friendly people and the quiet. In the afternoons we fed the cows their 'special' feed, goodness knows they've plenty of very good grazing pasture. I pet the barn cats and pestered the hens, just because they are so brazen I feel they ought to fear somebody. I watched some of the dogs taking herding training. I drank great coffee in the morning, and slept like a log at night. I mean, better than I've slept in most of my adult life. This happened the first time I went to visit too. I'm not sure why I sleep so well when I'm there, but I'm trying to think of ways to make myself indispensable at the ranch, just so I can sleep in that bed more often.

On my last full day at the ranch, we let my dog Shae practice moving the ducks around the training pen, and then late in the afternoon we let her practice with the sheep. You can see pictures and read more about Shae meeting the sheep at the Morgan River Ranch blog. I think it was pretty cool, and Shae looked like she was having the time of her life.

When Thursday rolled around, I went to the fairgrounds and set up my tent, but never ended up sleeping there. I just couldn't tear myself away from that bed. Late Friday morning I left my dog at the ranch, and headed back over to BSG. It was time to do some shopping. I stopped by the camp area to check in with my friends, they'd already done very well,  picking up some nice fleeces in the for sale area of the wool show. They were ready for lunch, and well, I was ready to shop so we went separate ways.

This could've ended in disaster. I'd not assigned myself a budget for shopping, and there was no one along to drag me away if the wool fumes over rode whatever judgement I was pretending to have. I headed straight to the wool show, to check out the for sale fleeces. I looked them all over, touched a few, considered a few, and then walked out with... nothing. There was no particular type of wool I was looking for, and I didn't see anything that I liked any better than what I already have here at home. Maybe because I'm trying to spin "intentionally", it just didn't make sense to buy a fleece without knowing what I wanted to do with it. I decided that maybe I'd buy a fleece once the "show" fleeces were offered for sale.

Have no fear! I did make some purchases. The first was a Jenkins Turkish spindle, made of marblewood. I've been wanting a Turkish spindle ever since I saw one on Boulderneigh's blog. I love the design and the wood.

After that, the order gets fuzzy, but I got a little bit of yak fluff;

a very fine cria (baby alpaca) fleece (a moment of madness, no doubt. I have plenty of alpaca);

2 ounces of flax roving, because I haven't tried that yet;

and 2 ounces of  hemp roving, I want to try spinning this too!

And that is it. No wool fleece, no braids of beautiful hand-dyed roving. No brilliantly colored silk caps. I already have plenty of that stuff here at home. Waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. This intentional spinning stuff is, at least somewhat, curtailing my spending. Weird.

But I also knew that once I returned home, I had new fiber processing tools waiting for me. Another way to prepare fleece for spinning. It looks like this;

A set of wool combs by Benjamin Green.

I very much like them. And what they do to the fleece. And I like using them, but boy howdy! Watch out for the pointy bits, they are sharp.

I especially like what happens to a fine, long staple Shetland fleece I got from Boulderneigh. I combed a few handfuls and pulled off the top (oh my gosh, I'm making top!) and spun it up, oh, it drafted out sooooo nice. And I forgot to take pictures. Oh well, I'll just have to make some more. Even though I didn't buy anymore wool, I still have plenty here to keep me busy.