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.

Another Sample

A second sample from the Finn/Dorset/Tarhgee fleece. Less twist, softer and loftier, even though its still woolen  worsted spun. Or as close as I get to woolen worsted spun. I thought I washed this fleece well, but there is still a fair amount of grease; it ends up much fluffier after finishing the yarn.
I really, really like this fleece.

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.