Saturday, April 28, 2007

If Life gives you lemons...

I bought a fleece on ebay... I know... I know... I shouldn't do that unless I am really sure I know what I am getting... but it was cheap and I was weak. I have a wool addiction... I can't help it. It is a down-type fleece from a shearer who takes the best of the fleeces he shears (saving them from the trash where most meat sheep fleeces end up) and sells them on ebay...

Anyway, when it came it was a dirty, gooey, yolky mess, but at least it wasn't full of VM. So I soaked it overnight and then washed it with dishsoap and rinsed it 3-4 times. I use regular hot water... not scalding, I need asbestos fingers, hot like many folks do. I don't want to strip all of the lanolin from the fleeces I process. I just like the way it feels that way.

I managed to get all the dirt out of it, but the yolk had stained the wool. It seemed that the fleece was not worth further effort, but I figured I should card some up into rolags, just to see what I get... Will wonders ever cease--it turned out to be absolutely the nicest yellow cream color and the rolags are the cutest things I have ever seen... Did I mention I am a wool addict... Take a look for yourself...

I am pleased as punch. It is remarkably soft. My guess is that it is nearly next to skin soft, but I haven't done the bra test yet. I am looking forward to spinning and knitting with it. I just can't decide what it wants to be... Ideas? One day soon, I will post about the actual spinning. LOL.

1 comment:

Michelle said...

Still here, checking out the blog, enjoying myself very much. I have to ask, what is the bra test? I'm thinking you put some of the fiber between you and your bra; do you spin it first and use a piece of the resulting yarn?

At any rate, you get to your raw fleeces much faster than I have! My shearer/farrier gave me his Romney/BFL fleece last winter and it's mostly washed, but that's it. Since I feel blessed when I'm able to squeeze in 30 minutes of spinning a day, it goes slow....