Good morning!
It’s been so long….
Spring is here and I’ve been busy 🙂 Seems spring always makes one want to DO more – and some of us have a different take on spring cleaning! I’ve had several fleeces sitting for a while — some since last summer! I don’t know if I posted about it last fall but I have some absolutely beautiful long staple alpaca…dusty dusty stuff with some burr issues as well. It’s got a staple of about 8 inches as it was a long time between shearings and it is SUPER soft – lovely lovely lovely. Irreplaceable really. Fortunately, lol, I started out with about 14 pounds and there is no end in sight yet.
Unwashed…
Combed out for debris, but not yet washed…
Final product – rovings are clean and pulled from my combs…
There is also the ‘meat’ sheep wool which I was given last year – in black and white – waiting to get a good soak and a wash. The wool comes out nice but the dirt is incredible – sometimes free looks like an excellent price. There is a large bin full of that waiting for me on the porch.
Oh yes, and a basset hound too…
My baby grandson has had his first birthday – still the cutest baby in the world with the BEST smile 🙂
His other grandma has sheep and lambs and has very generously given me three bags of wool (I jokingly asked for ‘three bags full’ lol) – the first is lamb (three fleeces I think), the second is yearling (two to three fleeces) and the third bag is adult (haven’t counted them but I believe it holds two fleeces).
The lamb, unwashed…
The yearling, unwashed (or possibly the adult)…MUCH dirtier than the lamb. I plan to soak this in a cold soak for a few days before washing it…
These fleeces MUST be a mixed breed but are sooooo soft I’m pleasantly surprised! I’ve washed some of the lamb, so far, and it’s coming out lovely. Very short fibers but lovely AND it helped motivate me to learn how to spin short fibers. Happy to say that after two days of utter failure…. I CAN DO IT! 🙂
The lamb…clean…
Here’s some blended short fibers that I’ve successfully spun…YAY!…it’s camel, yak, silk and lambswool blended on carders and then spun for a two ply thick and thin yarn….(it truly is soft as butter)
I’ve sold one of my spinning wheels – the Bordua that I bought last fall – to a really nice Ravelry member who will truly appreciate her. I’ve also begun selling some handspun wool yarn and some spinning fiber (the above mentioned alpaca) through my local kijiji. I definitely spin more than I knit and the wool is piling up!
Some recently spun yarns…
(Left to right…lambswool, spun from the lock very finely for a four ply fingering weight yarn; alpaca, spun from combed fiber, two ply; grammalamb spun two ply; the soft as butter blended camel 2ply; a skein of laceweight, handdyed silk two ply approx 800 metres.)
Oh – Almost forgot! There IS news on the knitting front….
I’ve spun 900 metres of silk/lambswool/alpaca (in approximate thirds, blended on carders and then spun fine for a three ply lace weight) to make a really beautiful pair of lace knitted stockings. So pretty, so impractical. Of course I had to have them 🙂 I’ve only just begun the knitting but it’s coming along well…
As if that isn’t enough, I’ve also been working on some orifice hooks…
I am also working on the spinning wheel at the beginning of this post – she needed a few things and a bit of a facelift. I should have pictures to share very soon 🙂 I believe she is a german parlor wheel but who knows for sure…
And just because…I’ve decided it’s time to make a quilt. A really special quilt I’ve had a picture for for ages…known to me and those that know me as “THE ONE”. It begins something like this….
Knitsnthings's Weblog 
I think someday I would like to go through the whole cleaning the roving & everything but I am not quite there yet.
They look so cute all cleaned out and in little puffs in the basket. I hope the grandson had a great birthday.
That blue shiny yarn is gorgeous.
My grandson’s birthday was great, thank you 🙂 He’s an awesome little boy….of course I’m SO biased 🙂
I think you’d enjoy the process of cleaning the fleece but I’d definitely recommend starting much smaller than I’ve been doing it lately. I started with a smaller fleece (shetland) and a couple of other partial fleeces which I bought by the pound instead of by the fleece. For the ‘grandma lamb’ I’m using a cold soak to conserve water a little and it really cuts down on the cleaning. I use the ‘waste’ water from the cold soak to water my flower and vegetable gardens since it’s excellent liquid fertilizer.
The blue shiny is gorgeous isn’t it? I still have to figure out what to make with it (eventually).
Great post thanks for sharing. You have a great layout here. Quilting is something I really enjoy doing. It passes the time and is very relaxing.
Thanks so much 🙂 Quilting is so satisfying, I agree! I love figuring out how to create effects with the fabrics I have on hand and ‘the one’ has been waiting for YEARS to be attempted. I had a very old spelling book (patterns in spelling, I believe it was called) and the picture on the front was fabulous – it has inspired me to try and recreate it as a quilt. I expect to have more pictures of my progress by next week 🙂