fluff
G'day all!
On Saturday, I bought some fluff. It doesn't look very fluffy in this picture though:
Here's a lock of it:
It's from a yearling 3/4 Australian Finnsheep (if that makes sense) 1/4 merino cross-bred ewe. I bought it cos it felt nice. Greasy but nice. Soft. $20 for 1.8 kilos of fleece (in the grease).
I've never played with a whole sheep fleece before. So I read up a bit on the net and got me buckets of the hottest water I could get out of the heater, put woolwash into one and soaked a few little bits. It came out white! Not apricot or grey but white! Pure white!
So on Sunday I got serious and did a whole bunch o fleece. It only took about an hour to carefully wash the tips of say 400g. Here's a little of the fluff washed and dried:
You can't see the lock structure but it is there.
And then combed up:
And that one snail of combed tops became this little skein of yarn, somewhere between fingering and 5 ply/sport weightish:
It wants to spin fine. The good bits of the fleece wash up to be about 15cm (6") long! This may be the fleece that I try learning long draw on - it has a bit of crimp and it is nice and long and not terribly fine.
Tonight I tried flicking of some locks but that didn't get rid of the bits of second cuts that I missed whilst sorting through the fleece before washing, and the yarn was not nice - it had lumpy fluffy bits.
I have to say that the shepherd gives you pretty much all of the fleece. They skirted the really nasty daggy bits but there are some bits that go into the armpit and groin areas - different texture, smeared lanolin through it, shorter, little crimp. I'm keeping these skirtings aside - they will probably be really good for felting. Some are already on the way to being felted.
I got a moorit fleece but it is much smaller. It will be fun to play with too :-)
House stuff? Well I sent off our notice of intent to vacate in writing and paid our LAST LOT OF RENT hopefully EVER! Yay! (Combine snoopy dance with kermit waving) But apart from that, not much. Haven't done more packing or sorting or anything for days. I must make a list so that I can start checking things off as I do them. What, Nathan do something like packing? Excuse me?
anon!
On Saturday, I bought some fluff. It doesn't look very fluffy in this picture though:
Here's a lock of it:
It's from a yearling 3/4 Australian Finnsheep (if that makes sense) 1/4 merino cross-bred ewe. I bought it cos it felt nice. Greasy but nice. Soft. $20 for 1.8 kilos of fleece (in the grease).
I've never played with a whole sheep fleece before. So I read up a bit on the net and got me buckets of the hottest water I could get out of the heater, put woolwash into one and soaked a few little bits. It came out white! Not apricot or grey but white! Pure white!
So on Sunday I got serious and did a whole bunch o fleece. It only took about an hour to carefully wash the tips of say 400g. Here's a little of the fluff washed and dried:
You can't see the lock structure but it is there.
And then combed up:
And that one snail of combed tops became this little skein of yarn, somewhere between fingering and 5 ply/sport weightish:
It wants to spin fine. The good bits of the fleece wash up to be about 15cm (6") long! This may be the fleece that I try learning long draw on - it has a bit of crimp and it is nice and long and not terribly fine.
Tonight I tried flicking of some locks but that didn't get rid of the bits of second cuts that I missed whilst sorting through the fleece before washing, and the yarn was not nice - it had lumpy fluffy bits.
I have to say that the shepherd gives you pretty much all of the fleece. They skirted the really nasty daggy bits but there are some bits that go into the armpit and groin areas - different texture, smeared lanolin through it, shorter, little crimp. I'm keeping these skirtings aside - they will probably be really good for felting. Some are already on the way to being felted.
I got a moorit fleece but it is much smaller. It will be fun to play with too :-)
House stuff? Well I sent off our notice of intent to vacate in writing and paid our LAST LOT OF RENT hopefully EVER! Yay! (Combine snoopy dance with kermit waving) But apart from that, not much. Haven't done more packing or sorting or anything for days. I must make a list so that I can start checking things off as I do them. What, Nathan do something like packing? Excuse me?
anon!
Wow, last rent payment, that is so exciting!
ReplyDeleteGotta love the fluff too! So much fun!
I am so excited for you! LAST rent - yippeeeee :) So are getting wicked with the fleece handling - it's all beautiful!
ReplyDeleteYou know, your description of this fleece is so full of pure enjoyment that I'm almost attempted to try out spinning again.
ReplyDeleteNah - I've got too much knitting to do first!