My First Fleece

Last month I went to Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. It was hot, humid, crowded and fun. I met up with some friends from my knitting group and met some new people. I got to listen to Maggie Casey talk about spinning with a spindle. Very interesting, by the way.


I did a wee bit of shopping


Not included in the photo are the rovings that I purchased.

I loved all the fleece for sale and wandered through the fleece section.



The woman in the front left, her name is Rose. She was one of the wonderful volunteers. She helped me purchase my very first fleece. A nice corriedale.



I washed the fleece. (Ok, most of it. There's still one more batch to go) I did it is small batches. I used a small plastic basket and a large plastic tote. After discarding the debris and any dung tags, I soaked it in cold water for a day or two. Then I scoured using two washes with Power Scour and two rinses.





What a difference.

I decided to try dyeing some of it before carding. This is my first attempt at dyeing.




I can't wait until it's dry and I can card and spin it.