Tuesday, June 22, 2010

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.
Maryland Sheep & Wool 2010 1

I did a wee bit of shopping
Yarn Haul - Maryland Sheep & Wool 2010

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

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

Maryland Sheep & Wool 2010  fleece sale

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.

Dirty fleece

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.

fleece first soak

washed fleece

What a difference.

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

My first dyeing attempt


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