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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Blood, Sweat And Tears

Mostly sweat. A lot of sweat. And I might have cried a little...because of all the sweating. I'd set this job aside, waiting for the heat to break and finally had to accept that hell was never going to freeze over and I might as well put on my big girl pants and get to work.



I decided to send some wool off to be mill spun this year. Fleury Sheep and Wool will accept small amounts and were so nice to talk with as they answered all my questions (along with getting a good recommendation from Patchwork Fibers) that I shipped about 12 pounds off to Georgia this morning.

I love the colors of my Jester sweater (1 1/2 sleeves knit up so far!) so decided to separate out the same blends for this project. And since I personally like to know which sheep I'm spinning, knitting or weaving and you can't really do that with commercially spun yarn, I set aside all (well, almost all) the Belly's wool for this project. It's not perfect, but a bit better than "just some random Jacob wool".



The dark gray is going to have a lot of Clover Belly and Baby Belly in it.



Momma (and Grandma) Emily and Anna (Big) Belly make a nice medium gray mix.



This white with just a tiny hint of silver is mostly Caspar Belly.

If I like how everything turns out, I'll add Billy Belly to the mix next year. I'd already had his pretty fleece processed this year before "the plan" all came together.



Gotta love those vacuum pack bags. Yes, that's the same four big bags, compressed. I wish I'd taken the exact same view as the first shot. It's just amazing!



It took me most of the day to get everything just the way I wanted. Even with the ceiling fans running and the wool house porch in the "shade" it was mostly miserable. I did enjoy watching the hummingbirds buzz in and out, fighting amongst themselves. I had a baby cricket serenade me for awhile and loyal Iris never left my side.



Even Weaslie managed to stay out of trouble most of the day. I never saw a single "barn" cat. I guess I know who my real friends are ;-).

6 comments:

Alice said...

You've given a new meaning to sweater storage bags...unfinished ones, that is! Can't wait to see what it looks like when it is spun. How do they know how thick you want it? Are all going to be spun the same way? Your projects will certainly have a personal touch no matter who spun the fleece into yarn :-)

Jennie C said...

Oh WOW...that is so cool...will love seeing what the yarn looks like all spun up. :)

Shannon said...

You scared me with the blood part! Sorry to hear about all of the sweat, but was happy to read that no actual blood shed happened. I can't wait to see the yarn you receive back!

Jennifer said...

It looks like an absolute DREAM to process, I can't wait to get my hands in it!

DayPhoto said...

I, also, am very interested to see how it all turns out. Just coming here and watching the process is ever so much fun for me.

Thanks.

I also whish I could send you some rain. It's rained so much here that our roof has sprung a leak. Not a little leak and HUGE leak. We are in the process of ordering a new roof.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/

Christine said...

Did you get your yarn back from Georgia and were you happy with it? I'm wanting to send a small batch off to somewhere.