Take A Sheep To Lunch

I was over at a friend's the other day and she asked if I'd help her go through her wool stash. She'd only had 4 or 5 sheep so I assumed she maybe had 10 or so bags of wool up in her loft. I think she tossed down 25 bags. No one is immune :-).

Most of the fleeces had sat for a long time. Many had turned a dark yellow that I wasn't sure would wash out. I haven't had much experience with yolk or canary stains - just know that sometimes that's a real problem. Regardless, these were all sheep I knew and just as with my questionable fleeces, I sure didn't want to just throw them out.

I took one I especially liked just to see how it would react. I should have taken a before picture, but just trust me when I say it was bright golden, bordering on orange in spots. Maybe just from sitting? Jump in if you have any thoughts.

It washed out really nice (even if I did forget I had my camera's white balance set to "cloudy" which gave these first two shots their own golden coloration - great for sunsets, not so much for white wool). I did bump the water temp to 140 and gave it three washes and three rinses.

It felt a little dry so I added some Fibre Rinse to the last rinse and I think I've finally found that product's best use (at least for me). I haven't been happy with the results on other fleeces, but for this particular fleece, it worked perfectly. Did just what I'd hoped it would do.



So, here we have another fleece with some (not Buddy style ;-) VM. I fluffed the locks up and some fell out, ran it through the drum carder a couple times and some more fell out.



This is Baby Lamb, a Romney/Corriedale cross, often referred to as "The Gerber Baby" of sheep...long before Keebler hit the ground ;-). Julie's going to try to find a Baby Lamb picture and I'll post it later.



Some more fell out on my lap as I spun ('cause I was taking Baby Lamb to lunch ;-), but there are still some specs in the yarn. This is my favorite type of wool to spin, by the way. I know most folks love that super soft merino type, but I like the coarser, open, fuzzy fibers. Probably says something about me or my personality.



Heavy worsted/lighty bulky. Sadly, probably best describes my body shape :-o.



It was too windy to do much outside, so I pulled out one of my Stitchionary books and picked a pattern that I liked, thought would work well with this yarn, had a yarn over to a purl stitch that I'd never done before. Looked that one up (always try to learn something new), thought I had it figured out...



D'oh!

I don't believe any amount of blocking is going to help that.



Yep, a serious yarn over snafu. The small holes on the left are correct. That big loopy hole on the right? Looks like I need to start making a better effort to get to Knit Night. Glad that was just a sample and not a whole sweater. This yarn would make a lovely sweater, Julie.



I love to block knitting. Finally something on this farm that does what I tell it to. I think that sits right up there with mowing grass. Progress you can see. Instantly.

So, I learned something about old wool and washing a Romney type fleece. I obviously didn't learn anything about yarn overs, but I had a lot of fun trying. And the best news - those old fleeces are salvageable...with a little extra work. Wool with a little VM is salvageable...with a little extra work. You could probably say farming, shepherding, life in general is salvageable...with a little extra work.

This Saturday, April 16th, is Saint Drogo's Day. According to my Spin Off calendar, St. Drogo is the patron saint of shepherds. According to Google, also baristas, orphans, the mentally ill and horribly ugly people. We'll stick to shepherds. And coffee.

I have a few fleeces I really don't want to take to the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival in May. They aren't horrible, but I'd rather anyone interested in buying them could get their hands in them and see exactly what they are getting rather than get home and be disappointed.

I know it's short notice, but would anyone be interested in coming out to the farm this Saturday and eating lunch with some of our favorite sheep? You'd probably better bring your own lunch unless you are fond of PB&J or blue box mac and cheese. Or, better yet, bring a potluck dish to share.

We can pick through bags of washed wool and you can test how anything processes on our carders or combs. I'd be happy to demonstrate how to skirt a raw fleece for processing or show and how I wash wool. Since it's shepherd's day, we can go over some basic skills like trimming feet, deworming, giving shots, the right way to feed hay or just hug some sheep.

And maybe someone could show me how to do a yarn over to a purl stitch :-).