It's time for the Tour de Fleece! 20 is still assembling my complete line up for this year's Tour (fingers crossed he goes easy on me ;-), but I wanted to share a sneak peek at my special "big" project.
Last year, when I was organizing the wool storage/skirting area, I found an old fleece of Elizabeth's. It was from 2013...hence the wool storage area needing to be organized :-o. Since I already have a completed Elizabeth project, I felt like this gave me a free pass to try something "dangerous".
Several months ago, Miss B and I separated out some dark, some light and some mix of the two and then dyed it various shades of blue in hopes of ending up with a "denim" color. We then ran it through the picker to start blending it and I planned on carding it all.
I have no idea what made me try combing it the other day, but I'm so glad I did. I hadn't been jazzed about the carded samples. I loved it combed. My only issue then was the amount. How much would I have to comb to get enough to make a shawl (my planned project).
Turns out you can comb an entire fleece if you just stop whining about it and do it! Who knew... ;-)
You can click the "combing wool" label at the bottom of this post or on the right side bar for more detailed information about "combing wool". I'm just going to share some quick pics for curiosity and posterity.
Messy to "faded denim". I love this color...and I think we nailed it :-D.
I still have no idea how this works, but it does. You start pulling the fiber through a diz (yes, this one is straight from my recycling bin ;-)...
...and keep pulling and it all comes out in one long, ready to spin, wool [thingy]. What would be a descriptive word I'm looking for here besides "top"? I then wound/rolled each [thingy] into a "bird nest" (man, this post gets more confusing for non-spinners all the time :-o) and tucked it into a basket.
Natural gray/brown, white, medium blues, dark blues...
...and a couple brighter blues...that I may try to tone down a bit so they are a little less "dangerous" ;-).
That's a big basket of wool! 17.2 ounces total. I had more waste than I should have, but I learned a whole lot for next time. The trick now is actually making myself spin it. I'm so enamored with the basket of un-spun fiber that I'm worried I'll just keep petting it and never move on.
Another similar shot, but with Tilly helping pose for scale again ;-).
The colors are more accurate in the previous picture, but I like the light on the flowers and our old truck in this one.
I finally finished this year's Ravatar/cartoon this afternoon. Anyone already in the Ravelry group can get a sneak peek. I'll post it here tomorrow...which most likely means Saturday morning the way things go ;-). It's pretty cute!
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