It's not Monday, but I'm going to talk about fiber anyway

Specifically, I'm going to moan about about fleece problems. As you know I finished dyeing the ~2- 1/2 pounds of CVM fleece that I had washed, using it as a way to see how each of my dye colors works alone. So far, so good. I really was hoping to get nearly four ounces of fingering weight yarn out of each of the colors, but I hadn't really decided how I was going to process it all to get it ready to spin. 

Last Thursday, I lugged my heavy drum carder to our co-op so that my students could see one in action, would be able to make a batt, and then get to spin from a batt. They loved it. As we were doing that, it occurred to me... what if I just ran all that wool through the drum carder? It seemed like a great idea. It would be fast and I knew some children who would be interested in helping. So on Halloween, because we had taken the day off, I dragged everything down to the dining room to do just that. 

This is what the wool looked liked before any preparation.

Now, my best decision in all of this was to start with the color I liked the least. I had a feeling there would be a bit of trial and error, so I wouldn't be disappointed that I wouldn't be getting the full amount of that color. 

As you can see above, things started out okay, but I learned an important lesson. If there is the least bit of lanolin left on the wool, the drum carder will not work well. Things just got very sticky which meant the wool didn't want to separate out and be drawn onto the carder, which was kind of the point. We persevered, and eventually I was able to try to take off some of the "carded" wool. This was the result.

It's probably difficult to tell from the picture, but this is not great. It is lumpy and doesn't look as though it would be enjoyable to spin. Realizing that the drum carder wasn't going to work, I brought down my wool combs to try those. These worked splendidly. I really love combed wool. See?

Everything is totally smooth and aligned without any lumps. The trouble with combing, though, is that combs leave only the long fibers (which is why the result is so great to spin), but leaves behind any shorter fibers. In the case of this fleece, it was about half usable fiber and half waste. If I were to comb it all, instead of having nearly four ounce of fiber in each color, I would have less than two. 

I did try using hand cards as well. They definitely worked better than the drum carder and have virtually no waste, but the resulting wool is still a little clumpy because the short bits are not taken out. After I had each type of preparation, I went upstairs and tried spinning each... the fiber off the drum carder, the fiber from the hand cards, and the fiber from the combs. I could spin it all, though the fiber from the drum carder was the least pleasant to spin with the least consistent spin. Because of how the fiber was prepared, it was very difficult to keep it all the same size. The fiber from the hand cards was better and it was able to control diameter much better, but because of those short bits, the resulting yarn does have some little bumps in it. I would call it 'rustic'. Finally I spun the combed wool. It was a dream to spin. It was very easy and very consistent. I definitely enjoyed spinning it the most and liked the final product. 

But I am still undecided. Do I go for a little rustic and have the full amount of fiber to spin? Or do I comb it all, have a very consistent yarn, but resign myself to only ending up with half the amount? It's hardly a matter of life or death, but I am dithering about deciding. I mean, it is only wool, the ultimate renewable resource, but it is also already washed and dyed and it seems like a good idea to make use of that. I can't decide! Opinions?

And it is a renewable resource and there are always raw fleeces for sale. I've been doing a pretty good job of scrolling past them, until a couple of weeks ago, I saw one I couldn't pass up. (Because my other fleece problem seems to be that I am a fleece hoarder.) It is four pounds of beautiful merino that was a pretty amazing price. Plus, the shepherd was less than an hour away, so I didn't have to pay shipping, we just bet halfway. But even better is that she loves to talk about sheep and would be happy for me to come out and visit and ask all my sheepy questions. And if I go in April I can see... lambs! Pretty cool, huh? 

So here's the fleece.

It's a pretty large bag.

Can you see the long, crimpy locks?

Here is one out of the bag. Trust me, it's beautiful. I'm going to have to get a tub and store it until next spring because I am not up to washing four pounds of fleece right now and in order to keep this as nice as possible, it is going to take some care. That takes a bit more time than just dumping the whole thing in at once.