WOW That's Big!
Monday was my day for receiving goodies. I came home to 2 boxes in the mail. Oh cool! I can start playing around with the hand carders, and my Cormo fleece arrived, too. I took the boxes outside because it was way to pretty not enjoy the outside. I spread out the fleece on a queen size sheet. Wow that's a big fleece, and is it soft and pretty.
If any of you remember last year I tried this with another fleece that ended in the garbage can. I just couldn't get all the --it out. Literally! Any hoo, I really want to be able to buy a fleece and process it myself. So, this time around I did my homework. Jasmane, here, is a Cormo fleece in the ballpark of softness like Merino. The sheep was covered, another words, it wore a jacket. This is way better because it keeps the vegetable matter and poop out of most of the fleece. Now it is greasy, but not nearly as bad as I expected, and the perk is it doesn't smell sheepy.
The second box held my new hand carders. By the way did I say I did my homework? I really want a drum carder, but at this point every time I nearly have the money my car goes back in the shop, ugh!! I assembled the carders and pulled out a hunk of Jasmane, and did a little carding. Now, Jasmane needs a bath to remove the lanolin, but the teeth on the cards need to be primed with lanolin, therefore carding dirty fleece. The locks are so pretty and crimpy. I have 4 pounds, so plenty of projects can come out of there. The first rollags are okay. I learned how to use carders during my spinning class, but it will take time to learn to use them proficiently.
These other rollags are made from a Shetland fleece that I bought last month. Much better with a clean fleece!
If any of you remember last year I tried this with another fleece that ended in the garbage can. I just couldn't get all the --it out. Literally! Any hoo, I really want to be able to buy a fleece and process it myself. So, this time around I did my homework. Jasmane, here, is a Cormo fleece in the ballpark of softness like Merino. The sheep was covered, another words, it wore a jacket. This is way better because it keeps the vegetable matter and poop out of most of the fleece. Now it is greasy, but not nearly as bad as I expected, and the perk is it doesn't smell sheepy.
The second box held my new hand carders. By the way did I say I did my homework? I really want a drum carder, but at this point every time I nearly have the money my car goes back in the shop, ugh!! I assembled the carders and pulled out a hunk of Jasmane, and did a little carding. Now, Jasmane needs a bath to remove the lanolin, but the teeth on the cards need to be primed with lanolin, therefore carding dirty fleece. The locks are so pretty and crimpy. I have 4 pounds, so plenty of projects can come out of there. The first rollags are okay. I learned how to use carders during my spinning class, but it will take time to learn to use them proficiently.
These other rollags are made from a Shetland fleece that I bought last month. Much better with a clean fleece!
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