Thursday, August 16, 2012

How to improve a fleece :)

Spread it out on the kitchen floor, and admire all that dirt and grease while you can.

Divide into bite-size pieces!

Soak in some hot water and unicorn power scour, rinse (soak in clean water), and repeat.

Mix some dye in a pot, cook (but don't boil) the clean fleece in it, drain, rinse in some slightly soapy sink water (hot) and then some clean water, drain and squeeze in a towel.


Spread out the damp fleece to dry.

Spread the fleece out thinly and pick out the grass, beetles, felted lumps and dirty tips. Find yourself a slave to crank the carder handle 50,000,000 times.

Stop to compare

Spread the whole fleece out on the bed and take pictures :)





I dyed 11 of the 14 lots, and left 3 the natural color. My 1.4kilo fleece is now down to 982g of good stuff, and it's ready for the Mix Cycle.

Next: Mixing the reds, purple and blues with some mohair. That is, after I see a lady about a loom!




4 comments:

ruthsplace said...

Oh wow! Looks gorgeous.

kelgell said...

Splendid work, Sis. Fun quick run through. Love the slave part. Did he do his time? He he. The carded fibre looks delicious.

Alrischa said...

He helped me card 3 of the batts, I think, which are about 40g each. "Feeding it", as he called it. Jasmine had a go, too, but I had to give her the sack. She kept reassuring the wool that it wouldn't hurt Every Five Seconds! lol.

Sinéad said...

Great post! I love all the colours you dyed, like a happy woolly rainbow :)

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