Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Meet Maggie

When I moved recently, I realised just how much yarn and fibre I had amassed and put myself on a very strict yarn and fibre diet until at least the new year.  There were three exceptions - my two fibre clubs which I adore, and should the possibility arise, some coloured ryeland fleece.  One of my clubs and very fave group over on Ravelry is that of Wildcraft.  Karen is the person behind this, and not only does she make the most gorgeous spindles and have a fantastic eye for dying, she also has a small herd of sheep, a mix of coloured Ryeland and some Shetland.  These sheep are the source for endless conversations on Ravelry, especially around lambing season.  And I've become a little attached to them, and always wanted to get some of their fleece to be my first every sheep's wool fibre prep experience.  Hence, the exception to the diet.

I posted recently about starting this process, and tonight, I finally finished hand-carding it.  It's taken a few weeks, but so totally worth it.  I'm so in love with this fleece.  It's from a shearling ewe called Maggie, and Karen had mentioned that she thought Maggie's was the best fleece she had from this year, so I count myself very lucky to have secured this half fleece.  I'm totally in love with it, the crazy sheepy smell in my flat when I've been working on it.  And most of all, I love going through the whole process of raw fleece to yarn to knitted garment.  I'm already envisioning a huge cosy and somewhat rustic shawl to snuggle under over the colder months ahead. 

I know that some of these photos are repeated, but I'm going to link this on Spinspiration, so they're here to document all the stages so far.
 *The* package - 1.1kg of delightful unknown
 Laying it out for that first feel and to do a bit of sorting - got rid of a lot of VM and second cuts, why bother washing things you're just gonna chuck later
 Washing
 Dry and ready for the next step
 The lock definition wasn't great by the end of washing, but this was one of the better little locks.
 The carding starts...
... And grows...
 ...and grows...
...and is now all done, ready to be spun, which will no doubt take several more weeks, but who cares when you're having this much fun!
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5 comments:

  1. Claire3 November 2011 at 00:11

    Wow, that's alot of carding. I never have the patience to do it all in one go, or even better get the children to do it whilst I get on with spinning!!

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  2. Kelly3 November 2011 at 06:18

    How I love this post of yours! From acquiring the special fleece and the processing. I like the colour of the Ryeland. And all those batts all prepared and ready to spin. I really look forward to seeing the spinning stage and how you find spinning Ryeland. I have some Ryeland that I haven't tried spinning yet. Thank you very much for linking up on Spinspiration and sharing Maggie's fleece story.
    Best wishes
    Kelly (Spinspiration)

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  3. Dawn3 November 2011 at 11:30

    Delighful, nice rolags!

    I'm sure you'll have fun spinning that lot up. Look forward to seeing the yarn.

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  4. Ashleigh3 November 2011 at 18:56

    Thanks for all your lovely comments.

    Claire - it became a game. When I first started carding it, I *had* to give it a go. But after that, I got curious to see how big the pile would get. And alas, I am a spinster in all definitions of the word, so no one to rope in for manual labour!

    Kelly - I have to admit, not a great woollen spinner, I'm very much worsted by default, but I'm sure my spinning will improve significantly over the course of spinning all this fleece. I think I've settled on doing thinner than fingering weight but thicker than lace singles and 3plying. I've been told that it fluffs up like crazy when washing, and I want around an aran weight yarn.

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  5. Sarah7 November 2011 at 20:50

    An impressive task! Good luck on your sheepy mission.

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