I have been a busy bee with fiber lately. It all started when a local artist that sells her fiberwork at
called me to buy natural colored fiber. She wanted washed batts. I had plenty of fiber, but little of it was washed up. And what was scoured was too precious to sell (read: superfine lambs wool in gorgeous grays). Luckily, Becky had lots of fiber on hand and I was able to refer the lady to her. This artist even said, "OH, I follow Becky's blog already!" So I hope it all worked out.
This little experience prompted me to DO SOMETHING with all the raw fleece I had still sitting around. I gathered everything I had from this spring's shearing, and years past, together. I had to finish skirting four spring fleeces. Then I made the radical decision to let someone else do the scouring. After a couple phone chats with Kelly Knispel at
I confidently shipped off nine bags of wool to her expert care. Five bags will be washed. Four bags will be washed and carded. Kelly was great about processing each fleece separately so I could keep my small amounts of colors separate.
That left just a few small piles of neck and britch wool that didn't fit into my grand scheme of mill processing. But these were small enough batches for me to wash in the kitchen sink. So I got started on that project and I have been flicking and carding ever since.
Clockwise from top left:
Carmel neck wool, Charcoal neck wool (from Lana's black gully neck colors), Black britch, Moorit Iset Britch, Moorit Britch, Dark Brown neck wool.
Yesterday, a friend on Facebook asked if I had wool she could use to make Dryer Balls. I figured the britch wool would be great for that. But I had to make some Dryer Balls first so I knew how much wool it required.
So now I have a couple of kits put together for this craft project.
It feels GREAT to finally be DEALING with this wool!
4 comments:
Isn't it so great? I had 10 fleeces left from spring shearing, and decided to ship 8 to the mill last week. 1 Finn fleece just sold tonight-- so that's great. The stinky bags are outta here, right?
I've been curious about dryer balls, too-- britch wool, good idea.
Great idea!!!! Love the dryer balls project. I have been inspired and will get my hinder out in the shed to deal with my bags of fleece tomorrow morning.
Thanks for sending Jane my way Sabrina. I love connecting with other felters from around the state, we need to get organized and hold classes, etc. I love washing fleeces, so mine don't usually sit around too long unskirted and unwashed, but the washed fiber sits until I get the $ to have it processed. I hope to ship out 30+ pounds to this week (Z-wool has a pre-pay discount). But I still have 11 fall sheared fleeces waiting to be felted into faux sheepskins. There are just not enough hours in the day to do it all! Can't wait to see the wool you get back from the processor, it's like Christmas when you get it back.
I'm so glad you could help Jane, Becky.
Good luck everyone on your fall fiber projects!
Post a Comment