Tag Archives: fleece

Washing Poopy Floof

Posted on by
1

Awhile back my winery friend gave me a shorn fleece. It’s not professionally done and pretty much all short cuts. But I thought it was perfect for practicing washing and other bits.

I canned some apple jelly earlier this week and had a ton of hot water that I would normally just dump. I had a flash of genius to use this excess water to wash a sample of this fleece!

I grabbed a few ounces and put in some laundry bags and into a water safe tub. I added the hot water with pour scour wool wash in batches to get all the poop and dirt washed off. It was HOT but cool to see the lanolin release.

I got a ton of dirt to release and I have fleece left with a TON of veg matter. Was pretty cool to see the change. And I’m not 1,000% sure I did any of these steps correctly.

I may have felted some parts slightly in this process with too hot of water and a little too much agitation from little miss PB. But I am going to comb a few bits to see if the veg matter comes loose or not. This is all pure experiment with no end goal in mind. Score one for scientific curiousity!

Happy Spinning!!

A Bag Of Dirty Floof

Posted on by
4

A friend of mine runs a local winery where they use sheep for natural grass control and fertilizer. They normally only get hair sheep but a wool sheep snuck in as part of a hair sheep lot. They shore the sweet momma before she lambed and gave me the fleece!

My friend has ZERO clue how to sheer and this bag may all be short cuts and non-spinable fiber. But I think it makes the perfect way to practice fleece washing! I just need a weekend where we aren’t scheduled to hilt!

Happy Fiber!!

Expanding My Library

Posted on by
2

I’ve thus far been able to play with my wheel long enough to find out that I needed to re-do the break band and oil the treadle connections. And as of last weekend I have accomplished both of those things I am also getting better at consistently treadling in the same direction when I treadle on an empty wheel. (Note: I was gifted a Hitchhiker Wheel by Merlin Tree in case anyone was interested.)

Next up, is actually trying to make some yarn. My day job has been CRAZY stressful lately as I just became a supervisor in January and one of the longest track employees in my department gave her 30 day retirement notice. So I haven’t been making much progress on finding the time to YouTube learning to spin.

My next thought was to go analog and get some books. Thank you used book exchange! I got two used spinning books. The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook is one I have seen on many of a spinning podcast so I know it’s good but maybe past my skill level at this point. But the “How To Spin” was an amazon suggestion I took a risk on. I am trying to reserve my judgement until I start reading.

Happy (Almost) Spinning!!

Dusting Off The Sewing Machine

Posted on by
6

After Jellybean received his big boy he also requested * “soft fings” to snuggle with. I dug around in extremely dusty fabric stash boxes and came up with some fleece remnants and end of bolt pieces.


I let him pick a couple fabrics and let him be part of the sewing process. (Aka watch the machine and hand me stuff). In the end we had two pillow cases and two snuggle blankets. They are FAR from perfect or even but they are soft and made my child happy.


I really haven’t had the urge to sew at all since Jellybean was born. Like at all. It was nice to flex some different crafty muscles!

*Note: the presence of softies did not improve the duration or quality of said child’s sleep….this momma is still very tired…..