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Thursday, May 12, 2005

Wool Pig

What does it take to go from "enthusiast" to "WOOL PIG".

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Have I crossed the line?

Three days ago I was nearly out of fiber to spin and had begun staring speculatively at fluffy, long haired dogs walking by. Then in stepped a couple of enablers (I'll stop short of calling them "wool pushers"), who found it in their hearts to take pity on this new spinning addict. First Marilyn showed up with lovely, clean, ready to spin, roving....one a bag of sheep's wool and the other a bag of a wool/mohair blend. (The two dark plastic bags at the front right of the picture.) I thought FANTASTIC, no need to go "cold turkey".

I then went to Louise's for a lesson on cleaning and preparing raw fleece for spinning. We (I used the term "we" loosely as she did 99.9% of the work) sorted and washed a fleece, spun it in her extractor and then while it was air drying we drove to Sea Bird Island. What's at Sea Bird Island? Lots and lots of sheep (thousands), and the facilities for sorting, picking, and cleaning the fleece. The huge flock is all white, but the caretakers have done an exchange with another producer and now have colored fleece available as well.

I couldn't go home with just ONE color as visions of fairisle were dancing in my head. I had to get dark brown (2 pounds, 14 oz.), light grey/beige (1 pound, 3 oz.), and a creamy white (3 1/2 pounds), the 4 clear bags on the left.

As I was leaving Louise handed me a another bag of wool that just needs to be carded (the bag at the far right/back, and loaned me the carders to do it.

I think I'm all set for a while now. Must. Go. Spin.

2 comments:

Rabbitch said...

Excellent. I won't be the only one with embarrassing pictures.

You're not a junkie, you're a collector.

Anonymous said...

you would only be a wool pig if you did not spin the stuff as enthusiastically as you do. great stash enhancement!