Fleece Salvage

Shelby, the resident fleece inspector, checks for spots that need more washing. Her report? Loads of VM still present but most of the dirt and all of the yolk and poop are gone. *sigh* (The aromatic poop is her favorite part.)



The comb loaded up with the VM filled wool.



3 to 4 complete passes through the combs and it is looking fairly VM-less.



Dizzing off a roving and picking out any noil that shows up.



The long strip of roving rolled into a nest for later spinning.



It takes me about an hour to do six small nests. Pretty labour intensive, but it saves a fleece that otherwise would have been thrown in the garbage. The resulting roving is soft and springy and should make for nice spinning.



Too bad it takes most of the summer to comb up one fleece! I can only stick with wool combing for about an hour at a time. Even if I somehow found the time to do it twice a day, that's a LOT of wool to get through.