Still Distracted by New Fleeces

I am still making progress on the Urban Aran. Really.

Slow but steady progress.

I am only about and inch or so from joining the sleeves and working the saddle shoulders- the part I’ve been so looking forward to! But I haven’t been getting that much knitting time in, and I think I’ve going to have to spin up another three or so skeins to finish this baby off- so it’s back to the beginning with another batch of white Romney.

And then there are the new fleeces that are just begging to be spun.

So, I’ve been a bit distracted.

Mariah, Ulla and Gigi are all fabulous- and in different ways. The variety of color and texture in wool never ceases to amaze me. Especially in Shetlands. I think that is what I’ve going to look for in a spinning flock – variety in fleece characteristics.

I was working with Ulla this week. She’s actually the first one I picked out while I was there. There’s only so much you can tell about a fleece when you’re poking around at it in a plastic bag- but I knew right off that I wanted this girl. Her fleece is a really interesting range of colors- cinnamon to light brown sugar to taupe. I haven’t seen much of that around here. I would have taken it on color alone- but it also seemed to be nice and dense, with a pretty good staple length (comb-able, yea!) and a nice crimp. Would make a yarn with good body and bounce.

Turns out it’s super easy to process, too. Combs up so nice.

So here is the sample skein of Ulla:

65 yds of chain plied cinnamon-sugary goodness.

Yum.

And here is a little teaser of what is yet to come-

Gigi!