Diving in the Bargain Bin

There’s this guy who lives a ways north of me who shears sheep. And trains herding dogs.

And he always has a bunch of wool hanging out in the loft of his barn.

It’s a mixed bag (feed sack), of course. And none of it has been handled with great care.

But sometimes you can find some interesting things.

This time, I went in search of samples of a variety of fleece types and conditions, in preparation for a class I’m going to be doing on selecting a fleece for handspinning.

Wanted to be able to to a little show-and tell with the folks, and talk about the good, the bad and the ugly.

Here is some of what I found.

Little bit of Suffolk, Scottish Blackface, Jacob, Romney?, and miscellaneous undocumented crossbreed.

Here they area little closer for comparison of length and texture-

Then there was this veg-infested bundle-

Almost as much straw as wool,, but I needed an example of how much veg is too much veg, and actually, the wool itself is really nice and soft. So maybe I’ll end up sorting through some of it,,,

And then, just as I was thinking I’d seen enough, out pops this little number.

Pretty sure this is CVM.

In nice shape, too.

I haven’t done much with finewool breeds, and don’t know if my carders will be able to handle it,, but I’m going to give it a go. Was too pretty to pass up. ( I only took half, though)

In other news, I’ve suffered a minor setback in sweater progress.

My circular needle just gave up and popped out of it’s end thingee!

Once I get it Gorilla Glued I should be back in business.

Hang in there needle- we’re in the home stretch!