Fleece, Feeders and Feathered Friends

So, first off- the fleece!

Finally was able to clip a couple little samples of fleece from my woolly friends (a little treat to distract them helps a lot!)

You can’t really make out the markings on the ruler (at left), but it’s total length is 5 inches.

At this point, Franklin and Felix are just under 5 months old, and Chone, Edgar and Griff are about a month behind them.

Took these photos while I was out hanging with the boys today.

Edgar

Chone

Franklin

I have to say, it is about the coolest thing in the world to have these woolly buggers out in the pasture. Just love the guys.

On the de-stashing front , I finished up spinning Huey this week! Here are my results (minus a skein and and FO that have already found other homes)

Hat and cowl

Four more chunky-weight skeins to play with!

Huey was a fun spin-
Next on the de-stash agenda is white Romney.
This is the same bargain Romney that I experimented on last summer with the cold water wash.
After the first bath, it sat in a bin for a good long time. Wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it.
While is was quite clean, it still had a lot of lanolin in it, and after a time, it got really waxy feeling.
So, I had to give it another bath- this time in nice hot water.

But look at this washwater! It is just milky white. Not a trace of crud anywhere.

Amazing.
So, I have to say, the cold water soak really does get the dirt and crud out. Just not the lanolin.

Here it is all re-washed and sorted

I may just flick card as I go, or I may get out the combs at some point and really hit it hard.
We’ll see how it goes-

In other news, this weekend the boys got fancy, short-sheep-sized feeder (because they went on sale at our local farm store)- here they are trying it out:

It’s a major up grade from the piece of fencing stapled to the wall of their shed that had been holding their hay!

And here are the feathered friends:

Silly chickens sit right by the front door and squawk at me for collecting their eggs.

Poor Rosie. She does look distraught.