Jun 28, 2021
How to select a wool fleece and where to purchase a wool fleece are today's topics. This might cause money to fly out of your wallet so beware! Also, some interesting pooling shows up in an FO.
Show notes with photos and links, as well as a full transcript can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.
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Marsha’s Projects
I have a finished project! I finished my Walk Along Tee by Ankestrick. I love it and it fits so well. I highly recommend this pattern.
I had knitted halfway down the foot of my second Drops Fabel socks when I realized I had not turned the heel. So now I need to frog to the heel flap. Not happy with myself.
Picked up a long dormant shawl called Simple Shawl by Jane Hunter that I started in March 2018. Using Michael CWD in the colorway San Francisco Fog.
Started swatching for the pullover Atlas by Jared Flood for my brother. The yarn I’m using is Navia Tradition. It is a very wooly wool. Mark likes his sweaters to be slim fitting but I think this sweater should have some ease. Also, I’m not great at colorwork so this sweater is going to be a challenge.
I’m still spinning on my green/brown merino.
Kelly’s Projects
I finished a Perendale braid from Sheep Spot. I spun 3-ply and used a fractal technique. I split the fiber into 3 pieces lengthwise. Spun the first one, split the second one into two and split the third one into three.
Found two more bobbins with Santa Cruz Island singles. I have some carded fiber left so I guess I should spin the rest of it onto a third bobbin and ply it off.
No knitting or crochet this week, but lots of dog training! Beary is doing great, his thyroid is stable and he’s lost twenty pounds in the 8 weeks that we’ve had him.
Summer Spin In Topics
Don’t forget your tetanus shot!
Selecting a fleece
what to look for
http://livestockconservancy.blogspot.com/2019/07/selecting-raw-fleece.html
Spinner’s Book of Fleece, Beth Smith
The Great Fleece Makeover, Emonieiesha Hopkins, SpinOff Magazine
A great article on how a fleece that is not a coated, prize-winning, spinner’s fleece can still be a good experience and make good yarn.
Where to buy a raw fleece
Wool/Sheep Festivals:
Black Sheep Gathering: Show cancelled for 2021 but there is a list of producers selling their fleeces.
Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival: Festival also cancelled this year and there is also a list of vendors selling raw fleeces
Oregon Flock and Fiber 2021 in Albany, Oregon, October 23-24
Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival 2021, October 2-3
Natural Fiber Extravaganza, July 9-11, Lebanon, Tennessee
Knitters Review Fiber Festival directory
Check out your county fair website
Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em directory
Direct from farms: I did a quick internet search and found these
Nistock Farms: Still have 2021 fleeces available. Informative website. Located in the Finger Lakes region of western New York state.
Sanctuary Wool/Homestead Wool: Located in Wisconsin. Their fleeces are from rescued sheep.
Also, Fibershed Directory for California
For example, Red Creek Farm, Peggy Agnew emailed her for information about purchasing.
On Etsy: Lots for sale by the pound or the entire fleece
Check out your local spinning guild!
Sources for braids and roving--including my most recent purchases:
Sheepspot has dyed fiber braids using less common sheep breeds.
Sincere Sheep Fiber is locally sourced (California)
Valley Oak Wool Mill has roving.
Show Transcript
Marsha 0:03
Hi, this is Marsha and this is Kelly. We are the Two Ewes of Two
Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.
Kelly 0:10
You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just
about anything else we can think of as a way to play with
string.
Marsha 0:17
We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot
com
Kelly 0:22
and we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on
Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects
Marsha 0:29
and I am betterinmotion.
Kelly 0:31
We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to
meeting you there.
Both 0:36
Enjoy the episode.
Marsha 0:42
Good morning, Kelly.
Kelly 0:43
Good morning, Marsha.
Marsha 0:45
Well, how are you today?
Kelly 0:46
I'm doing fine. As we were talking about earlier before we started
the podcast. I thought I'd have a nice quiet morning to record and
apparently the city has to come inspect our roof work that we had
several weeks ago now, maybe months ago. Anyway, so there may be
someone on the roof outside my window looking in as we're
recording.
Marsha 1:10
Okay.
Kelly 1:11
If I suddenly scream in surprise, that's what happened.
Marsha 1:17
Well, I have lots going on too. We were a little late recording
because I was on the phone with the plumbers. I'm having the
plumbing redone in the basement. Well not completely redone but I
had a leaky waste pipe. So I have that replaced and I'm having a
new washer dryer delivered in July. And so they had to redo the
plumbing for that. I'm relocating them and that's been quite an
endeavor. But the big waste pipe was leaking. So I was all excited
to go down there the first they came. They were here two days. And
the next morning I go down there look at the floor to see, Oh, it's
gonna be all nice and dry and everything. I won't have to have my
five gallon bucket there anymore. And there's a cascade of water
down the
Kelly 2:03
No!
Marsha 2:04
So I called. I thought well maybe just one of their seals didn't
seal or something. Come to find out that it's actually the the four
inch waste pipe that goes up. The vertical one that goes up between
the two bathrooms. So I now have a hole in the wall in the main
floor bathroom, and I cannot use the second floor bathroom. Which
is the one I use. So they're coming Friday. This is what?
Wednesday? They're coming Friday to fix the pipe in... the big four
inch pipe in the bathroom wall on the main floor.
Kelly 2:42
That's not too long.
Marsha 2:44
No it's not too long but it is a challenge living with it. I didn't
realize... okay this is gonna... This is gonna make me sound very
elitist when I say this and very privileged what I'm going to say.
I haven't lived in a house with one bathroom and multiple people
for a long time. And so you know I I'm living with Ben. He's living
with me right now. And so I have to run down in the morning. You
know, I have to run down to the bathroom, but he's in there. And so
what do you do? Well,
Kelly 3:17
coffee can in the basement!
Marsha 3:20
Worse than that!
Kelly 3:22
Backyard!
Marsha 3:23
Backyard! I went out in the bushes in the backyard and tried to
find a place where the neighbors wouldn't see me but I thought
afterwards maybe I should not have worn my bright red bathrobe!
Kelly 3:35
Right exactly. Like when we used to go to hunt tests. I learned
when we used to go to hunt tests that that was when I did not wear
my white underwear. That's when you have your darker colored
underwear so that you're not flashing white in the bushes!
[laughing]
Marsha 3:51
Do you remember your Civil War socks for Robert?
Kelly 3:54
Yes.
Marsha 3:55
Wasn't that part of the things-- they had to be a dark
Kelly 3:57
yes
Marsha 3:57
you didn't want to take your boots off and then be seen and shot...
so anyway...
Kelly 4:03
You need a camo bathrobe. [laughing]
Marsha 4:05
That's probably way too much information. But anyway, I was delayed
because I my point of bringing all this up as I was delayed this
morning because I was on the phone with the plumber. So yeah.
Anyway,
Kelly 4:15
well, yes. This is the old house version of the Two Ewes Fiber
Adventures.
Marsha 4:21
Yes, I know. Anyway... Well, that probably was probably the whole
world did not need to know that but desperate times call for
desperate measures. [laughing]
Kelly 4:36
Exactly.
Marsha 4:37
Well, after all of that, let's get to the projects, shall we?
Kelly 4:42
Yes. And you have some big news, huh?
Marsha 4:45
Yes, I have big news. I finally finished the Walk Along tee!
Kelly 4:48
Yay.
Marsha 4:50
Yay, very excited. It fits great. And I really recommend the
pattern. Now. It's true. I didn't do it exactly. Actually, I really
didn't modify it that much. I just really what I did is I made the
sleeves a little bit longer, not the, because the pattern is either
like cap sleeves or full length sleeves. I just made the sleeves a
little bit longer, but not full length. And then I just didn't add
the sort of the look of having the sweater under a sweater.
Marsha 5:19
Oh, yeah,
Marsha 5:19
I didn't do that. But it's very nice. And I I really like it.
Marsha 5:24
All right, I saw the pictures. It looks really nice, I think. Yeah,
I love the color. You have to wear it. You have to now wear it to
Seabrook.
Marsha 5:34
Yes, I will. I'll wear it
Kelly 5:35
Down to Mocrocs. Is that the the name of the town or the beach?
Marsha 5:41
Well, the official town, I think Seabrook is actually in Pacific
Beach is the name of the town, but the actual beach that I believe
Native American name is Mocrocs.
Kelly 5:53
Okay. And that's the name. I mean colorway. Yeah, that's to let
everyone know why I suddenly made this divergence.
Marsha 6:02
So Kelly, I just wanted to.... are you on Ravelry? Can you see
my...
Marsha 6:07
Oh, no, I am not. But I can get there soon. Keep talking.
Marsha 6:11
Well just... I want you to take a look at my picture. And I look at
it and I really love the T shirt. But it does.... We've talked
about this before. I believe I have a little pooling on the left
breast on this one. [laughing] Remember, I was talking about that
in something else?
Kelly 6:11
Yes.
Marsha 6:11
So just take a look at this. Let me... nobody's commented, but I
look at it. Now when I wear it, I will not see it because I will be
wearing it. But when I look at the photograph,[laughing]
Kelly 6:44
oh, yes, you do. [laughing]
Kelly 6:54
Okay, so pooling on the left breast and peeing garden. In the same
episode. [laughing]
Marsha 7:01
Oh my gosh, [laughing]
Kelly 7:03
we might have to have a an explicit rating. [laughing]
Marsha 7:11
But wasn't there something I've ...
Kelly 7:14
You have a little matching pooling going on the right hand side,
too. [laughing]
Marsha 7:22
I started laughing because I thought, do you remember the endless
discussion about how I was blending the yarn?
Kelly 7:30
All the yarn management!
Marsha 7:35
So much yarn management. And I have
Kelly 7:38
but it's really pretty. And I don't t hink it's a big deal. I mean,
when you look at the picture of it hanging kind of flat on the on
the dress form, it's different than when you actually are in
it.
Marsha 7:50
Yes. And I think I'll have to actually try it on and post another
picture because that mannequin is not my dimensions necessarily.
Oh, well, that's life.
Kelly 8:05
It just goes, it just goes to show you that that sometimes all that
yarn management turns out to be no different than if you had just
worked from one skein? I mean, who knows? It might not be but
Marsha 8:21
yeah, cuz it's, you know, it's hand dyed.
Kelly 8:23
Mmm hmmm.
Marsha 8:24
And you can actually, if you look at it sort of below the pooling,
there's a little sort of diagonal striping going. Do you see
that?
Kelly 8:32
Yeah.
Marsha 8:32
It's just so again, it doesn't really bother me. I just think
it's... I find it kind of amusing. And I, I really don't understand
how it happened because I was so careful. And I had labeled
everything. And that part where it happened is I'm not doing any
shaping. at that point, right, I'm just going around. And I also
use that great technique that helical knitting where you... Now the
helical knitting, I will say, You're... the point where you change
yarns keeps moving around the sweater. So because you're in that
point where you change. Yeah,
Kelly 9:14
So that makes it a little different than if you had always changed
in the same spot.
Marsha 9:19
Yeah, and I don't know if that has something to it.
Kelly 9:21
Yeah, I don't know. The people who do planned pooling might be able
to tell you more about that. But I've never done it.
Marsha 9:27
Planned pooling?
Kelly 9:27
Yeah, there's I mean, there's patterns for that where you...
remember we saw at Stitches
Marsha 9:31
Your, your sock? Well, yes. And then your socks. You did the
Kelly 9:35
Oh, right. For Dennis, the Bengal socks?
Marsha 9:39
Yeah.
Kelly 9:40
Yes. Now those were a little different because it was planned
pooling but then you also did short rows to turn around and go back
the other way to make this to make the point at the end of the
stripe, like so where the where you you know, because the tiger
stripes have don't go all the way around the tiger. You know what I
mean? So anyway, yeah, very interesting. And I think your sweater,
your your tee, looks really nice. Your sweater turned out really
good. All laughing aside.
Marsha 10:15
Oh gosh. Okay, and then um, so I'm still spinning on the green and
brown Merino. I've just been working on the brown. Then what else?
Oh, I started knitting Well, I've been continuing to knit on
the...my Drops Fabel socks. But the other night I finished the Tee
shirt and so I thought Okay, I'll go pick up my socks and start
knitting on them. I thought... I went to measure them against
the... I'm halfway down the foot of the second sock. And I went to
measure it against the first sock to see how much further I had to
go. And I thought that's weird. Like the heel looks different. And
then I realized I didn't I did not turn the heel.
Kelly 10:57
Oh, no! I've done that before.
Marsha 11:02
And it's like, What is wrong with me? Like I like how did I not do
that? I that's so weird. And I what's also really weird about it is
I remember my when I did the gusset. My numbers were way off.
Anyway, I should have known. So now I have to rip back.
Kelly 11:21
Oh, well.
Marsha 11:22
Yeah, that's something to keep me busy. You know, start again.
It'll keep me off the streets, you know, out of bars. And then I...
Oh, I forgot to put this in the show notes, Kelly. But what I'm
knitting on right now is... I had to look it up. I cast this on
probably two years ago. It's a shawl. It's just called Simple
Shawl. Oh, yeah. It's from hedgerow yarns. This was yarn that I
bought down in San Francisco.
Kelly 11:50
And I'm looking at it right now. That's pretty
Marsha 11:52
Yeah, it's a...
Kelly 11:53
Kind of denim looking.
Marsha 11:55
Yeah. And it's... I bought this at Atelier Yarns in San Francisco.
Actually, I bought it in 2017. And I think that was the time when I
met you for Stitches West. And then I went into San Francisco,
right. And just went to some of the yarn shops and I think that's
when I bought that. Anyway, the colorway is called San Francisco
Fog. That's why I love the colorway. And it was hand dyed. And it
just says on the label Michael's CWD so I don't know anything about
them. He's not you know, in that there's really no information
about that company but anyway, it's very nice. It's kind of like
denim, it has... okay, it reminds me of dirty jeans. You know,
muddy jeans because it has that denim blue, but it also has some
brown. Yeah, kind of a cocoa brown in there. Like you have mud on
your jeans.
Kelly 12:49
Yeah. And it's pretty I like it. It's a pretty color.
Marsha 12:52
it's really nice. And it's kind of... what I think is kind of nice
about it is it's it's quite a kind of a neutral yarn, where a lot
of the shawls I make have lots of color in them. Yeah, this one's
kind of neutral, which I think will be a nice.
Kelly 13:07
Yes.
Marsha 13:08
Let's see, when did I cast this on? Oh, I cast on in 2018.
Kelly 13:14
Yeah, well, it'll be nice. Your your point about it being a neutral
is, is a good one because I have a shawl that I made... Oh, man,
way back when I started-- first started to spin. And I didn't even
really know how to make a shawl. I mean, I didn't have a pattern. I
started at the bottom and then I just made increases on the sides.
Like I was doing... I had a dish cloth pattern that did that. And I
thought oh, I could do this for a shawl. So I did. So it's with my
handspun but it's like three different colors of blue. That kind of
blue gray, Blue, a blue gray, and then a more tealy kind of a blue.
Anyway, it turned out really good. And I use that all the time.
That shawl. I mean it just it's just a good color with almost
anything I'm wearing. I can grab it. Yeah, I think you'll be really
happy with it once it's done.
Marsha 14:04
Yeah. Yeah.
Kelly 14:06
It's probably happy to be out of the knitting bag!
Marsha 14:09
I know. Well, it's been... you know, it's funny, because it's been
to Scotland. And it's been... I took it to Iceland.
Kelly 14:15
Oh, it's kind of like the Pismo Beach socks. Yes, you're gonna have
to, you're gonna have to bring it with you now everywhere you
go.
Marsha 14:22
Yeah. And then I started swatching for another project. And it's
the Atlas pullover by Jared flood. And this is for my brother. Do
you remember when you were up here? I think for the dye workshop
that we did. And we went over with our friend Janis over to Tolt
and Mark was our driver. And he bought this yarn for me to make a
sweater. And so it's Navia Traditions.
Kelly 14:51
Yeah, that's gonna be a really pretty sweater. Color work yoke.
Marsha 14:55
Yes. And so he he likes color. So I think a lot of people would
have reversed these colors, but he's using a really bright kind of
grass Kelly green for the body. And then the color work there's the
color work is in that grass green. And then two other colors. In
his case he picked navy and a kind of a bright blue light, like
robin's egg blue. And so I did the swatch I not really proficient
color work. So I'm going to need a little help on this. I think
I'll be asking questions probably. You are great though. Because I
called you other night when I was doing the swatch because they
said obviously you want to do the swatch in the stockinette, which
is the main body of the sweater. And then it's a color work yoke.
And then you want to do a swatch in the color work, which I did.
But I was swatching, you know, color work knit side and then
purling back color work. And I said... my comment to you was isn't
my my gauge going to be off? Because the whole... when I do the
sweater, the color work is all done in the round. In stockinette.
So all on the knit side. And so you said what a lot of people do is
you knit on the right side, then slide your swatch to the other
side and leave a huge long loop in the back and pick up the yarn
and knit again. Yeah, so that's what I did. And it worked out a lot
better. I do think-- I think doing color work in a swatch is going
to be very different than doing the actual sweater. It was very
slippery. Because I you know, it's I mean, I made a pretty sizable
swatch, but it's still not like having all of that weight of the
sweater and all those stitches, you know, to get any kind of
rhythm. Yeah, so but it looks pretty good. And I think this is a
very well written pattern. And I-- and also when you get to the
part where you're doing the color work, it tells you of the three
colors that you're using, which one is supposed to be the dominant
color. I'm assuming, and listeners can give me some feedback, that
I'm assuming that the dominant color is the one that you're going
if you are throwing the dominant colors in your right hand. I'm
assuming
Kelly 17:21
Yeah, I don't know.
Marsha 17:23
I have to read up on that. Or as I say if anybody wants to weigh in
on it. The other thing about this sweater, too, is Kelly you and I
talked about this. That Mark likes his sweaters to be very slim
fitting. He's slim and he likes slim fitting sweaters. I think
because this wool is it's worsted weight and it's it's a very
woolly wool. The kind I think you probably want to wear over a
flannel shirt. Yeah, I think he's gonna want more ease in it then
he thinks he wants because it does... what does say the pattern
say? Three to five inches of positive ease and I think he's gonna
want that. So we're having some...we're in discussion right
now.
Marsha 18:09
And then and I'll talk more about this too when I start doing it
but I think Jared Flood is also the designer of the other sweater
that I made for Mark which I am now drawing a blank on it. What was
that that blue one I made for him? Oh, here it is Cobblestone. The
sweater is designed that you you you do a tubular cast on at the
bottom of the sweater, do the ribbing and knit up to the armholes.
Put the body aside, do the same thing with the sleeves and attach
them and then do the yoke. But I found I did not do that with
cobblestone. What I did is I provisional cast on for the body, knit
up to the armholes, provisional cast on for the sleeves, did
stockinette up to the armhole, attach the sleeves, did the yoke and
then I went back and I actually had to knit some stockinette down
before I did the ribbing to get the correct length. And because
what I find interesting about this method that the pattern says is
how do you know where the armhole is going to fit? Is it gonna be
you know, an inch from the armpit or two inches from the armpit? So
and that makes a difference on how long the sleeve is going to be?
Right, depending on where the armhole hits on your body. So I
don't... I can't really wrap my head around doing that method. I
think. So. I'm going to do this method.
Kelly 19:34
Yeah, I think worked with the other. I think it's a good idea that
you had when you did that last sweater. Mm hmm.
Marsha 19:41
So anyway, that's what I'm going to do on that one. And then that's
it for me for projects.
Kelly 19:46
All right. Well, you have more than I do. I did spin a four ounce
braid, which was good. I had done a little bit of spinning for the
last episode with that Santa Cruz Island which I need to talk about
a little bit more, but I had a Perendale braid and Perendale is
kind of a medium, I would say a medium to long wool. A little more
woolly than Corriedale, which I consider to be usually like a
medium. Or a little less against the skin than a Corriedale. I
probably wouldn't make a hat out of this. But it's... but it's not.
It's not as coarse as I thought it was going to be just based on
what I had read about Perendale. And when I got this braid from
Sheep Spot, and she has a lot of interesting breeds to select from.
And I bought this last year, I think I bought it when I was buying
prizes for the for the spin in and I bought it for myself. But
anyways, blue and yellow. And then of course green where the
blending happened in the braid, and I decided to do it as a
fractal. It's a three ply fractal spin. So just to describe what
that is, the way I got ready to spin this... For those of you who
don't know, I divided the braid into three parts, because I was
going to make a three ply. So vertically stripped it into three
parts, vertically. And then one part I just spun it straight from
the from the start to the finish, you know, I didn't do anything
different, I just spun that. And so that gave me relatively long
color repeats. My sections of color were were pretty long. And then
the second bobbin, I took one of those strips that I had stripped
out and I had weighed them and they were all roughly the same
weight, I had to make a little bit of an adjustment as I was
pulling it apart to make sure that I got this, you know, equal,
kind of equal sizes. The second one I then split into, I split that
one into two pieces vertically. So I had thinner strips, and I
spun. And so I spun those. And I spun, you know, the first one end
to end and then got the second one end to end. And I kept track of
what order, you know, what was the start of it, and what was the
end of it?
Marsha 22:15
Right.
Kelly 22:15
And so my color repeats are less, right? They're smaller. Because
the fiber was... the piece of fiber that I was spinning from was
was more slender. And then the third bobbin, I did exactly the same
thing. But this time I did it in three, three parts. Yeah, three
parts. And so it was 1/3 of the braid, split lengthwise, and then I
took that 1/3 and I divided it again into three parts.
Marsha 22:47
Okay,
Kelly 22:48
And spun that. So now my color repeats are even smaller. So I've
got one bobbin with longer color repeats, one bobbin with a little
bit shorter color repeats, and then one bobbin with even shorter
color repeats and I a plied those together. And that's what they
call fractal spinning. I'm really pleased with the skein. I'm not
sure it looks any different than if I just like, spun randomly, and
then plied it together. But when it's stripes up, when you when you
knit it up, it does have a different... I've seen in a couple of
books or articles about fractal spinning compared to other ways of
managing the color in your braid. It does look a little bit
different when you knit it up. So it will be a little bit stripy,
when I knit it up, but pretty blended. I mean, there's a couple of
sections that are all blue and a couple of sections that are all
yellow, and mostly it comes out... it reads green even though the
the braid by itself just looking at it was more blue. This this
yarn actually reads more green when you look at it, but it came out
really nicely. And I plied it kind of loosely. I didn't i didn't
ply too tight. Like I usually try... I usually like to ply tightly.
But since Perendale is kind of a longer staple, I thought, Well I'm
gonna ply it more like a longwool without so much twist in it. So
that's what I did. I'm really happy with it. So that was kind of a
fun experiment. And then I took what was left I'm not sure I'm
gonna have enough to really be able to tell... but I took what was
left over after the first bobbin ran out. And then I just plied a
two ply because I want to do a little swatch of each and compare
the two ply fractal to the three ply fractal spin. But I am going
to do a little swatch of both of these so that people can see the
difference and I can see the difference between a two ply fractal
and a three ply fractal. The one thing that you will definitely be
able to tell is there's not as much color variation in the two ply.
Partly because it was only two bobbins worth of color playing
together.
Marsha 25:04
Right.
Kelly 25:04
And partly because there was only a very little left on the bobbin.
So you know, it didn't really have enough yarn to get all the way
through all the different colors. But anyway, it'll be an
interesting little experiment to make a swatch with both of those
and compare them side by side. Yeah, so that was my spinning. Going
back to the Santa Cruz Island, fleece. I was so excited because I
had emptied bobbins of the Santa Cruz Island. And it's like, okay,
I can call that finished, you know, even though I still have some
fleece left, but it's like, okay, I can call that spinning project
finished, right?
Marsha 25:42
Yeah,
Kelly 25:43
I was looking around in my stash for what else I had that I could
just do a quick little spin with. And I found two about third full
bobbins of Santa Cruz Island singles. Two, not three, two. And
it's... I want to make, you know, to match the yarn I already had,
I wanted to make it... I would make a three ply. Not that I really
need any more of that. I was gonna make socks with it. And I have
plenty for a pair of socks, but just kind of like Oh, no. So now, I
do have some more fiber that's already carded. I did find that too,
when I was digging around. So I will spin the yarn that I have, or
the the fiber that I have that's already carded, and spin the third
bobbin. And I just want to be done with this project. But you know,
the little bits that I didn't want to throw away on those other two
bobbins are insignificant compared to the mountain that's on these
two bobbins
Marsha 26:49
right, right
Kelly 26:50
In comparison. I could have easily thrown that away. But anyway, I
I now have another Santa Cruz Island job to do. So. I will do that.
I like that fleece. It's really fine. It'sjust, it's tricky to
spin. I mean, I have to do... I talked last time how I really am
doing kind of an inch worming technique. And then I had to stop and
pull out little neps of tangled fiber every so often. So it's not
it's not exactly rhythmic Zen spinning.
Marsha 27:26
Yeah.
Kelly 27:27
So I did no knitting and crocheting. In my... since the last time
we talked, I mean, I didn't even do any. I finished the last dish
cloth. And I didn't even... I didn't even get any more on those. So
that's kind of strange, but I've been doing a lot of dog training.
Nothing formal, and not any real formal stuff, but you know, walks
and, and trying to keep them from fence fighting. And so Beary's
here sort of crunched into the corner where I'm recording right
now. So you know where I am Marsha in the dressing room. Right?
Well, he could be lengthwise and have plenty of room. But he's
crosswise. So his head is jammed up against the cabinet. And his
rear end is jammed up against the closet. The size of him is you
know, the whole width of this little dressing room area. So, but
he's, he's snoring. So he's happy. He doesn't mind being crunched
in the corner here.
Marsha 28:40
Well, and he can probably curl up into a tighter ball now because
he's lost so much weight.
Kelly 28:44
Yes, yes. He had a vet appointment last week. And so we got to, you
know, get him weighed and get his result of his thyroid test and
all that. He had a new thyroid test. But yes, he lost. He's now 113
pounds.
Marsha 29:00
Wow. So that's amazing.
Kelly 29:03
Yeah. Yeah. So just just to kind of recap for people. When he got
to the ASPCA in January, he was 163 pounds. When we brought him
home, he was 133 pounds. And now he's 113 pounds. In like ...it was
about seven weeks, seven and a half weeks that he lost the 20
pounds.
Marsha 29:27
Wait a minute, I say 50 pounds. Yeah, he's lost 50 pounds.
Kelly 29:31
Yeah, he's lost 50 pounds. So he's got another probably 10 to go
maybe. Maybe? I don't know. At first I thought he would... He was
you know, he was shepherd and just heavy and needed... He could be
probably 90 pounds would be his his final weight. But he may be
crossed. Well, we talked about that.
Marsha 29:54
Yeah, he's big, big boned. You know
Kelly 29:58
He's got something in him that makes him bigger so it may be that
he only has another 10 or so pounds to go so we'll see. But But
yeah, the vet was really happy and his thyroid is stable. It's
good, it's all in in the good ranges and the vet said keep doing
what you're doing which is a lot of exercise and training and
organized, you know, chewing activity like the frozen Kongs filled
with dog food mush, doggy milkshake.
Marsha 30:36
Did you like my comment? You posted that on Instagram. And it was
like everyone thought Oh, it looks like milkshake. Yeah, but
knowing what's in it, I think it looks disgusting. But the dogs
love it.
Kelly 30:48
Yeah, it is. It is pretty disgusting. I have some turkey fat from
Aunt Betty made a turkey. Like a turkey breast roast last night for
dinner. So I have some turkey pan drippings that are gonna go in
the next version, the next round of the of the frozen Kongs, and
it's funny because you know, I had to I wanted that magic bullet so
that I could, you know, make smoothies and stuff. And I got it one
year for Christmas. And I did use it for the first year. But, you
know, before we got Bailey, it hadn't been out of the cupboard for
months and months and months. And now that's what I use it for.
Making dog milkshakes to pour into the Kongs to put in the freezer.
So anyway, yeah, the dogs are getting healthy. I don't know about
me, I'm not having my kale smoothies anymore. [laughing]
Marsha 31:44
That's really good news.
Kelly 31:45
Yeah, yeah,
Marsha 31:46
It really is good news. Because he's just... I'm sure he feels so
much better and you know he can move so much better.
Kelly 31:55
He had the the senior dog blood panel because we know they told us
he was eight at the ASPCA. But I have never had an eight year old
dog acting this lively. And I'm pretty sure he's not eight. I mean,
just watching him with Bailey and the, the constant playing that
they do and all his I mean, just the things that he's doing now
it's like, Okay, this dog is not eight, I just can't believe it.
And his teeth. I mean, you can't always tell by their teeth. You
know, we had one dog whose teeth were good for her whole life. And
then the other dogs, you know, their teeth got bad right away. So
you can't really tell. But his teeth are good. And his his energy
level is high. So I just think he's not eight. But there's no way
to know except,
Marsha 32:48
yeah,
Kelly 32:48
how long he lives, you know? Yeah, if he lives another 10 years,
then he's definitely not eight.
Marsha 32:54
Yes. Yeah.
Kelly 32:55
But we won't know that. Yeah, so huh. So anyway, yeah, Beary's
doing great. He starts obedience class at the SPCA on Saturday. And
I got an email with homework that was like 10 videos. I was like,
Oh, my God, I have to watch 10 videos, because I am not a video
learning person. But I did. I watched them. They were all really
short. But they were good. So I have homework before we go to our
class. So he's supposed to be doing his name. And, you know,
responding to his name and a couple of other things that I need to
do. I have been working on down with him, but he doesn't like to
lay down. I mean, he lays down fine when he wants it.
Marsha 33:42
Yeah Really! Yeah.
Kelly 33:43
But he's not he doesn't follow a treat to go down, which I've never
had a dog that wouldn't do that.
Marsha 33:51
So that's interesting. Yeah.
Kelly 33:53
He, he pops up. And I've tried all kinds of different ways to keep
his rear end from popping up. And it doesn't seem to work. So I
need some tips and tricks from the from the trainer on that when we
go to class, maybe. I've been just waiting. Mostly just waiting
until he's tired. And then I tell him to sit and then I just stand
there. And then when he does finally lay down, I tell him down.
He's getting there, but that's going to be a tough one.
Marsha 34:22
Yeah. So anyway, he doesn't really like to be told what to do.
Kelly 34:28
Right. That is true. Yeah, he's getting better. But yeah,
Marsha 34:33
He didn't come that way. We know he's learning. But
Kelly 34:36
yeah, yeah, he's already... he's doing some crate training now,
too. He's doing great now that he can, you know, he's thin enough
that he can actually turn around in the crate. He's using the
Wolfhound crate, and he fits great. And he goes in there just fine
and he's quiet. And he doesn't break the crate.
Marsha 34:54
Yeah.
Kelly 34:56
So that's a nice fresh breath of fresh air compared to Bailey.
Marsha 35:00
Well, good. That's really good to hear. I mean, I think that that's
just really good news that he's lost so much weight and his panels
are all good.
Kelly 35:06
Yeah, his health is great. Yeah, his health is doing really well.
So, yeah. Well, now that we've talked about all our projects,
including our plumbing and dogs and all of that kind of stuff. We
have a summer spinning topic for everybody.
Marsha 35:21
Yes. So we thought we would talk about the whole process of
selecting a fleece and where to buy a raw fleece. And so let's just
dive right in. Okay.
Kelly 35:33
And before we do that though, I just want to remind people that if
you are going to be working with raw fleece, you should just make
sure that your tetanus shot is up to date.
Marsha 35:46
Oh, that's a good idea. I wouldn't even have thought about
that.
Kelly 35:49
It seems like every time you have an injury of any kind that could
be tetanus related they give you a tetanus shot anyway, even if
you're ...even if you just had one almost But you should have had a
tetanus shot, I would say, because it's easy to... it's easy to
have a puncture wound, using carding equipment or wool combs or
being stuck with a sticker in your fleece. It's easy for that to
happen. So anyway,
Marsha 36:21
that's a good idea. Yes, that's good, because I would not have
thought about that. So and you probably just get that at the
pharmacy. Don't you think? You can get so many vaccines now just at
the pharmacy? I mean, if you can get a tetanus
Kelly 36:33
maybe, Yeah, probably.
Marsha 36:35
I don't know. I have to look into that. Okay, so I have about
selecting a fleece. How do you start just buying a fleece? What do
you look for?
Kelly 36:42
Well,
Marsha 36:43
Kelly, any thoughts?
Kelly 36:45
I tried to buy a fleece this morning from Instagram. And I don't
think I'm going to get it because there was somebody else who was
interested in it before me. But so what did I look for? Well, it
was Wensleydale, a Wensleydale cross, which means it was a long
wool, which always attracts me seeing those long curly locks. Just
gets me. So that's what I look for. It was six pounds, which is a
decent size. Again, that's what I look for. I am not... I'm not
wanting to buy fleece, you know, oh, I'll just take a pound of
that. Or, Oh, is it three pounds fleece? Now six pounds is a good
size for a fleece. It's kind of like cones of yarn, you know, big
and juicy. So, so that was an attraction. And then, and then it was
gray, which is also an attraction for me. So long wool, gray, six
pounds. And the price was right, it was priced at $50, which is
about $8 a pound. And I think that's pretty... I think that's
that's excellent. And then plus shipping. So for for a long wool
that's a good price.You're not going to find... you're not going to
find Merino at that price. But
Marsha 38:14
Right, right,
Kelly 38:15
But for a long wool. So that's what I look for. I wasn't thinking
of a project, I wasn't imagining what I was going to do with it.
Nothing like that. It was just like, oh, pretty long, curly, good
pric-- buying!
Marsha 38:33
Well, I will confess, before we really get into this, I will
confess that online, doing some research, I was looking at
producers and Etsy and there was many that I wanted to click buy.
But I had to restrain myself. And what really gets me in this is
excellent marketing. And if there's any producers who listen to
this, this is excellent. This is how you get people to click buy.
If you have a photograph of the sheep that the fleece came from, or
just the name of... just the name of the sheep makes me want to buy
because there's like this... I don't know it's just sort of... it's
very... it's like a story and anytime there's a story about a
product I get more and more tempted to buy it.
Kelly 39:26
Yeah, well it's the same as a yarn having a name like Mocrocs Beach
as opposed to you know the colorway
Kelly 39:36
or San Francisco Fog. I bought San Francisco Fog because I liked
the name.
Kelly 39:39
as opposed to color number 5973.
Marsha 39:44
Or I remember at... now we're getting a little off of the topic of
buying a fleece but I remember one time at stitches. I do not need
another skein of hand dyed sock yarn, but I bought one because the
name of it was It Was Comic Con and I Was Drunk. I had to buy it,
right? So, yeah, so if there's a backstory or something it's really
very appealing for me anyway, personally. But so anyway, but what I
was gonna say the first thing is... I was gonna say is online,
there's... The Livestock Conservancy has an article about selecting
a raw fleece. And I would really recommend that, because it talks
all about staple length, coated versus not coated. What else
Kelly?
Kelly 40:38
it talks about the health of the lock and looking at health, the
strength of the lock or the health of the sheep. It talks about the
different breeds.
Marsha 40:49
And so I-- that's just a great source, I think just start there.
You get much better information than well, we could, and concise
information to what we could give in just the podcast. But I think
that's excellent. And the other thing we were sort of talking too
before we started recording about-- let me just back up. When I,
the first time I bought a fleece, I was like, Oh, I want it. This
is what I want to make out of that fleece, I'm going to buy that. I
think I bought a Shetland fleece at Black Sheep gathering. And I
didn't know anything. No, I take that back. It wasn't, it was I
split it with a woman down there. And it was now I don't remember
now I think was like a Merino Corriedale mix, I think or something.
And I didn't know anything. And I just thought, Okay, I'm gonna buy
this. And then this is what I'm going to make out of it. Well, I
don't think that really is. ..Maybe if you're really knowledgeable,
you can get to the point where you can say-- you can look at a
fleece and know how it's going to spin up and know how you're going
to-- what you're going to make. Yeah, but I kind of think I think
as a beginner, you probably just have to buy the fleece that you
will like, and after you wash and card it and spin it. It will then
tell you what you should make out of it.
Kelly 42:00
Yeah, that's true.
Marsha 42:02
Because you may have an idea that you want to have yarn, a yarn
that really blooms, but that particular fiber is not going to do
that. So it doesn't mean that it's going to end up being a bad
yarn. It's just a yarn that's not-- it's gonna be a beautiful yarn
that's for another purpose.
Kelly 42:23
Yeah, yeah, that's true. I mean, so my love is when I see fleeces
that are silver, silver gray longwool.
Marsha 42:37
Yeah,
Kelly 42:37
So I that would not be a good choice if what I wanted to make was a
you know, a light fluffy cardigan. You know, like my Funky Grandpa
sweater. If that was what I wanted to make, that would be the wrong
choice. If I'm going to buy a romney for example long wool, I might
be able to make like a coat kind of sweater, cardigan. Or blanket,
or you do some weaving with it, weave a blanket, but I'm not going
to be able to make a light fluffy cardigan out of a romney wool. So
a lot of it depends on on what it is you want to do with it. I
mean, you know, my, my advice is you just spin to spin, right? And
see what happens. And so my advice would be for first spinners it
would be to try all the ones that you just you look at it and you
love it. Yeah, if it sings to you, and you go, Oh, my God this is
so gorgeous. Get it! You know, if the price is right, and you're up
for the adventure, I would say just go ahead and get it. And then
you'll see what what the yarn is that it makes. And you don't have
to spin the whole thing. You can, you know, and you don't have to
buy the whole thing. Sometimes you can split fleeces with somebody.
Or you can, I know on Etsy you can buy... sometimes people are
selling them by the pound and so you can buy just a pound of a
particular kind of fleece. So
Marsha 44:08
If you do buy a whole fleece though, I think there's a couple
things to sort of keep in mind. Find out if it's been skirted. And
that's when they remove all of the wool that's not really usable
and the tags which is manure. And you can buy a fleece that has all
of that, but just know that you're paying. You're gonna be throwing
away a lot that you're paying for.
Kelly 44:29
Right right. Yeah, so if you're searching on Etsy, I would say one
of the things to put in your search is spinning or hand spinning.
Just to make sure that you know you're going to... you're going to
get something that people are at least calling a hand spinners
fleece. Although we will talk later, I found a great article on
those bargain fleeces or free fleeces and how do you, you know,
make sure that you can use a fleece like that. So, yeah.
Marsha 45:03
And then the other thing and I, I've never had this experience, but
they talked about it when we went to the Black Sheep Gathering.
Well what they had said and people who were there, the general
consensus is if, if you're buying a fleece that's been part of a
show, you're going to get a good fleece. Just because people have
carefully prepped them for showing
Kelly 45:27
And spent money to put them in the show.
Marsha 45:30
Right? Yes, there's an investment to show them. And so you really
couldn't go wrong buying any of those. We did have though, do you
remember the one judging where the fleece had an odor to it, like a
sour odor or something? And they said that it was, I don't know, I
don't remember now what was wrong with it. But I guess what the
general... what I would take away from that is smell the fleece. If
it just doesn't smell like that delicious, wonderful... which we
like. Some people hate but we like that lanolin woolly smell. Then
avoid that one. If it has any kind of weird sour or off putting
odor that doesn't smell right.
Kelly 46:15
A dirty dish cloth.
Marsha 46:16
And so anyway, I was gonna say that the... I think that the
Livestock Conservancy website is really good. And we'll have the
link in the show notes. Yeah. And also the spinners book of fleece
by Beth Smith is really good.
Kelly 46:27
And that can help with you know, like, what kinds of fleeces will
do what kinds of thing. What breeds will do what kinds of things,
you know. Is it a medium, fleece? Would it make that fluffy
cardigan? Is it better for outerwear? Will it be just good for rugs
and blankets? It will give you a good idea of of that. Yeah, the
other thing to think about too, is what kind of preparation you're
going to work on. What kind of ability do you have to wash it. So
like, if you're gonna buy... If you don't have a good capacity to
wash a fleece and you're gonna have to wash it, you know, little by
little, and you're not sure how it's going to work, you might not
want to buy a Merino--a really greasy fleece like a Merino. You
might, or you might want to, if you do buy a fleece like that, you
might want to have someone else do it, have it processed.
Marsha 46:45
Yeah,
Kelly 47:21
Or even just washed by a processor. I mean, that's a possibility.
That you can have a processor just wash your fleece and send it
back to you clean. Just because that that does take a lot of water,
a lot of soap, a lot of time to get all that grease out of the
fleece. And so depending on what your washing situation is, you
might be better off having a fleece that's not quite as greasy. So
the article that I did find about the kind of fleece that I've
always liked, the bargain fleece, is called The Great Fleece
Makeover. And it's by Emmioneisha Hopkins in Spin Off magazine. And
she talks about three different fleeces that she had and, and they
were, you know, dirty in different ways. They were flawed in
different ways. And yet she was still able to make beautiful yarn
out of them. Time, you know, there's a time investment to that. If
you have, you know, flaws. So for a lot of people any kind of veg
matter in their fleece: stickers, hay, anything like that is just a
no go. And I've never been like that. That has never been something
that I totally just you know been put off by and I think partly
because when I started spinning, coated fleeces were very rare. And
so you know, you always had some of that in your fleeces, but now
with coated fleeces, you can get, you know really pristine fleeces
without any of these problems. But you pay the price, right? So if
you get a free fleece or you have the opportunity to get some
fleece for a very good price, I would really recommend this article
The Great Fleece Makeover. So you can see, you know, what kind of
things does she look at? And what kind of things does she do? Wool
combs are what she uses, because they take out a lot of the garbage
you know, the short cuts of wool, the really short pieces, you
know. If the shearing is inconsistent, they take out a lot of the
vegetable matter if there's a lot of that, and they make a really
nice preparation. So wool combs are a really good thing to have if
you're interested in working with the bargain fleeces. A carder
also gets out a lot of the stuff that's in it. A drum carder, or
hand cards, but not as much as combs do. So anyway, that's a good
article that I would recommend to people looking for a fleece. But
there is just something about walking around a fleece fiber
festival looking at all the fleeces and just falling in love with
one. And and if, if that doesn't happen to you, then maybe you're
just not a spinner for fleeces, for raw fleeces, right? If you can
walk through a fiber festival and you don't feel pulled... drawn to
fork over money for at least you know, three or four of them and
have to rein yourself in, then, you know, maybe braids are your are
your jam. And that's okay. You know, yeah, processed fiber might
just be what you are in love with.
Marsha 50:41
Well, and the thing about the processed fiber you said about time
and like, you can just start right away. I like that. And that's
nice. Like I've used... it's all been, you know, the commercially
processed roving that I've used for the combo spins.
Kelly 50:51
Yeah, Yeah, I'm in a really bad place right now because this
Perendale was my last... was my last dyed braid. I have a couple of
braids of Coopworth that are natural color. And that's it. So you
know, I don't have anything that I could just grab. Which is kind
of on purpose because I have a lot of stuff that I need to process.
[laughing] So how do you buy one? If you are going to fall in love?
If you think you might fall in love, where would you find those
fleeces?
Marsha 51:34
Well, so the first place I know where I bought all of mine was
going to some sort of festival. So now, the pandemic has, has
changed all of this because a lot of these festivals are not
happening. So Black Sheep Gathering is always in June. That's also
been cancelled. But a lot of them have online sales.
Kelly 52:01
yes.
Marsha 52:01
Or a list of the producers and you can contact the different
producers. So we have links to the Black Sheep Gathering in the
show notes. There's the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Kelly,
you added the Ore`gon Flock and Fiber in October is that on?
Kelly 52:16
Yeah, in October, it's on. And they moved it to Albany so it's in
the same location where Black Sheep Gathering was the last time we
were there.
Marsha 52:26
Oh, Kelly!
Kelly 52:27
I know.
Marsha 52:29
Maybe!
Kelly 52:29
It's a possibility.
Marsha 52:33
Oh, but school's in session ... Oh, no, but you're
Kelly 52:35
Yeah, but I'm online.
Marsha 52:37
Ah. Oh Kelly!
Kelly 52:38
So I yeah, there's, there's a possibility. Yeah.
Marsha 52:45
Okay.
Kelly 52:48
Vermont Sheep and Sool festival is also happening in October,
according to their website. They have dates in early October. So
and then I found another one that's actually happening coming up
fairly soon. That's the Natural Fiber Extravaganza in Lebanon,
Tennessee. And it's July 9 through 11th. It's a mostly alpaca. It's
put on by an alpaca association. But that looked, that looked
interesting if you're in that part of the country. And then I also
found Knitters Review has a fiber festival directory. Now I put the
link to that in the show notes as well. A lot of them when you go
to the website you see the 2020 information and you see "cancelled"
but if you're willing to like search out your area. If you're
looking for a particular area you can in a particular month you can
narrow it down pretty well to just look at the ones that are, you
know, pertinent to you and see if they have them. And then our
county fair last year I kind of spaced and didn't even think about
it but the Monterey County Fair last year they had their wool show,
their wool auction, they just had it online.
Marsha 54:04
Oh yeah?
Kelly 54:06
So and then you had either pickup or shipping of the fleece that
you had bought. I didn't even know about it until after it was
already done. It was already done is when I realized.
Marsha 54:20
Yeah, and I know the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival that one
actually I think that was in May. It didn't actually happen but it
was all online. But there you could check it out and see if there's
still things available. And as I say, they all have vendors listed
that are still selling their fleeces.
Kelly 54:37
Yeah, the listing of vendors is the nice thing. Yeah, in these
websites, so. So yeah, check out your county fair website. And then
the other thing I just put in there, I know we've talked about the
Shave 'Em to Save 'Em, and that's through the livestock
Conservancy. The same website that Marsha mentioned about selecting
a fleece. But they have a directory. And you can find different,
you know, the rare breed fleeces there. And then also, there's the
Fibershed directory. California has the Fibershed, I think Canada,
Canada has a Fibershed organization. I don't know if other areas
have a Fibershed organization. But if you have a Fibershed in your
area, you can look at their website. And they usually will have a
directory of producers of all kinds of things, not just wool. I
think there's a, there's a hemp farm, and a flax farm on the
Fibershed directory. And so there are some other websites, so lots
of resources in this set of show notes.
Marsha 55:45
So I just, I also just googled where to buy a raw fleece, you know,
and the first one that came up was a farm in, it's in the Finger
Lakes region of Western New York State. It's called Nistock farms.
And they--you have to reserve the fleece. But they still have some
available. But it was interesting. They have an interesting website
just to read it too, because they they have a lot of information
about processing your...washing fleeces. They also are part of the
Livestock Conservancy. And they're members of the livestock
Conservancy. And they talk a lot about how their... how important
is to keep their their flock healthy. So they no longer take their
sheep to to be judged at shows because they don't want to expose
them to all the different diseases that sheep can get, apparently,
and they don't bring in rams from outside the farm for breeding.
They just have their own rams. And then, and now I'm getting into
something I really don't know anything about. But the breeding of
sheep. You can't breed them too many times because you have to
bring in new
Kelly 57:08
Right, genetics.
Marsha 57:09
So when they do bring in a new ram, they have to be quarantined,
they're tested and then they have to be quarantined for a certain
merit amount of time before they enter the breeding program. Very,
very interesting. I mean, if you if you want to go really deep into
it, it's a very interesting website. And then the other one I found
and I just think this is just sweet. And Kelly, you said we had
talked about this before but the Sanctuary Wool website. They're
located in Wisconsin, and their fleeces are from rescued sheep.
This is the one where they have their pictures. And you know...
Kelly 57:45
Which, I'm looking at them right now. Oh my gosh.
Marsha 57:49
I know.
Kelly 57:52
Good looking fleeces, too. I know when we first mentioned them, one
of the caveats was, you know, we had not bought fleeces from them.
And I don't know if they even had a website at that time or I don't
think it had any pictures. So it was kind of, you know, I don't
know what this will be like, but here's some information about it.
But these look beautiful! East Friesian Polypay. And that's another
thing! That.. so that's another thing that gets me-- a breed I
haven't spun before. Yes, when I see a breed-- that's how I ended
up with the Santa Cruz Island fleece.
Marsha 58:31
Right.
Kelly 58:31
It's rare, and I had never spun it. And it was just intriguing. And
this one is also intriguing East Friesian Polypay.
Marsha 58:41
Huh? What is that? I know there's Friesian horses. I think they're
from Holland.
Kelly 58:47
You're asking me a question I don't know the answer to. I really
don't know what East Friesian sheep is. And I don't... I know
Polypay is is a relatively newer breed. Anyway, one pound six
ounces for $18. Wow. Add To Cart! Tthe lambs fleece, the locks
average four inches long and there's very minor debris remaining to
remove. So I anyway, I would say take a look at this. If you don't
worry about the danger to your wallet, take a look at this website.
[laughing]
Marsha 59:06
Well, and there was another. I don't know if was this website or
there's another website I was looking at. And what I wanted to put
in the cart the name of the sheep was something like Big Gal,
something like that. Anyway, but she was an older sheep and so they
said as she's gotten older, more and more gray hair is in the
fleece. Oh and that one I just like oh, I want it! Yeah, because of
her story, she's just this old lady, you know, and I kind of wanted
the old lady fleece. But anyway...
Kelly 1:00:08
Sally's Fox on her Vriesis website would sometimes have her older
sheep fleece. And she would describe it in such a way that just
made you want to buy it.
Marsha 1:00:22
Yeah, yeah. Oh my god very good marketing.
Kelly 1:00:25
Yes.
Marsha 1:00:26
For those of us with no self control,
Kelly 1:00:29
I'm clicking closed now. I'm having self control, because I already
tried to buy one this morning. I do not need any more fleece. How
many do you think I have in my garage?
Marsha 1:00:43
I don't know. Because I know how many I have.
Kelly 1:00:45
I think I might have I think ten.
Marsha 1:00:48
Oh Kelly, I think I have eight.
Kelly 1:00:55
You know that True Confessions will be next next episode.
[laughing]
Marsha 1:00:59
Actually, I take that back. I think I have nine because I think I'm
not counting the... my friend of mine in the knitting group gave me
the alpaca fleece. So I don't think I'm counting that one. And that
thing's a monster. It's huge. I didn't know alpaca had such big
fleece but this thing seems huge. I don't know what I'm going to...
I don't know but I was hoping during this our summer spinning that
I would.. I obviously I can't wash and card all of it. But just
some of it. Just because I've never spun alpaca. So anyway, the
other place to buy, too Kelly, is... I didn't even think about
this. You recommended it, Etsy. So that was another thing that I
started sort of doing a deep dive into Etsy and there's tons and
tons and tons of fleeces on Etsy
Kelly 1:01:46
And if you know the name of the farm, that's a good way to look
online. I follow some farms on Instagram. And so you know i've
been, I follow them for you know, they might have lamb for sale, or
they might just post nice pictures, or but some of them if you go
to their website will have, you know, might have some fleeces for
sale or might have processed fleece for sale. So that's another
resource, too. If you're still not able to find a fleece, there's
another way.
Marsha 1:02:22
Anything else you want to add about where to buy a fleece?
Kelly 1:02:26
Another thing to look at is fiber ills. So Valley Oak, she's the
one that that posted this morning about the fleece that I almost
bought. Marcaile at Valley Oak Wool Mill, but she also has roving
that she sells, you know. She doesn't usually sell fleeces. She's
helping someone else sell a fleece. But she does have roving. And
so if you have a wool mill, that you know about, near you, or you
know, that that you follow on Instagram or whatever, check out
their website and see if they have their own roving for sale, and
you can buy already processed fleece from them, you don't just have
to buy a fleece and send it to be processed, you can just buy wool
that's been been processed. So you know, your local, if you have
some local mills, you can take a look and see if they have anything
on their website. But then there's also those people who you know,
there's a real nice thing about grabbing a braid and starting to
spin. And I just my recent purchases, I mentioned Sheep Spot
already. And I purchased a couple of braids of fiber the other day,
which I think are going to be prizes, from Sincere Sheep. Her fiber
is locally sourced. And then I also love the colors of that
Huckleberry Knits has. That's up by you. Up in up in Washington,
and there I mean, there are lots and lots of other people who have
braids, but these are some examples of places that I've recently
purchased.
Marsha 1:04:10
The other thing I forgot to mention this is spinning guilds.
Sometimes somebody will have something that they want to sell, or
they know a producer that has too many and they're just looking for
like, maybe they'll give it to you but if you pay for the shipping,
right? So but that's also a resource. So I belong to the Northwest
Spinners Association here in the Pacific Northwest and they have a
Facebook group. And lot of times they're posting things.They post
things, you know, funny articles, funny spinning cartoons and
stuff, and interesting articles. Sometimes the equipment for sale,
and then sometimes there's been fleeces too, that's another good
source just to find, you know, they're all good sources.
Kelly 1:04:58
So yeah. Yeah, we have lots of ways to make your money fly out of
your wallet. .
Marsha 1:05:05
Yeah, really. [laughing] Anything else on this topic,
Kelly 1:05:10
I think just the main thing is that, you know, if you're interested
in, in that process that you know, fleece to fiber, that whole, you
know, the whole spectrum of the process, I would say it's, it's
definitely worth doing once. And after you do it, you'll know what
parts of the process you like, and what parts of the process you
don't like. And then you can you know, you can decide. No, I'm just
going to buy already processed braids of fiber, or I like washing
fleece, but I have to wash it in small batches. So I'm only going
to buy fleece by the pound I'm not going to buy entire fleeces. Or
you could be like me, and if it's 10 pounds, that's even better.
And so you really want, the bigger the fleece, the more attractive
it is.
Marsha 1:06:04
That is true. Like that was when we went to, I don't remember, I
think it was the Monterey County Fair. And they had the auction. We
got a really good deal on those. Like remember, we got a 10 pound
fleece or something or a 12 pounds. I mean, it was a huge fleece
that we got. And it was really quite inexpensive. And part of the
reason is because it is so much for a hand spinner, right for hand
spinner to go through 10 pounds
Kelly 1:06:31
Really, Yeah,
Marsha 1:06:32
Now granted... Oh, I one thing we didn't say is when you do buy a
fleece, too, that when you wash it, you do lose. The weight will go
down, right, because that weight is debris in the fleece
Kelly 1:06:44
And when you card it, when you card if you do your own processing,
or if you send it out to be processed, when you card it, there will
also be waste. So you could lose, you know, you could lose as much
as half by the time you have, or more, by the time you skirt it,
wash it and process it and have it ready to ready to spin.
Marsha 1:07:10
Because every time you do something to it, you lose. Right?
Kelly 1:07:13
Right. So like I carded yesterday, I have an Oxford fleece that I
started carding yesterday. I didn't put that in my projects. And I
carded. I picked which means you pull the fiber apart. I picked and
put through the drum carder what was 100 grams. So I decided I was
just going to do it in 100 gram batches. So I did 100 grams. And
then I put it through the carder. And when it got through the
carder, it was only...When it got, you know, done being carded the
first time, now it's only 95 grams. And I'm going to put that
through the carder probably two more times, just to get it really
nice. And by the time I do that, I'll probably be down to, you
know, 75 or 80 grams. But yeah, the big fleeces are attractive to
me. But they're not attractive to everyone. You know, it's helpful
if you have a friend who will split it with you right, Marsha?
Marsha 1:08:09
Yeah. So I'm always, I'm always willing to split.
Kelly 1:08:15
So. All right, well, I think that's a, I think that's a good amount
of information for someone who was interested in how to go about
purchasing a fleece for the first time. And what are we going to
talk about next time. Do you remember?
Marsha 1:08:33
So the next episode, we're going to talk about carding of fleece,
blending, prepping and process. Okay. So that's the plan.
Kelly 1:08:41
All right.
Marsha 1:08:43
So good. We have to do some research. Yes.
Kelly 1:08:46
Well, I have one on the carder too right now. So I'll start now.
I'll do my research. Partly do my research that way.
Marsha 1:08:54
Okay, cool. All righty. Okay, well, with that we'll say
goodbye.
Kelly 1:08:58
All right.
Marsha 1:08:59
We'll talk.
Kelly 1:09:00
Okay. Bye. Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the
podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.
Marsha 1:09:08
Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am
betterinmotion and Kelly is 1hundredprojects.
Kelly 1:09:16
Until next time, we're the Two Ewes doing our part for a world
fleece.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai