Sheep fleeces and kilts

It still feels a bit weird to be unemployed for the next 4 months – on the other hand it feel pretty damn fine!

Getting into the swing of things and starting to get a lot of work done. I had bought 4 small fleeces a few weeks ago and have started to wash them. The quality is inconsistent. It is so hard to get fleeces that are clean and are worth spinning. These fleeces are from Icelandic sheep and the wool is unusual. There appears to be two kinds of wool in each fleece – some that is very fine, with a tight crimp and some that is quite long, a bit coarser and with almost no crimp to it at all. It should be interesting.

The owners did a reasonable job of getting rid of the tags, but at least one of the four is full of vegetable matter. I don’t know if it is worth cleaning or not. One was a lovely brown fleece – but most of the fiber is too short to spin. I want to get the fleeces all washed before I go away so that it is not outside in the sun all summer. I definitely do not want to have inside until it is clean. This is a picture of a beautifully coloured (gray) unwashed fleece. I hope it looks as nice when it is washed and carded.

It would be nice to get some of it carded as well before I leave which may be my least favourite part of the process. Want to buy some dye, it is not the cost of the dye that scares me off, it is the cost of shipping it from the States. They charge an outrageous amount.

I have also be working on my 4th kilt. The first one was not that wearable – to heavy and poorly designed, the second one was ok, the third one I wear all of the time in the house, it works well except that it doesn’t “swish” as much as it should. The fabric is too stiff. The fabric I am making my kilt of now is a very light (probably too light) wool. It should hand and “swish” much better. I have also made the pleats about 3.5 inches deep so there is a lot of fabric. Just have the Velcro ( I can’t do button holes) the belt loops and the straps to hand sew on and I will be done.

So the hands are busy…..leaves a lot of time for the brain to be working. Not always a good thing.