SpinnySpinny

With the machine-wash “Rambouillet” done, I came back home from the annual guild stash sale with yet more fleece. This time about a kilo of Coopworth, which is shiny and dense and looks a lot like mohair. It was one of the fleeces bought for a fiber study, so it was up for grabs in exchange for a donation to the guild. By the end of the meeting it was still sitting there, so I pulled out the $10 I had and tossed it in. I know why nobody wanted it, it is very greasy and caked with clay mud and who knows what else. But it was an interesting breed I haven’t worked with (some people like it for beginners) so I figured it was worth ten bucks.

I knew I wanted to card this, so I didn’t have to go through the long process of dividing the fleece into staples for washing. I just pulled off sections and put them in mesh bags. If only the others were so easy.

I did two scour-wash cycles, with a spin in the washer between. That front-loading washer really does get the water out, although in this case it’s filthy mud and the washer needed a bath when I was done, but hardly worse than the last experiment. I opened up the wet locks to get it to dry and there was still caked mud. In theory, it will flake off during picking and carding and the remainder will wash out later. We’ll see.

I didn’t have enough mesh bags for all of it, so the last bit was put in after and soaked overnight. I scoured it this morning by my usual non-washer method and it looks like the soak didn’t help much.

The other find from the meeting was four cones of 20/2 wool for weaving. It’s in this dreary off-white color called “bone” that makes it look more dirty than anything else. Perfect for dying. Combined with the two huge cones of black I already have, I could get some interesting fabric.