Cleaning fleece...yucky fleece

Okay so I am finally getting my ass around to cleaning that fleece I won at the silent auction at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival. Well, one bit of advice....NEVER TAKE BARGIN FLEECE! This "shetland" fleece is SHIT! And in some parts is full of it too.

I have yet to have the pleasure of working with such a horrible fleece. I tell you what. Compaired to the samples a nice vender in Indiana sent me, this is truely a fleece down on the lower end of the quality scales. No crimp. Very little curl. Lots of dandruff. Lots of VM. Lots of course brown and silver hair mixed with the white. I am such a sucker for paying for this. I only paid $12...but it was on silent auction because it could not be sold otherwise because experienced fleece workers....knew better.

*pout*

I'm not sure if I want to work with it or not. It does not felt well, so wet felting is out of the question. It's ruff, so yarn is mostly out of the picture. I think I bought $12 worth of fertilizer for the garden.

Humph. BUT, on a positive note, I have ordered some higher quality fleece, one from a Shetland Ewe, and one from a Shetland x columbia/corriedale/domney yearling. OOOO they are so soft, plenty of fine crimps, and looks like it would spin up beautifully! It'll cost me $69 if the samples got to me in time that she can send the fleeces with a friend who is actually coming to Madison from Indiana, or it will cost me lots more in shipping if it is too late. I don't get paid till Friday, but in a pinch I can hit the cash advance place.

SO next I will be cleaning some Blue Lienchester (how do you spell that?) lamb fleece that I bought some time ago.

Until next time...