Me, the Sheep & Ewe

Here I thought that I would be better at updating this blog, due to the easy access I have to it online, but I've certainly been wrong about that! I have recently discovered the simplicity of posting on Twitter, which has not only sucked me away from blogging, but other self-imposed crafting responsibilities. Still, it's nice to only be committed to 140 words at a time when I sit down to write. :)

One of the crafts related things that I'm working on is getting a whole lot of raw wool ready for resale (thus the Baaa-d pun in my title - oops, I did another one again!). I've never worked with raw wool before, and it has been an exciting adventure for me. Let me tell you, any misconceptions I had about sheep being white & fluffy has been completely thrown out the window.

So, for a reminder to myself how bad wool cleaning can really be, I offer up my top 10 list for what I experienced during my wool processing adventure:

10: White fleece that looks only slightly dirty dry, is actually really disgustingly filthy when wet.

9. The ratio of water/detergent mix to raw wool should not be 70/30, but rather 99/1

8. You have to clean the fleece before washing it. Not only must you skirt it, and shake out the debris, but a vacuum is recommended

7. It's probably not a good idea to shake out the debris on your kitchen table while somebody's plate of food is nearby.

6. Wool with very high crimping in it (the Lincoln lamb's wool that I had in particular) felts nearly instantaneously when it hits the hot water, even without agitation.

5. Lanolin smells nice on my hands, but not my kitchen counter, table or sink.

4. Like babysitting doesn't prepare you for childbirth, reading up & watching Youtube about washing wool won't prepare you for doing it.

3. I have a greater appreciation for the price of wool. People who hand wash & spin it should be allowed to charge at least $50/2 oz. skein

2. So much stuff can hide between the hairs. Even after cleaning I still found more dirt, more grass, more sticks, small animals, a child...

1. Despite all the above, I'm a glutton for punishment, because I'm going to clean four 30 lb barrels of wool before I've processed it all.

Anybody wanna buy some raw wool?

Seriously, if you want to be a brave DIY & try out some raw wool, just contact me through my profile & let me know how much you would like. I don't know much about grading, but I can easily get the answers to specific questions about the wool from the shepherd who gave it to me. I do know that most of the fleeces I have are from Lincoln ewes - some is lamb (first shearing), and some is second shearing, there might be some Cotswold available as well (I haven't opened all the barrels yet).

Theses fleeces have a lot of crimping in them, so they are suited for heavy yarns - the type you would use for outer garments or rugmaking. Makes great felting wool too. All of the wool is white with a high lanolin content.

The sheep are "working sheep", used for hard grazing noxious weeds (an environmentally friendly way to get rid of weeds instead of spraying pesticides). As such, they aren't blanketed, and though the fleece has been skirted, the wool has a lot of VM (vegetable matter) and fine dirt particles in it. Though I must say, I personally managed to get the wool very clean with 2 soaks of detergent & 5 rinses of water - and I'm a novice. So if you want to give it a try, just let me know - otherwise keep an eye on my Etsy store as I'll put the cleaned wool there.