Clean fleece

OK, the washing is over. I ended up with some gooey tips, which I assume is hardened lanolin, and I'm wondering if I should have left the fleece in the water longer. I saw anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes for each wash/soak and I think I did 20-30. Also I didn't have regular plain blue Dawn, I only had the green stuff with hand sanitizer in it (purchased by accident) so maybe that was part of the problem?

Comb loaded with some Gracie.

Combed.

Making the sliver.

And a lovely nest.

St. Blaise the guy

St. Blaise was a 3rd century martyr from what is now Turkey, but was Sebastea when he was around. He was a physician and a bishop. Wikipedia tells us this about him:

"In iconography, Blaise is often shown with the instruments of his martyrdom, steel combs. He blessed throats and effected many miracles, according to his hagiography. The similarity of these instruments of torture to wool combs led to his adoption as the patron saint of wool combers in particular, and the wool trade in general. He may also be depicted with crossed candles. Such crossed candles are used for the blessing of throats on the feast day of Blaise, which falls on 3 February, the day after Candlemas on the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. Blaise is traditionally believed to intercede in cases of throat illnesses, especially for fish-bones stuck in the throat."

He is my new favorite saint. I am also fond of St. Catherine, and learning about St. Blaise has sent me to the inner nets to learn about other saints and the interesting instruments of their martrydoms.

Here are some depictions of St. Blaise. Most of the images show him with his boring crossed candles for blessing throats. I much prefer the images showing his wool combs.

Praise St. Blaise!

I could not resist. I just could not resist. I went out to Susan's Fiber Shop yesterday and bought my very own set of St. Blaise combs.

I am not a big fan of Susan, because she is an impatient, crabby stressful teacher, but no one else in town had them.

I absolutely love them and I have already played around with blending colors with them. I blended some crimson/scarlet/blood red roving with some white Icelandic roving to get some heathery pink, which I spun into singles.

Sheep to shawl

I am right this very minute beginning the first wash of my pound of Gracie's fleece. I cranked up my water heater as high as it will go, filled the tub of the washer, added the Dawn and dunked two bags of wool into the hot water. Now I wait.

I made the washing bags out of pink tulle that I purchased for a tutu that was never made. I sewed up three sides of a square, put the wool in it and basted the fourth side shut.

New Skills

Hand-painted sock  yarn. Single ply, 75/25 wool/nylon.

One pound of Gracie's fleece.

Yesterday I drove out to charming Mt. Horeb for a day of fiber at the Cat and Crow fiber shop with the incomparable Mo Brown. The morning was spent learning how to evaluate and skirt a fleece (we worked on four very different fleeces) and a little practice on carding and combing. I now MUST have wool combs. And a drum carder. and a hackle. And English combs. THere were just five people in the class, which was a good size. Almost everyone had more experience with fiber than I do, and two women have their own sheep.
   My only complaint is that there was that one entirely annoying person in the class. I can't tell you exactly what it was about her, but she just rubbed a raw nerve. Well, I can tell you two things. One-personal space. No respect for it. Two-extreme density. She came up to a woman sitting next to me ( a tiny woman dressed in kind of baggy overalls and a t-shirt.) and said, "I see you're expecting!" To which the overalls woman said, "No. I guess I'm just fat."  Cringes all around.
    Anyway, The afternoon was about hand painting. We  talked about the technical side a bit and about color theory and then we dyed! It was very very rewarding. I am trying to figure out how to set up a dying space in my basement. It will have to make a table out of plastic lumber or find a plastic table of some sort because it's so damp down there that wood rots and disintegrates. Then I will need to re-attach the old gas stove that's down there or get a hot plate. Maybe add some more lighting.  I think it could work.

Gracie up close.

Two things

In 20 minutes I'll be on my way to the Cat & Crow for a day of fiber fun. In the morning I will learn how to prepare a fleece (fresh off a sheep) for spinning. In the afternoon I'll learn hand painting.
These are two skills I've read about quite a bit and have been wanting to actually do for a long time so I am stoked.

This brings me to the second thing. Last night for the first time in my life it occurred to me that I should cull my stash. Seriously, I have never entertained that thought before. I started very tentatively with some really hideous half-skeins that came in a grab bag.

Now I am thinking that I may combine this with an all-out, no skein left behind inventory and organization project. Mind-blowing, huh?