What's on the Wheel - the Christmas Fleece

The place of employment goes on holiday from Christmas till New Year. Of course the first thing I think is WHAT a great time to process a fleece!

I had heard that shetland sheep produced really soft wool that was easy to spin. Shetland are an endangered breed from the Shetland Islands. Their wool fueled a hand knitting industry that draped the victorian upper class in gossamer lace.

The Windsweptspinner from Windswept Farms went out of her way to get a fleece in the mail to me before the holiday. It arrived in short order and was beautiful! Creamy white with carmel colored tips and oh soooo soft.

Yeah that's some in the bath right there. I got yards and yards of netting from the fabric store to use like giant tea bags. When the wool is done soaking just pick up the netting by the corners. It kept the lock structure intact so I hope I did it right.  I've only done this once so I'm no expert.

Don't tell everyone, but I really love opening the box or bag with a fresh fleece in it. That barn smell. I like it. I like the way the bathroom smells like wet sheep for the 2 or 3 days it takes me to wash the whole fleece.

And then it has to dry. Baby gates come in really handy to make drying shelves, cheap too. Just prop both ends up on something handy. This one is using one shelf of a bookshelf and on the other end on a plastic storage tub.

Fluffy clouds of creamy goodness drying in the craft room. I couldn't wait to try spinning it! I had no idea what I wanted to make at this point. I'm gonna let the fleece tell me what it wants to be. I have no experience with shetland.

The first thing I did was spin some up thin and spin some up thick. Do a lot of experimenting to see what the fiber wanted to do. Oh my gosh! It is so soft in my hands and practically spins its self. I carded some and made some thicker yarn that is so soft and lofty light. It is the color of oatmeal. I love it. I want it to be a hat..... with cables maybe.

And it spins thin... oh yeah does it spin up thin. I've not gotten this close to lace weight with any other fiber yet. Could be I've gotten better, but I think a lot of it is this fleece! This laceweight is still soft after I have enough twist to hold it together. No wonder they used this to make lace back-in-the-day.

So that decided it. I'll make a lace shawl from this fleece. Ohhhhhhh yeah. Perfect!

There ya go. The shawl project has begun. I believe we are about 3 weeks in. There's about 1/4th of the fleece left to spin. There's a LOT more shawl to knit.

I keep telling myself - more to knit is more fun to have! Look at all the fun I have yet in front of me.









Luv and Purls
Pfluffernutter