Fleece alchemy

Someone at Caroline's get together asked me why I prefer to buy raw silky long wool fleece instead of the fluffy shorter and finer stuff like the Cormo that Kerry and I were discussing (I owe you a long answer Kerry). I can only show you in photos, I guess. This is the type of fleece that attracted me so many years ago when I began to spin and was fortunate enough to be introduced to a group of Lincoln/Finn sheep in a spinner's flock. I fell in love with the texture and the hand. I bought three fleeces at MS&W and now wish that I had bought a lot more, which would have happened if I were just driving home, instead of going by sardine-can-with-wings-home. This wool was my last purchase of the day. It was a half fleece of a Border Leicester ewe. I was encouraged to root through the bags of fleece by Louise and so I climbed into the bags and kept putting my hands in until I had that endorphin rush that comes from chocolate OR the fleece that can be imagined running through my hands. You have seen the pictures of the washed product and I pick up the saga at this stage.

I decided to make a yarn with this little bag of wool (a little over 2 pounds when washed) and the experimentally dyed Tencel roving from a couple of weeks ago. I dragged out my O L D Clemes&Clemes hand cards and teased the fibers together. The effect that I was going for came out of this.
The wool is opened and the Tencel is shot through randomly. On to the wheel I go, for the first ply.
and this morning, here is a finished skein of the beautiful multi-toned Border Leicester fleece, coupled with the enormously silky and reflective Tencel. I let the yarn be what it wants to be. I don't overthink what I like to do with this fiber. I can spin fine stuff (still making the anti vampire sign over lace weight) but choose to let the fiber tell me what it wants to be, when it is the endorphin producing fleece of choice.

This yarn comes on the heels of the last angora project. Same wheel, different settings, different results. One higly controlled and the other left to its will.

As John Cleese used to say, " now, for something completely different", I give you a parting shot of Sugar Pie, my little mouser/fiber junkie. I was rooting around in here, filling a button order for someone and left the button boxes on Someone's towel by the window. How stupid of me, really. I just know that I am to be punished if I forget about these things...
Yeah, the Thundering Herd was stampeding around on the floor, tearing their daily cardboard cone (where's my snow shovel?) and Madame was discovered in there, giving me the evil eye. As with lessons learned I looked around to see why she would punish me this way and found the button boxes on the Throne...needless to say, that was remedied in a heartbeat.

One last thing. I was lucky enough to be contacted by a very talented fiber artist yesterday. Her work really caught my attention because of the mixed media/fiber aspect that was a part of my past, although never at this level. I invite you to enjoy Fulvia's work!

Comments

[vanessa]

lisa, everything you toch turns to gold :-) and am i the blonde?

[Lisa S]

Yes, darling, you are The Blonde. :o)

[kim]

I wish I had half your talent. And Fulvia's. That's some incredible stuff.

Seriously, though, you encourage me in so many ways to just "go with it."

Thanks.

[CarolineF]

What a wonderful entry! That yarn looks great. See, I think doing a little fleece preparation now and then is just a chance for you to work your magic even a step further back in the creative process. How much yardage do you guess you'll get out of the batch?

[CarolineF]

What a wonderful entry! That yarn looks great. See, I think doing a little fleece preparation now and then is just a chance for you to work your magic even a step further back in the creative process. How much yardage do you guess you'll get out of the batch?

[Lisa S]

Oh, you guyzzz. Thank you. Caroline this is the most rudimentary of fiber prep...I can only do so much of that stuff before my knitter's/spinner's/tennis elbow tendon says EEEE-nuff. The skeins will average 48 yards per ounce, so we will see how far the project goes. There will be "enough", that is all that I know; enough for a nice big project! I got all of the fiber teased out last night but did not do it all with the cards, except for the kinky neck wool. It should roar onto the wheel today.

[Sam]

Lisa, this came out soooo beautifully. Those little shots of color are just perfect in that fiber. I have to second everything that Caroline said. You have da magick, woman. :-)