Three Bags Full

It's here, it's here! After a long wait, my wool has finally arrived. You might recall the time a sheep went 'splody on my porch. Well, all of that pretty fiber has been picked, cleaned and shipped back to me for a reasonable fee and is now ready for use for spinning.

Our package arrived yesterday evening. My daughter was heartily disappointed to learn that there was no other mail.. just the box. On the other hand, I was thrilled to not only get my package, but not have to deal with any junk on the side, either. We took it over to a neighbors and popped it open to see what was inside. The processed fleece was returned in the bags in which I had dropped it off. So at first it pretty unassuming.

The clear bag gave the first hint of just what I'd gotten back. Big, round rolls of fiber. I was terribly excited to get the bags open and get a closer look. This is my first fleece and the first that I've had processed. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with all of it, but seeing it clean would give me the best idea. I just can't quite visualize what to make from something that looks quite so disorganized as a dirty fleece.

I dug in first to the two black bags. These were the Jacob fleeces that I separated. Two fleeces became two wraps of fiber, one chocolate brown and the other brilliant white! What surprised me was the width of the roving. I had specified that the carded fiber should be stripped into roving, but I had expected something more like the width of my wrist. These strips are finger-thin.

The other fleece was just as interesting. It started out at eight pounds of lanolin-laden fleece. I was returned five pounds of brilliant white fluffy fiber. This roving is slightly thicker, or at least it seems like it might be. The strips are about two fingers wide. I started spinning some samples and this looks like it is going to be a whole lot of fun.

I'm really glad I did this with free fleece. The prep isn't what I expected and I would have been really upset that I didn't ask the right questions if I had processed something very dear to me (like the several pounds of ultra-fine merino I picked out myself and purchased at Black Sheep Gathering next year... hahaha). That's not to say this fiber isn't dear to me, too, but I don't mind adding a little extra elbow-grease taking them over to ETC to drum-card into bigger batts or just play with an unexpected preparation of fiber. I might even see if I can borrow a wheel from someone and see how they spin up that way!