Hello all,

So, I kinda owe you guys an explanation of one of my yearly goals:

5. Finish carding (and maybe spinning?) my gray wool fleece

Many people don't know this, but about 3 years ago, I was given a gray woolen fleece from one of the historical farms that I worked at. When I say fleece, I mean the raw wool.

I've since washed it, but am now in the process of hand-carding and spinning it. I still have several gallon bags stuffed with fleece, and I would love to use the yarn for a woolen cloak. 


I mean, I know I'm old-fashioned and I know I'm fast approaching my mid-twenties, but does this mean that I've declared myself a spinster?

Not exactly. This story actually goes back almost five years. The summer of my junior year in college, to be exact.

I was working as an intern then, for a living history farm in NJ. It was my first time working at an actual living history site, and it is there that I fell in love with the whole idea of it. This farm had a small flock of sheep - a mixture of Suffolk and...Dorset sheep (I think?).

One of the that year's lambs. As the color implies, he was a naughty little ram

At the very end of my internship there, I was helping some of the lady reenactors "skirt" some sheep fleeces from our flock. Each year, the sheep's winter fleece must be shorn off because otherwise they'll get overheated. The predominant color of these fleeces were gray, though there were some white fleeces too.

Oh, I should explain "skirting" first before I go much further. "Skirting" was the local term for laying a fleece out and removing all the poopy bits and disentagling bits of hay. It's also called "tagging" because you're removing the "dung tags" and other nasty bits that are not worth saving.

Anyway, the ladies revealed to me that once these fleeces were skirted, they were rolled back up and saved as gifts to local spinners, or some of the employees if they want them. There were simply too few of them to make a profit off them, and who buys wool anyway? So, they offered me and my fellow intern each a fleece.

Now being the old-fashioned nut that I am, I decided to take one of the fleeces. After all, who turns down a free sheep fleece if offered to them? I chose a gray one - I like gray and there were much more gray fleeces available.

I joked that I looked like Santy Claus as I hauled my big poofy fleece in a large trashbag on my back to my car.

Now, had I been sensible, I would have washed the fleece immediately. However, I had little time between leaving NJ and going back to school in OH and so the stinky fleece stayed in it's black trash bag and made the long haul with me to school.

Yes, I took a sheep's fleece - a dirty, stinky gray sheep fleece mind you - with me to college. I mean, it was either that or it was going to sit at home for 4 months. You see, if I took the fleece with me, I'd have a chance to wash it!

Once I got it to my apartment, however, I quickly realized I had a problem. Ideally, the fleece should have been washed all at once, but there really was no place to do that. The bathtub was out - my roommates would have KILLED me, and that would have been a huge mess. I researched doing it in the washing machine, but the idea of it felting on me gave me the willies.

So that left only one method - doing small bits at a time, using a pot that had become ruined last year. It became a weekly thing for me - the first thing I would do on Saturday was get the hot water started for washing that week's wool. A little Dawn dish soap, a few soakings and rinsings, and then it got left out to dry on the rack.

It was rare that I missed a week, but it did take me all school year to wash all the fleece. And about half did have to be rewashed later, as I switched washing methods halfway through the year and not all the grease came out. At that point, I was home and could do it in the bathtub.

Wish I had done this the FIRST TIME

During that school year, I also bought a small set of carders (from England, no less) and a drop spindle. Being a cheap college student doing this as a hobby, I thought it easier to go with the less expensive options. Though I do regret getting the smaller carders, to be frank.

In the meantime, I've been working to card and spin this fleece, one section at a time. I would say that I've gotten about a third of it spun, and I still have about a third left to card. As you can tell, I went several months without working on it and I really would like to get the rest of the fleece spun so I can finally get to making that cloak!

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine