Buying a whole fleece to process is huge! Even just an average 5 pounds of fleece can yield a lot of yarn!
A whole fleece , depending on the size, as I said can really take a long time to work through. I think her fleece was right around 6 pounds skirted heavy. She was a fairly large sheep.
Being able to have the opportunity to work with fiber is truly a blessing and I love it 😍
And because you hold the key to how and what it's processed into you can get many different yarns and projects from that one fleece.
I would have never bought a whole fleece as a beginner. It's just to much!
But I bought sheep ... so there I was with a couple of whole fleeces!
My first fleece came from a dairy sheep I called Bo Peep.
This was in 2013.
She was a great milking sheep with an average mid grade type white fleece. And it, like my other dairy sheep fleece did not felt. Made it very unintimidating to wash as I had been told horror stories of washing wool wrong or to rough and ending up with a big felted ball of ruined wool!
Low in lanolin and not being super fine it was an easy fleece to clean. Crimpy and strong , average length also made it a perfect for a beginner spinner like me!
It carded super easy too!
I hit the ground spinning with that fleece! I made so much yarn... all kinds of yarn! Simple handspun white yarn , woolen , bulky, thin.. then I learned to dye!
So here come the colors which took so fast and easy to her wool. That boosted my confidence!
How easy it was to spin also boosted my confidence.
Previously I had tried some alpaca and angora .. a longwool , a Cormo,some cheap mystery wool roving.. all more difficult to card and to tricky to handle for me so I really felt maybe spinning wasn't my thing for a little while.
I'm so thankful I bought Bo peep and kept her fleece because with it and all it's ordinary , simple features I might not have continued on that branch of my fiber arts journey. And never had the confidence to explore with it.
So I tried many different things..
Then I tried my hand at art yarn .. thick n' thins, bright colors with sparkly accents, different plies to get different results!
Feathers ! Beads!! What absolute creative freedom fun!
Her fleece was exactly what I needed as a beginner spinner and dyer.
I made so many items with that yarn.. hats, gloves, boot cuffs and leg warmers, head bands, purses... I did make 1 scarf but since her fleece wasn't super soft I like wearing it around my jacket collar. I sold a lot of projects from that fleece too..
A whole fleece , depending on the size, as I said can really take a long time to work through. I think her fleece was right around 6 pounds skirted heavy. She was a fairly large sheep.
That was 5 years ago. I worked that fleece fairly solid that first year then on and off .. blend a little .. dye a little over the next few years.
I still had a pound left that I recently sent to the mill to be blended with alpaca for some fast spinning roving!
Give it a new look and texture And hopefully improve the handle of alpaca for me .. which I still have a hard time spinning unless it's blended with something. Someday I will spin pure alpaca beautiful as the local alpaca lady here..I Always need a new challenge anyways!
I no longer prefer to have big whole fleeces to work through by hand. I like using a small mill since I have quite a few to process and offer for sale in different forms.
I keep out maybe a pound or 2 if it's good for lock spinning or if it's something like the thel I want separated from the icie fleece.
That Bo Peep fleece was the best thing though... I love the things I kept for myself. Makes me smile whenever I put something on from it!
Although I will offer most of the blended roving for sale.. I'll definitely be spinning some up myself!
Being able to have the opportunity to work with fiber is truly a blessing and I love it 😍