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back to the cormo!
(raw lock on left, simple bathroom sink wash on the right) The fleece has very little VM and tons of lanolin - very sheepy smelling! I washed one handful of it in my bathroom sink and let it dry overnight. When dry, it was really white and much less smelly, but still had a lot of lanolin. The whole fleece is definitely going to need to be washed a few times. Diane (one of the fleecey 3-way ladies) said she washes her fleeces in a 2nd (dedicated just to fleece washing) washing machine in her basement! i'm pretty sure my landlords would shit a brick if i washed this in their machine, so i guess the bathtub will have to do. or maybe the back patio once the weather warms up!

I spindle spun that washed bit. still very greasy - but obviously going to be soft as buttah once its washed well! On an allergy side note: Trista is allergic to alpaca and MOST wool, but not Merino. Now, whenever i get a bit of fleece from a different breed of sheep, i give her a little to put in her sock for a bit and see if it causes an allergy rash. From this she has determined that she can also tolerate Coopworth, Cormo (and i think corriedale? can't remember). Since cormo is a merino cross, that makes sense. its still good to know for sure, and sort of interesting to experiment with.

We've started having SnB at my house, which is much more quiet than the bookstores/coffee shops. It also means i can spin while everyone knits! i am all about the spinning lately and not getting ANY knitting done. Last night i finished spinning up the X-Files roving from Helen. its such a great color! I think i might ply it with another natural gray roving, but i haven't decided for sure.

I don't usually talk about much personal stuff in this blog, but since i did mention this before and people have been asking: we are not moving to texas. I will be starting graduate school at Brandeis University (waltham, MA) in the fall! The Big Orange and I will be moving from worcester to waltham sometime at the end of the summer. i am both excited and stressed to high heaven at the same time. eep!