OM NOM Romney

All I can say is yum.

I went with Terry on Saturday to Wet Thistle Farm to pick out fleeces.  Usually this farm’s fleeces aren’t available to the public- a yarn company snaps up their whole clip.  This year, however, there were some available, and as Terry promised it was oh so very worth the trip!  I ended up splitting three colored fleeces with Terry and getting one white lamb fleece as well.

This is a lamb fleece that progresses from a red brown to a creamy white down the length of the staple.

I washed it and experimented with using the spin cycle on my front loader between passes- I won’t do that again.  The butt ends felted slightly.  It won’t be hard to process, but it fell apart deliciously before the wash, and past fleeces with that character have maintained it after washing.

It has a 5″ staple:

here’s a second lock:

Don’t you just want to bury your face in this?

It smells vaguely of lavender and sheep after washing, just so you know.  I can’t wait to start working with this! It’s deliciously soft too; much finer than the rest of my Romney.  Oh- and strong.  no sign of crackle when I “ping” a lock.  This is as close to perfect as fleece gets, and it’s even in “my” color!  It will match my hair!

I’ll get pictures up of the other three fleeces as they are washed.

Thanks so much to Marie for letting us visit her farm, and giving us the opportunity to collect these gorgeous fleeces.  I’m hoping to return for the annual clip, which will be happening next month.  Maybe I can talk her out of another fleece then!