Sheep?

Michelle wondered if I still had any sheep.  Well, you don't see much more than this these days...
It's kind of too cold to sit with anybody as Ole Man Winter gives us his final blast...and it's the goats that want all the attention, anyway!

So I've taken the leap and begun to play with my fleeces.  The first one is an uncoated shearing from Victoria (I think), a ewe we no longer have.  I don't know where it falls on the VM scale, but working with it has definitely triggered my latent OCD, so it's going to be pretty VM free by the time I get done with it...

First, I laid it out on the table to get a look.   Thankfully, no poo tags or really bad stuff:

                                                         (ahh...the bouquet of lanolin....)

And then two hot soapy soakings and half a dozen hot water rinses in the tub.  (Before you say it - we have a front loader that won't allow mid-cycle openings of the drum...so this is all we have.)

And now for the drum carder...which is a mystery to me as well...but we're trying nonetheless...

I picked this up at the NYS Sheep and Wool festival last fall.

My impressions so far is that it seems rather unevenly paced as I try to fill the larger wheel, but I have cleaned it off and sent the wool through a second and even a third time.  The result is lofty, but lighter than the rovings I have purchased.

Next:

We break out the spinning wheel...yikes!