Free Fleece ? Yes please !

 Just before we went away, I returned from the local guild meeting with two bags of fleece. One was the saxon merino already mentioned in a previous post and the other was a Zwartbles fleece fresh from a farm. I'm always happy to take on fleece and I haven't spun Zwartbles yet but one of my favuorite fleeces in a a long time was a zwartble black wensleydale cross which I have just about run out of now. The last of it is currently on the needles.

The day after we got back was warm and sunny so I popped it out of the bag to see exactly what I have.

it is a monster and definitely in need of a good skirting.

Next step was buckets, hot soapy water and a reasonable amount of mess before I could pop it on the line ( a small portion of it)

My 'go to' prep for most fleece that has a staple length greater than three inch is to use my wool combs and this was no exception. Next up was my Ashford e-spinner where I hit my first problem. Over the last couple of months I have used this mainly for plying as I have been travelling with the Argonaut spinner. It took me a while to work out the best thickness to spin this one and in the end I've gone for a DK ish yarn.

Its now ready for a wash, about 50gm sample, not super soft so probably going to be a pair of fingerless mitts just to see how it knits up and washes.

After washing I'm thinking that its maybe a bit softer than I thought and would work as a jumper to wear over a long sleeve t-shirt in winter. To be honest there doesn't seem to be too much prickle for me .

A quick sample has it knitting up nicely and the world of wood carded fibre that
I spun for TDF shows up well against it.

I now have another 100gm processed and ready to spin, I will keep you updated.