Trenchwork

I’ve convinced the spinning group to use our August 22 meeting for a fleece workshop, and the fleeces are here and waiting for them. I’m pleased with them, and I’m hoping the gals will be as well. They came from Andi and Desiree McMurry of Humble Hills Farm/Genopalette, and are Merino and Merino/Romney crosses . . . and they’re beautiful.  See?

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There are about 25 pounds of wool in that group of fleeces, and they came in this box:

Seriously. Have you ever seen a rounder square in your entire life? Or anything that looked more like a marshmallow tied with string?

I washed up about an ounce of locks from each fleece in order to give them a bit of a test, then span a sample skein for each. (Click through for notes and bigger.)

The superfine lamb on the left and the pure Romney on the bottom are not fleeces the group will be working with, but are the opposite ends of the scale and help put the Big Four in perspective.  But my initial impressions were confirmed, and those four are indeed as nice as they seem.  The full-blood Merino needs a bit of attention to handle some muddy tips, but it’s just the usual mud and not anything difficult to remove.  The moorit has some soybean bits from a messy sheep, but they’re not stuck in the fleece and actually fall right out when the fleece is shaken or handled for processing.  All of the fleeces have a lovely handle and a surprising degree of softness.  While every bit of them are destined to go into the hands of Norwegian spinners, I have to admit that I truly love these fleeces. The McMurrys have managed to pick up some of luster from the Romney, as well as some of the Romney’s strength and a relaxed staple, while still keeping the Merino’s crimp and softness.   I can imagine a sweater in this wool . . .

I’m crossing my fingers like mad that the group likes these fleeces as much as I do!  And therein lies the question—and a certain amount of nervousness.  The majority of the group has never handled raw fleece.  A couple of the gals have, but they are definitely the minority.   Until recently, the general response has been more than a little hesitant.  You know, the way you feel when you see a slug making its terminally-slow way across the sidewalk and know you should give it a lift to the other side before the next onslaught of bikes and kids with wagons smashes it into soup, but you just can’t quite bring yourself to touch it so hunt up a stick or big leaf . . .   Something like that, minus the sense of obligation.  And to be equally honest, I’m not sure that I haven’t slightly nagged them into agreeing to the workshop!  But, there’s a lot I’d like to cover and I have the lesson plan set up in such a way that I think I can make it fun for them.  So, nope, I’m not feeling outrageously guilty. 

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I’m wondering if part of the reason for the hesitation is that they haven’t had the opportunity to get their hands on—or simply see—good handspinning fleeces.  What they see is, more often than not, news clips and pictures of truly filthy sheep in dark, close barns, and I know they come away from those reports wondering why in the world they’d want to even touch that wool, much less wash, card, comb, and spin it.

Not long ago there was a news segment which showed a farmer having his sheep sheared, but the sheep had clearly not been fed or housed in any way geared to keeping the wool clean, much less clean enough for a handspinner.  They were covered in VM, mud, and muck, and went directly to the shearer who wasn’t worrying about mixing the nastiest bits of wool with the relatively cleaner segments, and there was no effort to clear the shearing floor between sheep—or even shear on a *floor* rather than dirt and mud.  Even DH—who has little to no real interest in spinning and fleece but has picked up a certain amount out of self-defense—shook his head and wondered why in the world the farmer would allow those sheep to be sheared in that condition, much less allow the rest of the world to see it.

I had no answer.

I still don’t.

I only know that that isn’t what I’m willing to handle and spin, and I don’t care how “normal” it may be.   As long as there are fleeces such as these from Humble Hills and other shepherds like Kate Lowder and Lois Moore who are dedicated to producing clean, quality handspinning fleeces, I refuse to even lay a finger on those others.

I’m hoping that the workshop will help a few spinners realize that they have those options, too, and that there really are good fleeces out there.  And, of course, I’m hoping they have fun in the process.

Wish me luck.