A New East Friesian Fleece for Spinning

It has been a marvelous week, I’ve had the place totally to myself. And guess what? Fleece and spinning abound – spread from one end to the other!

If anyone is thinking about taking up spinning – beware. It’s addictive! Once you pick up that spindle, or treadle that wheel, there is no turning back. Your home will become a vast fibre studio with stash hidden in every spare, or not so spare, space imaginable.

My new East Friesian fleece arrived earlier in the week and I’ve been boxing it up for safe storage away from any moths. Moths hate newpaper, so that is what my storage consists of. And it works, I’ve only lost one fleece in thirty years of spinning due to moths.

This fleece is absolutely superb, and about the best I’ve seen in a while. Its well grown, clean, strong, soft with a downy feel and will be excellent to spin. It is the first time I have tried Friesian and so far am very impressed. The weight would be about 3-4kilos (7-8lbs) – and enough for a number of items.

The whole fleece.

A selection of the staples – very clean, long and white.

Fleece being boxed, to keep it safe from moths. It also stops it from becoming ‘creased’, which makes it hard to find the tips of the staples as they tend to fold in and hide.

The preparation process will be minimal because of the good quality – it always pays to buy sound clean fleece and walk away from those which seem very dirty or heavy in VM (vegetable matter) – a mistake I made a while ago when buying some merino at a show. Two washes later and its still not clean, and now slightly matted making processing more time consuming, and frustrating.

Part of this fleece will most likely become a handspun and knitted jacket for me. I’m not sure yet whether I will dye it or leave it natural white. Being a ‘down’ type fleece, it will be hardwearing, springy, and therefore will hold its shape very nicely. The soft feel is a bonus.

Some of the fleece I will spin into yarn and have on offer in my The Woolly Mother store on Etsy. There will also be sock yarn spun with this fleece as it will be both soft and hardwearing, so keep checking in and be the first to knit a pair of socks with this unique wool!

Ok, back to the fleece – Oh dear, do I really have to waste time to eat and sleep? …

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