Worth the Effort

When I was on my vacation, I stopped twice in Saskatoon and managed to be there on Saturday morning both times.  This was very important to me because my family gets together for breakfast every Saturday morning.  Attendance is at our convenience but it is a long standing tradition and long may it continue. Every once in a blue moon, I will drive to Saskatoon for no other reason than to join them for breakfast.  

This year, on my way back home from that long Sunday afternoon sort of drive, they were inquiring about what I brought back.  I mentioned that I had missed a chance of stopping to purchase a fleece or two and my dad looked at me and asked if I had ever taken a fleece from a sheep and spun and then knit a project.  I had to answer no. 

I have washed a fleece before and it was not a thing I particularly enjoyed doing.  I was a newbie and I had never ever worked with a fleece before.  The fleece was free but it had not been stored or even skirted.  In was RAW.  Really really raw.  I cleaned it up before I washed it but it was still pretty awful. I did end up spinning a sample and while it wasn't too bad, it wasn't great and I ended up using it as a groundcover where we wanted to stop a slope from washing away.  I have spun from prepared fleece and I have knit with that handspun yarn.

I accepted that I did not have the gumption that women used to have.  Washing fleece, after that experience, did not seem worth the effort and I wasn't planning on trying it again. And then some stuff happened.

I learned how to spin long draw and magic happened.  I adore watching what happens as twist and fibre draw out into a single.  It is simply fascinating.  I could spend hours a day doing it, and I don't feel the need for perfection that spinning a short forward draw seems to bring out in me.  Spinning short forward felt like I was never going to be good enough.  Learning long draw and woollen drafting has liberated me.  I don't need to worry about perfection.  I am much too busy watching the magic. It moves along so swiftly in comparison to the way I was spinning before, a huge plus.  

The other thing that happened was that I found and joined a Facebook group, Central Alberta Rural Spinners.  After joining that group, my feed started to be filled with suggested pages for different fleece and fibre groups, particularly Fleece Canada - Groomed or Greasy.  When I joined that second page, daily I was confronted with lovely looking fleeces from all over Canada.  

I stood strong for a long time because I was going on a trip and would be bringing back some lovely yarns and that would be enough, right?  It worked too.  I do have some very lovely new yarns to play with.  I enjoy seeing all those fleeces on my feed, but I wasn't going to buy one till I had the three that I already have carded and spun.  Or at least carded. Spinning long draw will be a dream once it is all carded and I think it will go very fast.

But then a local grower posted.  Not drive two or three hours to somewhere local but local. Schieck Livestock is not even half an hour away from me and has several different breeds, many pure bred.  Can you imagine having a really local supplier, somebody you could go to where there is no shopping, no shipping, no long drive away, no additional carbon footprint beyond the gas my car takes to get me there? It is a close as I will ever get to raising sheep myself.  (I was planning on talking Mr. Needles into that but life intervened.) I want this small local agri business to be strong and to be viable.  I want to help all farms be viable and for the farm community to stay small and strong and diverse. 

I can help this farm family with that in two ways.  I can talk about them a lot, and I can purchase fibre. So I did what I never thought I would do.  I went shopping for fleece.  Now it is time to talk.

Two Border Leicester fleece that are stunning.  Here is a little sample lock so you can see up close how lovely it is. 

 

And because it was just too soft too and pretty to leave behind, 

a Southdown Dorset cross.  I think that was what she said.  I have to ask her again to confirm the cross. This sweet little fleece is a virgin fleece, meaning it is from the first shearing of the lamb.  It is the softest wool that any breed can give you and I fell for this one hard. It's like the hair of a baby bunny, that delicate softness that only the very young have.

   

It is short, but whatever I have to do, I mean to make something wonderful from this.  This is probably going to be flick carded only and spun into a very light fine yarn.  Maybe.  Depends what I can get from this short a staple. It would be a crime not to give it my best shot.  

Short staple length is okay because I also have this to practise on.

This is a bag of locks, not really a bag of fleeces. These are also from virgin fleeces but the fleeces were heavily skirted and the seller gave the entire very large bag for 5 bucks.  The locks are from Southdown lambs and if anything, the staple length is even shorter than the wee cross fleece.

It is lovely and soft and though short, gives me lots of chances to learn how to get something from short fibre before I try my hand at that lovely little cross lamb. If I cannot spin with it or if it is not worth the effort, it may be the perfect thing for stuffing for pillows and toys. 

So, I am putting on my big girl panties and facing up to what I have done. I have some fleecy laundry to do today.  It is supposed to be very warm today. No point in waiting and a hot day is a good day to get it dried.  

No matter how well this goes, I still am 100 % positive that my grandmas were women of a sturdier, heartier sort.  I am also positive that the attempt to live up to that 100 % is worth the effort.    

If you are interested in this local to me farm and their products, please contact me at canadian needles (one word) at yahoo. dot the short form for Canada and I would be thrilled to pass it on.