Monday, November 3, 2014

Fiberintheboro...

 I went to a fiber show in Murfreesboro, Tn. Saturday with my niece Jill. I had so much fun. My very first fiber show.  I was told if I saw a fleece I really wanted, to get it. I didn't. And I missed out on a beautiful black Romney fleece, for $5 a pound. I am still mad at myself for not getting it when I saw it. I am a slow learner. But I did get a lot of good fiber.

The black fleece is Wensleydale. The white is Cotswold and Teaswater locks. These are so pretty. The colored roving in the front is Mohair, from goats. The lady said $1 each at first then when we were going to buy them all she said maybe $2 each. Which was fine because we told her she needed to make some money. They are so soft. I would love to have one of each of these sheep, and a few goats,  one day.








On the left is a pretty alpaca. I got 2.5 oz. of this. I love the soft light brown color. And I also got 2 huge balls of this pretty green roving. It says what it is on the tag. I can't remember now. It's so soft.



This is a Shetland ram lamb fleece. $10. It's so pretty and long locks. Needs washing.




This is from the same place that had the black fleece. When I went back to get the black, of course it was gone. I had also seen this fleece, so went ahead and got it. Almost 6 pounds at $5 a pound. I know! It is beautiful. Romney. I pulled it out of the bag yesterday over at the studio to see what it looked like. It's huge. Some of it is full of VM really bad. But most is really nice and clean. Can't wait to see it all cleaned up.




And this is the gray Icelandic roving I traded for some soap from Jessica in NY. It's really pretty and soft too. Don't know what I'll do with this yet. It's a pound.


I wanted to see what Jacob fleece felt like. I did not like it. Really course and not very soft at all. Good for felting I think. S I didn't get any of that. Didn't see any Finn there. And also, when I was asking about a diz, no one knew what I was talking about. I thought that was strange. I did buy a set of really pretty pottery buttons that I could use for a diz. That's what makes the roving off a carder.

So it was a fun day. And funner getting all this prettiness out of the bags to look at and touch all over again. And now to figure out what to do with it all. I will  maybe take some to the school in a few weeks to learn to spin it. I'll be washing the 2 fleeces this week and carding it. Looking forward to going!

I hope you all have a fabulous week! And stay warm. We have the wood stove roaring away. With the windows open! It's quite warm in here. Oh, and we are being taken over by flies. Oh my goodness, I have never seen so many flies. When I got home Sat. I could not get in my kitchen door for all the flies cakes on it. It was scary. They are all back again this morning, catching the sun. I hate flies. Anyone else being invaded by flies?

7 comments:

Su Ba said...

I wasn't aware that there is such a difference in the wool between the different breeds. I've never had any sheep other than hair sheep. Their fluff is coarse and loaded with hairs.

Kris said...

Yes, hair sheep have no real wool. I do have a few that are crosses of hair and Finn. I use their wool for felting and making dryer balls.

There is quite a big difference between different wool breeds. There is wool that is only used for like rugs, or socks, or off the skin. Then there is finer wool for sweaters or hats. There's short wool breeds, and medium breeds and long wool breeds. SO many types of sheep out there!

Sandra said...

Fiber shows are a lot of fun!
I like trying the different fibers.
I have bought some Jacob, it is easy to spin.
Have fun with all of your fleece :)

Kris said...

Sandra, what did you make with the Jacob? It just seemed really course to me.

An At Home Daughter said...

So jealous! The fiber is beautiful. We recently went to a fiber mill's yearly fiber sale, but there weren't very many vendors this year. Very disappointing, but I did get an 8 oz. bag of really pretty brown washed wool. Not sure what kind, but it was very soft. When I told the lady that I needed some brown for needle felting, as I only have white, she said "well that's boring" . I think I will spin most and set a little aside for felting. I will have lots in the Spring when we shear the new sheep.
Kimberly

Kris said...

Kimberly, brown, black and white are my favorite colors of wool. I like the dyed colors ok, but I like the natural much better. Sorry you didn't get much wool. But you have several sheep right? What kind are yours?

An At Home Daughter said...

We have 2 Suffolk crossed with white face mixes (it's what all the sheep farmers around here raise), and my Mom just got a trio of registered Shetland's. One each of black, brown and light gray. They are really sweet and small. I put pictures of them on my last blog post. Their wool is sooooo soft. I'm really hoping that they will roo in the spring. We shall see.
I also like the natural colors best, but get really excited when at a fiber event and see all the different wild colors.
Kimberly