Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Fleece, Fleece Everywhere

As a side effect of being a spinner and a shepherd, I have a lot of fleeces. By a lot, I mean A LOT. I can not begin to describe the number and quality of fleeces I go through each year. Lets face it some of the fleeces I see are nothing but junk. I simply open the bag wrinkle my nose and ship them out. Maybe I am a little to particular, but after 11 years of spinning and fiber handling and putting my hands into literally thousands of fleeces, I think I have every right to be. It takes a special fleece to make me jump up and down.

This was once again brought to my attention today as we were cleaning the barn for the straw to come in. There is a method to the madness in my sorting system. The fleeces that are first up to wash or that are particularly nice go to the house. The next best fleeces ( the ones that I don't want washed RIGHT now or that I haven't skirted yet) go out to the camper. Yes you read that right I use a camping trailer to house fleeces. The last batch are the" these are in my way and I don't know what I want to do with them yet" group. Yes this is a group and it's the largest group by far. I once again encountered this group today while cleaning the barn. This group unfortunately seems to get moved around quite a bit and eventually finds their true home. This is usually when I'm in a hurry and don't have much time to think about it. Once again my procrastinators nature at work.