My First Fleece!

Well, here's the big news of the day... I finally bit the bullet and bought a fleece! Or, well, almost. I'm just waiting for her to figure out the shipping cost so she can give me the final total.

What is it, you ask? California Varigated Mutant lamb, heavily skirted by a spinner. The colors are mauve and cream mostly. Plus, it's a bit smaller fleece... less than 4 lbs., so it won't be quite as overwhelming, as, say, a ram fleece!

I can't wait to see what it looks like. Originally, before selecting this one, I thought I'd send any fleece I purchased out to be processed, but I've changed my mind. I actually enjoyed doing it last time, I was just REALLY slow. And I was worried that I didn't do the fleece justice (from my inexperience). But I learned quite a bit the last time, so I think I'll do a much better job this time. Plus, the last one was really dirty, and this one seems MUCH cleaner (or at least as much as you can tell through pictures!).

Why CVM? Well, originally I though I'd get a Targhee fleece (my other favorite), partially b/c I thought I'd have a hard time finding a CVM fleece. But then there was a post for CVM on fleeceforsale. Carole even mentioned it to me as well. (My husband is thanking you for that one! ;-). But I decided I had too much fiber as it was, and wanted to work my way through a bit more of it first. Then, I saw another post from her, and just couldn't resist at least inquiring. You can see how long "just inquiring" lasted! :-D

I've had a odd facination with CVM since I first tried it. It wasn't the softest fiber I'd ever felt, but it was so squishy and lofty, and so much fun to spin. In fact, that pretty much fits my description of Targhee as well (it's just softer). But CVM has one thing that Targhee doesn't . It has the most facinating varigation in it's natural color that makes some of the prettiest yarn I've seen.

What am I going to make with it? I have no idea yet. I'm going to let it tell me once I start spinning! I may even try a couple of new things with it, like dyeing before carding, then mixing colors. I think that's also why I want to process it myself. I can try a bunch of things before deciding what I want to do with it.

Mostly, I got my bravery from the fact the both Carole and Sarah seemed to be getting such nice fleeces online. To date, the only raw fleece I'd bought was a few random 1 lb bags at Rhinebeck. Hopefully, I'm as fortunate as they've been. But I did check that she's a "certified" CVM breeder (which are few and far between!), so I feel reasonably confident. I can't wait to get it!

What else have I done? Well, I finished the newest Perfection Pants. I kept straying onto other projects, so it took a little longer than usual. I'm pretty proud of this pair, though. It's the first pair that I made with yarn I dyed myself! And it's BFL from Wooly Wonder's By Nada, so I don't think I'll have the same problem I had last time! I still haven't made a pair out of handspun, partially b/c I already had plenty of yarn, and needed pants badly! The holidays had thrown off my "schedule" for making them. I'll definitely make a pair out of handspun at some point. Although by the time I get to it, it'll probably be shorts!

The only thing I'm not happy about... I knew the end part of the yarn was a bit darker than the rest (I think it was the section on the top of the pot, so it got exposed to the most dye). Originally, I planned on working 1/2 way down the first leg, then switching to the pulling the yarn from the outside. Then starting again from the inside for the second leg. That way, it would have been a more even... an interesting gradation towards a darker dye down the legs. But when I got to the part where I'd switch, I wasn't knitting at home, so I decided to say screw it and keep going. I'm not going to bother ripping both legs out and starting again, since it isn't really that noticeable. But next time, I'm going to stick w/ my first instinct!

What am I working on now? The blue yarn from the other day is now becoming a replacement shawl. Although I decided to challenge myself a bit more this time, and try a slightly harder pattern. The Fiber Trends Flower Basket Lace shawl. It's pretty much the same basic design, but the pattern is a bit more intricate. I can still memorize the pattern, it just took a little longer this time. This is a closeup of the pattern. You can see it's a bit more detailed than the Forest Canopy Shawl.

And finally, I got to start playing with some of the fiber that Carole sent me. Not as much as I would have liked, but I still will have a chance to do some more tonight and tomorrow. My daughter decided that a nap was optional today, so I didn't have as much time to spin as I usually do! And spinning w/ a toddler running around just doesn't work...

Luckily, I started with the smallest sample she sent me... the Jacob. And I decided to do it on my spindle. Of course, I already had some fiber already on the spindle that I hadn't taken off yet, so I plied those first, then spun up the Jacob. And these are the results. So, in order, these are:

1) CVM -- When I was making my final decision whether to buy the CVM fleece, I wanted to spin some more, just to make sure I still felt the same way about it now as I did the first time I used it. It had been a while and I had learned quite a bit since then. Well, I think I like it even more now!

2) Targhee, dyed by Spinning Bunny. I had gotten this a while ago, and wanted to try it. So I spun a little on my spindle, but never got around to plying it. It's been sitting on my spindle for weeks! So this is the plyed results... The picture doesn't do it justice. There is much more variation in real life.

3) Jacob - Sent from Carole. I really liked this stuff! It's a little different than I'm used to. It's probably the longest fiber I spun with to date. And it was really easy to do just a few fibers at a time, so it's relatively thin. Although since it's a thicker fiber to start with, it's still probably a fingering weight. But it was interesting to see only a few fibers going into the twist at one time. And the natural sheen on the single was amazing! You can't really see it in the picture, but its got a beautiful natural shine even as a plied yarn. And the light to dark grey variation looks really nice plied.

Next up... Fuzzy! I should have plenty of time tonight to actually pull out my spinning wheel so I can do the Romney that Carole sent me. Yay! I'll update with the results.