ah geez - obsessed

Well, that ole Pandora's Box was opened when I started poking through my bags of fleece yesterday. Last night, after the fleece dried, I started carding. I've taken a couple of pictures to show how fine and springy Gulf Coast fleece can be. The first picture is a handcard loaded with crimpy locks. The second shows the handcards in position to begin carding. It was just too darn hard to take more pictures of the process. I really need that extra arm, sometimes.





Picking through the fluff to get rid of any second cuts (which were few and far between...just the occasional little blob), and aligning the locks makes for nice rolags. In carding, the fibers are aligned, and rolled into a tube of fluff. It's important that this roll of fiber be consistent, so that the spinner (that would be me) can draw out fiber smoothly from which a thread can be spun.

Here you can see a few rolags. They're consistent, and the fiber will be easy to draw.



Finally, the end product...8 1/2 ounces of rolags. Doesn't look like socks, does it? But, this is at least a couple pairs.



All morning, I make X's and O's and -'s on a piece of graph paper. Drove my husband nuts, I tell ya. I'm working out a sock pattern just for this wool. I'm inclined to leave this batch natural, and just create a design that will show off both yarn and fabric pattern. What good stuff! Thanks to Margrett at Running Moon Farm for this fleece!