07-11-2020

Started carding this fleece yesterday during conference workshops online. This is a beautiful fleece that was not well sheared. More second cuts than I’d like, but between picking and carding, I’m getting a lot of them out before they go into the batts. Also having to pick out quite a few foxtails, but this fleece is so soft that it’s worth it. It was a small fleece at a good price. I think it is finer than standard for a Columbia fleece.

07-20-2020

I’ve now spun 2 bobbins (about 100 g/4 oz.) and I’ll do one more to make a 3-ply yarn. For the most part the chaff is coming out as I spin and neps from the short cuts are easy to pull off. I wish that I had tumbled/tossed this fleece a little before washing. I think I could have eliminated some of the short cuts that led to the neps. I prefer spinning fiber where I don’t have to pick out neps and chaff, it makes kind of a mess. Mostly it doesn’t interrupt my spinning, though, and as I said before, most of the chaff that remains is falling out as I go and the news end up sitting on the outside of the singles and can be easily picked off.

I’m thinking that I may see about using hand combs on the remaining portion of this fleece that is unwashed. I don’t have hand combs, but they might be a good choice for a fleece like this one.

07-30-2020

3 skeins:
190 yds, 47 g
4 yds/gram, 1834 ypp

243 yds, 60 g
4 yds/gram, 1837 ypp

189 yds, 46 g
4 yds/gram, 1864 ypp

Total:
622 yds, 153 g
4 yds/gram, 1844 ypp