Sanna's Bag

“I never seem to have what I need when I need it. I’m going to make a belt-bag that’s bigger on the inside than on the outside, and just carry everything with me.”

Friday, May 11, 2007

A few F Os



About ten years ago, a friend mentioned that he had a friend who raised sheep just to get the agricultural discount for her property tax. Would I be interested in some free wool? Naievely, I said, "Oh, yes!" We came home from a fourth of July vacation to find twenty five (25!) garbage bags full of fleece. It was what happens to wool when the shepherd doesn't give a rat's rump about it. It was full of poop and sticks and mud. I spent three days with a long table set up in the driveway, just skirting the stuff and throwing away garage bags full of useless matted fiber. About a third of each fleece was dreck.

The owner had economized by doing the shearing herself. There's an art to shearing, and she didn't have it. For starters, she sheared out in the field, so the wool picked up grass and dirt on the inside as well as the outside. (Real shearers, make sure the shearing floor is swept clean every time they start another sheep.) And she was careful not to nick the sheep, so sometimes she had to run the clippers over a spot twice, producing lots of short-cuts and half-length fibers.

I washed wool all that summer long and still didn't get it all clean, so I wound up taking the whole mass of it (A Honda Civic full!)to a comercial processor (Fantasy Fibers in Canby, Oregon. Wonderful service!) and wound up with pounds and pounds and pounds of roving. After years of dilligent spinning (and gifting) yesterday, I finally finished spinning the last of it! Yayyyy! Now I can buy nice, interesting roving with a clear conscience.





So to celebrate, I pulled out the tube socks and put in the final couple of inches while watching Survivor.

Next, an idiotically simple lace scarf in bamboo, and a stash-busting flurry of washcloths for zombie knitting.


And the weatherman says it might get up to 72 today. Yayyyyy!!!! (Roxie running around the back yard with her tongue lolling like a labrador puppy mad with joy.) I do love sunshine and warmth!

8 Comments:

  • At 8:55 AM , Blogger Willow said...

    You love sunshine and warmth...come on down here...those we have aplenty.
    I still have some of the three fleeces you gifted to Mia and me. I too picked and washed all summer. And when the rovings got back from Fantasy Fibers, it turned out John was allergic to whatever was sprayed on the drums (Downey fabric softener?), so they have sat off gassing all these years. I think I can start spinning them now... the shepherdess's gift that keeps on giving...

     
  • At 8:59 AM , Blogger Willow said...

    Gotta tell you, Roxie, that I've been a four week class that explores different artistic mediums. It has reminded me up your characters in Sanna, Sorceress Apprentice, as they search for their magic mediums. I've discovered that watercolor leaves me smudged and soggy, decoupage merely sticky. Give me yarn and let me create! I shall make Sanna's bag to make moving simpler.

     
  • At 2:33 PM , Blogger Lucia said...

    Now that's a lot of fleece.

     
  • At 6:13 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

    I'm so glad that Yau-man went with his gut and used that immunity!! I don't blame Dreamz for doing what he did but I don't like him for it.

     
  • At 7:49 PM , Blogger Warrior Knitter said...

    Someday my spinning bug will grow. I've often wondered if I could get fleece locally. I'll have to remember to ask when the county fair rolls around this year. There are, of course, sheep and even a couple of alpacas. Wonder if anyone is raising yaks??

    Love the socks.

     
  • At 8:13 PM , Blogger Pat K said...

    Come on down here, the temp's been in the 90's. And man, that's a lot of fleece.

     
  • At 11:11 PM , Blogger Amy Lane said...

    Good for you, darling...that must have been one lovely, white albatross, I'm glad it's finally flown away... (don't burn your rump, but other than that, enjoy the sun!!)

     
  • At 12:21 AM , Blogger Flea-Bites said...

    Wish I could remember the Fahrenheit temperature scale! In 1966 when we converted to metric, I didn't think I'd ever remember the Celsius equivalents - forty years later I can only think in metric, except for height and the weight of new born babies.

    It has been about 21C today and it's nearly winter. I noticed on TV that it's warmer here in autumn than in Vancouver in spring (I have a schoolfriend there). I remember that 90F is HOT, but 72 has me beaten. If it has you running around the yard like a puppy, I guess it's nice and warm! I can't quite picture you with your tongue lollong out though! But as long as you don't have puppy breath, I'll try!

     

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