Saturday, October 20, 2007

A Shetland Hodge Podge

At least that's what it seemed like when I went to fetch out the white Shetland fleece from this bag....

Bag of 3 types of Shetland fleece.....from Cathy last July. I've already posted about that intrigueing blackish/brown fleece here, so the next one on my mind was the white one, especially after my interesting discovery about those Shetland whites.

However, when I dumped the remaining fleece out of the bag, they were both dirty enough that I couldn't tell which was which.

What I did notice, was that quite a bit of the fleece looked like this.....

.... with thick, matted, yellow stained butts. I took a dog comb to them, and the combed out easy enough.

I decided to wash both fleeces together, and try to sort them out afterward. I was able to do so with a little help....

One fleece is quite white, while the other is white with cream tips and black and reddish fibers in it. The difference is subtle....

I will drumcard and spin these separately. More on that later.

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

3 comments:

Sheepish Annie said...

You are making me want to dig out the Shetland lamb that Cathy sent my way! It's about half carded and really deserves to see the light of day. It is the most beautiful fiber!

Thanks so much for all the posts on the Shetland. I only just "discovered" this fiber over the summer and have really enjoyed watching what you do with it. And learning more about this new favorite!

I have to be careful, though. You'll have me weaving next and I just don't have the space for that!! ;)

Teyani said...

love the photo of your 'helper!'
I have two that look just like that.

I just sent a whole shetland fleece off to the mill to be processed.. hoping that I can be spinning by the time it gets back to me.

Cathy said...

I sorted and hurriedly packed up some of the-horrendous-amount of fleeces to ship off and now I can sit with snow flying, coffee in hand and read your posts about it. Lovely.