Fleece sorting in the sunshine

This lovely weather has also given me an opportunity to sort a fleece that has been waiting since shearing last year.

I took the fleece out into the garden and spread it out, then armed with a clean bucket and a chair (appropriately patriotic for this week, but that was not intentional!) got to work.


The fleece was pulled into handfulls then the locks pulled out from each handful. A lock of sheep fleece looks like this:

It is a clump, usually stuck together at the top end and fluffier at the butt end which comes from closest to the body (it really is called that).

With this fleece I was really brutal, anything dirty or weak got put in the scrap pile. In the end that was probably about two thirds of the fleece, but I have other non spinning plans for that.

The next step will be to wash the locks to remove the dirt and grease, pictures of that to come soon.

Sunny bank holidays

Four day weekends are great, by the time day four rolls round all the jobs that need doing are done and you can move on to the non essentials and things that are just for fun.

The stunning weather yesterday helped too, so I sat in the garden and worked on some spinning using a drop spindle.

The fibre came from a craft show last year and is being spun really fine, I will probably make a three ply out of it.

The neighbours are clearly quite used to my strange behaviour- they did not even comment on the spinning when we were chatting over the fence!

In the garden

Like much of the country I have been enjoying the wonderful weather. It has been a great opportunity for some gardening.

The seedlings have been moved out from the sunny windowsill where they were started...

to the mini greenhouse.

The strawberries have been moved from the ground into a strawberry tower. This should really have been done earlier in the year and they are looking a little sad in this photo, they should soon perk back up though.

The fruit should be much better as it is lifted away from the ground and the bugs that steal it!

Other jobs have been mowing the lawn, preparing beds with some compost and getting a hanging basket ready (pictures to come in the next post).

Two new mini fruit trees have also been bought so hopefully this year there will be a few homegrown peaches and cherries- delicious!