This afternoon, I went on one of my hyperfixation-induced tidying-up of my fleece stash.
(Quick note: you can click or tap on the photos to enlarge them and see the details.)
First, a family portrait:
I categorise fleece quantities into three sizes: big, midi, mini. The biggest quantities (think sweater quantities and above) are stored in old cotton pillowcases.
Now, for some close-ups:
When I started spinning over three years ago, I did not understand why someone would go to the trouble of working from raw fleece, while there are already so many beautifully hand-dyed combed tops on offer. But in 2024, I made my first fleece-to-jumper project from a couple bags of suint-washed Border Leicester by Three Muscats Fibre Farm, and I got it.
Scouring a fleece is one of the most satisfying hands-on things I’ve ever done, truly. Just look at the transformation in the photos below, with this Corriedale grown by Fleece Flock and Fibre in New South Wales. I bought the fleece thinking it was, at the very least, cream-coloured. Nope, pretty much bright white.
There is, of course, the sense of accomplishment when I examine and handle a clean fleece. But more than that, I love feeling that my body is capable of movements both strong and refined–of lifting heavy buckets, of squeezing water out of the fleece, of picking out second cuts, of gently teasing pieces of wool apart into a thin layer for drying, of pulling out a lock to test strength and gauge softness.
I’m not a very precise spinner when it comes to sampling different breeds; I have never even tried out “spinning to the crimp“. I rely on the tactile characteristics I can sense from handling the locks–pulling a lock gently to stretch the length, squeezing it to feel the fineness or roughness. I then comb or card up a couple grams, then test spin–usually on a small Turkish (cross-armed) spindle.
Top-bottom, left-right: raw, scoured, combed, spun.
Top-bottom, left-right: raw, scoured, combed, spun.
Left corner: raw; top-bottom on right: scoured, spun from combed top, spun from combed top with sari silk mixed in.
Top: dark brown spun from combed top, scoured. Bottom: light grey scoured.
Most of my scouring has been done based on the Percentage-Based Method by Fossil Fibers and LongdrawJames. I try to be a good spinner and keep notes of each fleece project, for future reference. It has proven to be an excellent habit, since I am always working on at least three things at the same time.
Summer is barrelling towards us here on the East Coast of Australia, and with that come humidity and bugs. To keep the moths and beetles at bay, I cut up a piece of felt (the felt, poetically, was made using carding waste from my first fleece-to-jumper project), doused the small pieces in lavender essential oil, and tucked them inside the bigger bags of fleece and in the bins and bags where I keep smaller quantities in individual ziplocs.
I’m a fairly spiritual person, probably in large parts due to my Vietnamese upbringing. I take comfort in the thought that there are unearthly forces beyond our intellectual grasp, and having my hands in a raw fleece, working with it from when it’s still full of grass seeds and waxy with lanolin to when it’s in yarn form on the needles gives me that same comfort. It’s hard to not feel connected to something much more expansive than the humdrum of practical living when I think of the sheep, the shepherdesses, the farmers, the friends who all had a hand in getting this wool into my very hands.
Well, I have no closing statement, just another gallery of the fleece I have in my stash as of now, for your perusal.
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