It has been a long time since I muttered around about spinning. And normally I go no where near fleece, washing fleece or processing from the beginning.

But lately, as the price of roving seems to have sky rocketed to the point where painted and dyed roving is more expensive than commercial yarn, I have been reconsidering. I don’t begrudge the Indies for wanting to make money, but when I am looking for sweater/vest amounts of yarn it starts becoming a bit dear.

Please also remember that I am now living in wool country. There may not be as many sheep here as in the UK, but some of the rural areas seem pretty close. One of those areas is the Shetland Isles. You have heard of Jamiesons, right?

As essentially the processor on the Shetland Isles, fleece is available for less than half the price of roving. In turn this seems to be about half the price of yarns (which can be purchased on cones). I liked the price on the fleece, especially since all grades are the same price. Shetland fleece are small, so buying by x number of fleece or I want y kilos are both possibilities.

My fleece appeared at the back door yesterday.

Opening it

I found this sturdy plastic bag containing neatly rolled fleece in exactly the colours I had requested.

Each fleece was already decently skirted. The rain in the Isles must contribute to the cleanliness as these were nowhere near as dirty as I expected.

I think I am going to plan either this weekend or one in July as fleece washing.

Knitting

Doesn’t look bad blocked at all

And I have taken a skein of J-Knits in colourway Maryland

and am going to test drive Forget-me-Not by Evelyn Clark as a possibility for the Eldest. The colours are something that would appeal to the Maus (Ms Copper by any other name) so I know I will have a taker when it is complete).

Podiobooks

Half Share – Nathan Lowell.

Both my headache and meds have finally worn off, just in time to crash.

-Holly