it was at this point that i noticed what looked like large silkworm cocoons scattered among the folds and ripples of the burlap. each one was wrapped, like a silk cocoon, in heavy ropes that were colored in intense shades of fuchsia. one end of each rope had been left unraveled, leading back into the dark shadows from which the tarp had been dragged. they suddenly went taut, like an unseen hand had gathered them up and started tugging at them from inside the darkness.
slowly, the spiral of colored rope enclosing each of the cocoons began to unravel, just like a long strand of silk being unwound from its cocoon. as each rope came to an end, figures began to emerge from the center of the cocoons. each figure took a nearly-imperceptible bow, like his or her part in the performance had come to an end, before turning and walking off into the dark shadow.
until only one cocoon remained.
it was the largest one, and the spiral of rope that encircled it had been unraveling even slower than the rest. the few lights that had illuminated the makeshift performance space on the mass of burlap faded, and we were left with our collected attention and one remaining half-dimmed spotlight focused on the still-unraveling cocoon.
the last few wraps of the colored rope were slowly pulled away, and the heads of everyone present turned briefly to follow as it too disappeared into the darkness, before turning back to the object that was left behind.
it was a glass-like shell, the same size and shape of the large cocoon, and there was a faint glow on the inside illuminating what appeared at this point to be the body of a child. but the shell broke, and out of it emerged a young woman. she seemed at first to be naked, but she began reaching into the darkness surrounding her, and pulling from it one brightly-colored piece of fabric after another with which she adorned herself.
she was clothed in layer upon layer of rich silks, dyed in the most intense shades of colors like teal, and orange and gold. each new layer was arranged in such a fashion that the ones below it shone through, and the figure of the woman, and the spectacle of her presence there on that stage... in the midst of all that unknowing shadow... increased in majesty until it was a near-otherworldly sight to behold.
then i woke up.
_____________
my two wool fleeces arrived in Monday's mail, and i was super-excited to get my hands on them... after which i washed said hands... twice. i grabbed a quick sample from each bag, and spent some time in a state of deep contemplation.
[pro tip: you can usually tell which end of raw fleece was close to the sheep. it is the cleaner bit with the blunt ends.]
this fiber was purchased from the good people over at Fusilier Sheep Company, a family farm in Saskatchewan. the sample on the left comes from a Blue-Faced Leicester sheep named "Georgia". BFL sheep have relatively-fine (soft) wool which tends to grow in tight coils... she says, stroking her own crown of tight coils. you can almost see why they are my absolute favorite breed. BFL wool is soft enough for next-to-skin wearing (unless you are me, naturally), and the impressive length of the fibers makes for an enjoyable spinning experience.
then there is the other sample. this one comes from a mule named "27". in sheep terms, a "mule" is a cross between a BFL and a hill/mountain sheep breed (North Country Cheviot, in this case). NCC sheep produce more wool than BFL sheep, but the BFL brings a significant amount of softness and length to the mix. you get the best of both worlds with these crossbreeds.
speaking of length...
i selected two fleeces with fibers in the range of four inches (which is pretty impressive for wool on the softer end of the scale), but they were far from the longest ones the farm had on offer. some of their mule fleeces had fibers in the eight-to-nine-inch range. i would not know what to do with such a thing. [insert all the jokes here.]
i wanted to do a quick wash with the two samples, so that i have a sense of how much work will be required to get all that fiber prepped for spinning. this is a scaled down version of what i do when washing a whole fleece, and it is not meant to be any sort of how-to guide on fleece washing, so consider yourselves warned.
the three things you want to get rid of when washing a fleece are dirt/sand, grease (specifically, the lanolin that makes a sheep's wool relatively waterproof), and VM (all the tiny bits of vegetable matter that accumulates in greasy, sticky wool... because sheep will insist on behaving like outdoor animals).
the first two things are easy to get rid of. all it takes is hot water with a bit of soap. they sell all sorts of fancy wool-washes for this sort of thing, but i am a firm believer in Dawn dish detergent. that is the stuff they use to clean animals that foolishly wander into the path of oil spills. for this tiny bit of wool, i put two drops into about two cups of the hottest water my tap produces.
in goes the wool...
and within seconds, a creamy substance forms on the surface. that is the detergent mixing with the lanolin and rising to the top.
while the grease rises to the top, the dirt/sand sinks to the bottom. this was after about a minute of soaking in hot, soapy water with zero agitation of any sort.
i covered the container to keep the water from cooling off too much while the wool soaked. that is a repurposed yogurt container, if you really need to know all the details. it was black cherry flavor... my favorite.
roughly fifteen minutes later, and it was ready for a quick rinse.
just reach under the mass of fiber in the water, and scoop it up (those speckly bits are VM)...
and into the clean water it goes.
all that dirt and grease is left behind. [random aside: the lanolin in skin and hair care products is recovered from the commercial wool washing process.]
all that sand came from those tiny samples, so imagine how much there must be in two sheep worth of wool.
if you look closer, you can see all the bits of plant material still mixed in with the (now) cleaned fiber. that stuff does not dissolve in soapy water, and it is too light to sink to the bottom of the wash container, so it will be dealt with later when the fiber is being prepped for spinning.
the fiber is still wet at this point, but it is so clean. this part always makes me smile.
i usually let the fiber soak in the rinse water for a bit and follow it up with a second rinse when washing large amounts of fleece, but a quick dip in the rinse water was more than enough for such a tiny sample.
i left it to dry for an hour or two.
those lovely coils in the BFL sprang to life.
him: it looks like a doll's hair.
then i spent the next few minutes explaining to him that curly wool of this kind is frequently used for things like doll's hair (like this totally creepy selection of doll's wigs) or for making the beard (and hair) for Santa Claus figurines. yes... he is a very lucky man to be constantly subjected to this caliber of totally useless information.
as for the last problem... the bits of VM... most of that will fall out as the fiber is combed or run through a drum carder prior to spinning. even just opening up the fibers a bit can allow most of that debris to fall out, as was the case for the mule fiber sample.
this fiber is free of tangles and second cuts (short bits from a second pass of the shears). i could take this to my spinning wheel without any further prep necessary.
even the tight coils of the BFL fiber opened right up with very little effort. i have encountered BFL fiber in the past that was so tightly coiled, i had to sit down with a fiber brush, and carefully detangle the whole mess... she says, once again stroking her mane of many tangles.
i had originally planned on only purchasing one fleece this Spring, as i was hoping to get some more fiber for spinning at this summer's Twist Fibre Festival. however, said event has been (understandably) cancelled, so i decided to do my part and support a small business by getting a second fleece. when you think about it, that was actually rather altruistic and selfless of me.
that's my story, and i'm sticking to it.
