Fleece, combs, and top?

I've been cleaning fleeces for the last couple of nights. Well.....let me re-phrase that.... I've been cleaning A fleece for the last couple of nights. Let me explain. Last winter when I was cleaning fleeces I used two large 15 gallon tubs with a five gallon buckets in each one and heated the water to VERY hot with a bucket heater that will boil water in a five gallon bucket with not problem. I had these tubs in our bath tub so to fill them I used a pitcher and poured water into each tub and bucket. Very time consuming!! But I was able to get very clean fleeces.
So on several groups that I am on people talk about using there washing machine to clean fleece. Fill it with hot water and soap, put the fleece in, let it soak for 20 minutes, let it spin, then take the fleece out and refill with clean water and do several rinses the same way. I tried this several nights ago. I have to admit it was much easier on my back. But once the fleece dried it still looked dirty. Just not as soft and high sheen as the ones I did last year. So after rewashing some of it again I have decided the washing machine is not the method for me!

Here is some of the double cleaned fleece. So nice and soft and shiny. :)

Can you guess what this is?
These are my new wool combs! They look kind a evil don't they. But, if I can figure out how to use them correctly and without hurting myself or anyone else, I should be able to make some nice combed top to spin with. I have played around with them the last couple of night and they are not as easy as some of those youtube videos I have seen, but hopefully the learning curve won't be too steep.

Ashford spinning wheel????

I have been searching high and low for a spinning wheel in working order of a very reasonable price. So when I checked out Craig's list and found one VERY reasonably priced AND within driving distance I pounced. But....... There are a few thing not quite right. Maybe someone out there can help me.
I checked on the Ashford sight and it is really, really close to the Traditional wheel they have. So I am thinking maybe a later model that they have since improved on?
Here are a couple of pictures.

 The lady I bought it from used it only as decoration. And it only came with one bobbin. And it is heavily varnished. It looks beautiful, I just hope it is functional.

 It seems to have the correct belt on it. And the flyer seems correct. But the difference from this one and the pictures on Ashfords web site is the bobbin brake? Not sure if that is the correct term or not. But on the website the tension for the bobbin brake is on the right side toward the front and this one has it on the left toward the back. And it did not come with the brake 'stuff'.

 When I take the the little 'knob' out that is on the left hand side it appears that there used to be a small hole in the dowel part, but it is completely filled by varnish or what ever they put on it.

 Here is the end that should have the Ashford name on it. It looks like there used to be something there but I can't make anything out now.

And on the Ashford website the screws had hex heads on them and this one has just slotted screw heads.











So, I am hoping I can figure it out and make it work. Any suggestions would be greatly appriecated!

More fleece...better pictures?

From the inspiration of Michelle and her new camera, I thought I would.....maybe read the manual for mine?
The last blog I did was of several fleeces and I was not happy with the way the colors turned out. I was thinking it was probably the lighting and others confirmed that was probably it. So I kept thinking I would take some picture outside. Well, that has not happened and I was getting antsy to get a blog post done again. So I did a little reading and I think I may have learned a little, with a long way to go.

Hopefully, these fleeces will look closer to the real colors



Hosta a white Icelandic lamb


These next two are both of Hazel, but they look different from each other. Now if I could just remember which one was what setting!


Hazel a moorit Icelandic lamb




Hazel a moorit Icelandic lamb




Black Icelandic lamb



Evra a three year old black badgerface Icelandic ewe

Let me know if you think the colors look better.
I also found a small basket (thanks, Terri for the suggestion) that I think the fleeces look pretty good in.
Now that I got all the fall fleeces skirted it is time to figure out what I am going to do with them. But they are for sale first and for most, so if anyone is interested please email me at mgcaretakers@yahoo.com

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Skirting fleeces

The Sunday before we left for our wonderful vacation I took most of the sheep and goats to be sheared. I had planned on doing it myself but time was getting away from me. The shearer, Danny, did a great job. And he made it looks SO easy.
This is the first fall fleeces I have really skirted. It is amazing how much cleaner and easier they are to skirt! The spring fleeces where full of tiny bits of hay and to pick all that out of each fleece was really discouraging me from this fiber venture. But, wow! These fleeces are soooo clean!
Here are a some of the fleeces that I have skirted the last couple of evenings.

Agatha is a white angora doeling. It already looks like it has been washed! It is so clean.

Shetland ram lamb. Lots of crimp and very soft.

Shetland ram lamb. Don't know why it looks so yellow. Guess I need to play with my camera and flash a little bit. This is a nice soft, clean fleece.

Shetland ram lamb. He is the smallest of the three, but has great crimp to his fiber. It is 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inchs long. Very clean.

Evra's ram lamb is a black bandgerface Icelandic. (Really should think of a name for him). If you clip on the photo it will enlarge and you can see the coloration of his fiber. Very cool. Very soft and very clean.

Herriot is a black gray Icelandic ram lamb. His fleece is silky soft and very clean.

These fleeces are all currently for sale as raw fleeces. If anyone is interested in any please email me.

Have a wonderful weekend! Hopefully I will get some more fleece skirted this weekend as well.

One week and 400 emails later!

My husband and I took a week long vacation last week. We went to Big Piney horse camp near Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. So for a week we had no cell phone service and no internet. It was wonderful!!
They provided three meals a day and as much horseback riding as you wanted. The trails where absolutely beautiful!! 

We loaded our truck and two horse trailer as full as possible. Luckily we never had to stop very fast or else we may have been injuried!

Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of us in camp. We have a tent that fits in the back of the truck, so once we got there everything in the back of the truck had to come out so we could set up the tent!

Here we are with our friends we meet down there. My husband is on the palomino, I am on the grey, and our friends are on the black and paint horse. This is just one of the river crossings we did. It is pretty shallow here but there was one river crossing where I had to really lift my feet up. The water came up to the middle of my horse's chest! And the water was pretty swift! I could feel my little horse 'drifting' down stream as we walked across.

The trails where just amazing. This was my fourth trip down there but it was still just as beautiful! The trees where starting to turn, with colors of yellow, red and orange. Lots and lots of hills, some pretty steep.
The horses did an amazing job of getting us where we wanted to go. And they where well behaved for most of the ride, I am so pleased with them!!

After a wonderful week it was very hard to come home. Well.....except for being able to sleep in our own bed. Sleeping on a futon mattress in the back of a truck leaves a lot to be desired!

Then, when I opened my email and there was over 400 emails and really wished I was back in the middle of nowhere! I still have emails to go through!