ADVENTURES IN WOOL
With the acquisition of my spinning wheel (I’ve named her Violet) last week, I inherited a bag – make that a sealed bag – of wool, unwashed, unpicked and really, really greasy with what must be lanolin. First time experience with raw wool. It smelled very sheepy – not a bad smell, just……sheepy. So, I did what anyone would do. I went on YouTube to see what you do with raw wool to make it spinnable and eventually, knittable. I washed it good with the recommended Dawn dish detergent; remember: Dawn takes grease out of your way, which it does and then rinsed it and ran it through the spin cycle a couple of times. Lucky for you, I documented its transformation.
Just out of the sealed bag, unwashed
After first wash, rinse and spin
After another rinse and spin, then out into the sun to dry
I’ll start carding it tonight, to hopefully begin its change from a fleece into sock yarn. I’m completely convinced that you can learn anything by checking out YouTube. Amazing.
Mr. Iknead is still firm on his NO SHEEP policy. Won’t even talk about it.
GREEN GROWING THINGS
A couple of my begonias are blooming and a couple more that I’d pretty much given up on have decided to perk up and promise more blooms. My mom loved begonias and I suppose that’s rubbed off a little. I love these colors –
Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day, and at last we cannot break it. Horace Mann
B
mud&string 