Saturday, June 19, 2010

A Short Study of Wool

CVM wool, as a matter of fact, along with other wool junkies at The Knitters Book of Wool group over on Ravelry. By the way, if you don't already own The Knitters Book of Wool by Clara Parkes, run right out now and purchase it for your fiber/knitting library...it is fantastic!

CVM (or California Variegated Mutant) wool was an easy one for me, as I have several Corriedale/CVM cross sheep in my flock, including one of our rams, Derek:

Handsome Derek, with his cool hair-do, was officially chosen as the June mascot for the group...a title he carries with honor ;)

Anyway, I knew I could use Derek's wool for my project and I am very familiar with it but I wanted to do more and realized that I had never worked with 100% CVM or Romeldale from the raw stage to yarn. A call to my friend Bonnie at Sheepy Thyme Farm confirmed that she did have some raw fleece available (as well as several new lambs on the ground) so a "field trip" was arranged! Now, two trips later ~ LOL ~ not only do I have some raw fleece, but I also have planned some new additions to the sheep flock! How does this happen? Well, its almost as easy to collect sheep as it is to collect wool and yarn, especially when they are so lovely.

Here are some of the fleeces I came home with:


That gorgeous moorit, above on the right is from a lovely new ram. And below are a few of the ones I have already washed sample locks of (on the left are unwashed locks and on the right, washed:



Below is some of Derek's fleece to sample:

I am having so much fun and trying to take good notes...look for more here in the next week or so as I comb and spin the samples ~ oh my!

4 comments:

Joanne said...

Oooooo, more sheep! Wonderful! I love seeing the samples and seeing them next to the unwashed samples.
Back to the sheep, your fleeces are just wonderful, so I know these sheep will be too!

Penny said...

Derek is very handsome ram and congratulations on him being the June mascot for your group.
I was considering getting The Knitters Book of Wool since I have had it out of the library and enjoyed it very much. You have given me an added push to purchase it.

Laughingrat said...

Those are beautiful fiber samples--that's encouraged me to take sample pics of my on ongoing (and going, and going) fleece-washing project.

Holly said...

Aaack! Stop! No more wool pics! I have to spin the roving that I have underway. I absolutely cannot stop and start washing/prepping locks of wool. No matter how much I want to :~)