Scouring, and scouring, and scouring some more

Guess what I've been doing today.

One of the truly wonderful things about living in Vermont, at least from a fiber junkie perspective, is that there are lots and lots of places 'round these parts to find very special fleece.

An embarassing amount of it seems to have followed me home in the last couple of days.

So, all day today, scour scour scour.

I do have vast experience in scouring raw fleece. And every bit of my experiece resides in the head of Jenny. Have I mentioned that she's a goddess? She has a couple of blog posts on scouring that should be read by anyone even contemplating a buying a raw fleece.

Meet Vinca, in the top picture. Vinca is a Shetland ewe who lives with Kathleen Meeks of Maybelle Farm. Two pounds of Vinca came home with me yesterday. Smaller amounts of several of Vinca's friends also came to live here.

Kathleen doesn't have a website, which is bad and good. Bad, because I can't easily point fellow spinners in the direction of incredible, super-soft, fluffy Shetland in the most amazing array of colors. Good in that I get to keep this information all to myself, thus ensuring there will be more incredible, super-soft, fluffy Shetland available when the hankering come on. Of course, my spinning friends around here all already know about Kathleen and her happy sheepies, so I guess it's not such a well-kept secret after all.

Vinca is considered a dark fawn. Or maybe she's a musket - I'm not sure what the difference is, or where that line is crossed. She's about the shade of oatmeal with darker tips, nice sheen, staple length of around four inches. I expect her to spin up into a heathered yarn that will be soft, soft soft. Oh, my.

She and several of her friends want to be turned into a Fair Isle sweater made with several shades of brown, tan, cream and maybe some grey for variety. Miss Vinca also has some grey and black buddies - they want to be a different sweater, but their hour is not yet at hand. Soon, little sheepies, very soon.

Meet Tybee. Tybee is a yearling CVM/Romeldale ram who lives with Nancy Zeller. Nancy does have a website. Check it out: Longridge Farm.

About four pounds of him followed me home from the Jamaica Fiber Festival. He's amazing, too. His fleece runs from black with dark brown tips, to charcoal, to silver grey with blonde tips, to a smattering of pure white.

I think I got the last of Nancy's raw fleece, more's the pity, but she still has processed fiber. I got a chunk of it when I was first learning to spin. It drafted so easily it made me look like a whole lot better spinner than I actually was.

Tybee wants to be turned into a varigated yarn. My plan is to spin random chunks of the various colors, then Navaho ply to preserve the variations. What happens to Tybee after that? He hasn't told me yet. Maybe he wants to be another sweater, but maybe he wants to be something else. I'm sure that, in the fullness of time, he'll let me know.

You've already met Madame Snotcat. She was not helpful during today's scour-thon. She rarely is in situations like this, but it's always best to remain optimistic, even when there's no call for it.

This was how I knew Tybee was almost dry - Madame made a nest of him. I foiled her by putting him up on the drying rack, and putting the sopping wet Vinca on the cardboard. It's the rare day when I am victorious with Madame. Score one for me.

Here's Tybee, scoured, dried and put away until such time as I can turn him into yarn. Note cat tail on left side of picture. She thought she was being pretty sly, hiding under the lid, waiting for me to turn my back so she could get into the box. But that's the thing about having a tail - you have to hide it along with the rest of you if stealth is the goal.

Maura, another Shetland that lives with Kathleen, is in my sink right now, waiting for a rinse. She wanted her picture taken too, to show you she's just as incredible as Willow, but right now she's relaxing in her bubble bath and cannot be disturbed.