Last year I purchased two lovely, small Navajo Churro fleece from Barbara at Flint Run Farm.  I was attracted by the "rare breed" idea as well as the fact that she had a few smaller fleeces for sale compared to others I had seen available.  The thought of smaller amounts of wool to process really enticed me as someone relatively new to raw fleece (not wanting to get in over my head and all--I would never do that, grin).  This year, with my renewed interest in  fleece prep that came from a successful attempt in the washing machine, I decided to purchase a few more fleeces from Barbara,  despite the fact that I still have a fair amount of last years' left.  I inquired and ended up purchasing three small fleeces that arrived today. 

I heard the postal van transmission whining down my street, and then heard the telltale "thump" that means a package has arrived.  I looked out the door to see a giant plastic canvas bag like you might imagine Santa Claus carrying over his shoulder.  Strange, I thought....then realized there was cardboard inside the bag....even stranger yet.  Why would Barbara ship fleece inside a box, inside a bag?  After a bit more inspection of the package, I realized that her box was inside an "official USPS" bag because of some kind of  postal accident (the kind you can only imagine):

So there it was, in all it's glory.  Three fleeces in bags, each bag ripped somewhat with fleece peeking out.  And then there's this:

Thoughts on this accident ran through my mind, not necessarily in this order:

"How, where, and why did this happen?"  and   "Thank goodness I don't buy antique Tiffany lamps"  and of course the best of all "I wonder what the people at the post office think I do with bags full of greasy sheep fleeces.  I can just imagine the looks on their (very, very, suburbanite) faces"   That third thought made me smile...a LOT...in fact, I'm still smiling about it.

In all, no harm was done.  The fleeces (Faith, Nancy, and Grace) were intact and in great shape, well skirted without too much dirt or vm.  Even the invoice and photos of my new sheepy friends survived without a crease, despite being found in the bottom of that box!  And I immediately opened one of the fleeces up and here it is--from Nancy.  I put half in the washer and it's already halfway finished, turning from this to a nice creamy white as I write this:

I'm sure more Navajo Churro posts will pop up, since I now have so much to work with.  I do hope this  post is the last I need to make about postal mishaps.  Happy spinning and good night.

Just a vent tonight about a hat I've been knitting from my Winter Wonderland yarn.  I have frogged this freaking (frogging) hat so many times that I've lost count.  Tried to make a roll brim with seed stitch and it turned out to be big enough for a giant, plus the brim didn't roll much due to all the beads and sequins in the yarn, and my seed stitch sucked...pearls where there should have been knits, knits where there should have been pearls, aargh.  (Note to self--and others if you're listening--do not take seed stitch projects out and about to work on where you can't concentrate.  It wil not work out right and you'll be sorry.)  Next I settled on k3p3 rib changing over to stockinette, which went along fine.  I wanted to do some fancy openwork as a kind of top beyond the peak--a little detail to match the neck warmer I made with the other skein, and it's failed twice so far.  The latest version looks like a blender got hold of it.  Whose dumb idea was it to make those twisty dreads at the top edge anyhow?  Oh yeah.  My brain said "don't do it" but my hands did it anyhow.  I saw this technique on TV once and had to try it for myself.  Bad idea, I tell ya.  Like Dr. Seuss on steroids...which gives me an idea:  maybe congress can investigate my hat  and stop wasting time (and our tax dollars) on Roger.

Alright, enough baseball talk.  It will be summer before I get this thing finished, but I am so determined NOT to let another thing go into the UFO heap.  I love making things up as I go along, but this goes to show that sometimes a pattern is worth a couple of bucks, no?

Off to frog and give it one more try before I cash in the chips and make it a plain old beanie.  One good thing comes from all the cussing and griping I've put myself through for this hat:  I learned that my handspun can take the ripping, hold up and still look great.  That's a plus that I had counted on, but it's nice to be sure.

Just a quick post with pictures of a few of the items I've listed recently at Handmade and on my new etsy shop, TemptressYarn.etsy.com.  The batts are only available on etsy so far and the yarn is in both places.

Top left, tread softly batts (on etsy).  Top right "I dream in Color" yarn.

Bottom left, "Irish" yarn.  Bottom right--Border Leicester locks for sale on etsy.

It was almost too easy to wash this chunk of wool fleece in my top loading washer this week.  I'm not going to re-write history since I just spent an hour uploading and making notes on this whole process over in my flickr account, but I am putting this lovely tiled collage up here for a quick overview of the process, and a quick numbered list with info about each thumbnail below the photo.  For more details, please go through my flickr set titled Machine Wash Wool Fleece, and feel free to comment here or there and ask questions. 

For a first try at this method, I am very happy with the results I got.  The locks came out cleaner than many I have purchased with the word "washed" in the description, and were much easier to handle than the dishpan-by-hand method I've used in the past, so that makes it worth repeating soon.  This was from a 3lb, 11oz Border Leicester fleece that I bought at NYSWF at Rhinebeck, October, 2007.  I washed about half the fleece in one batch and am very happy with the ease and speed of the process and the great results I got.   Just a reminder that you can only do this in a top loading washer that has a way to run a "spin only" cycle without agitating.  Otherwise, don't try this at home.

1. Raw Fleece    

2. Judging Card from the NYSWF fleece sale

3. Fleece info card, weight, name, cost

4. Put the fleece into lingerie bags in a  loose, single layer.

5. Add very hot water to an empty washing machine (turned my hot water heater up one click).

6. Add soap after the water is finished filling to avoid massive bubbles.

7. Agitate for 3 seconds to distribute soap (wool is NOT in the water yet)

8. Set washer to "spin only" before you forget!  DO NOT AGITATE WOOL lest you get a giant felt glob!

9. Drop bags of wool into soapy water and gently push down.

10. First soak, 15-20 minutes, (again a reminder: do not agitate!)

11.Spin washer out--showing a sample of the locks after first soak and spin

12-13.  Set bags aside and repeat steps 5-11.  Use less soap this time.

14. Sample of locks after second soak/spin cycle.

15. Refill washer with hot water and vinegar to rinse soap residue and soften.  Repeat rinse soak until the water runs clear.  Keep using hot water, since some wool will felt with big temperature changes.

16. Baby gates used as drying racks---knew I bought those for some reason!!

17.  Wool spread out to dry, fluffed and flipped over once.

18.  Washed Border Leicester Locks, ready to dye now, hooray!!