Saturday, January 23, 2010

Give me wool

So the time has come for planning for the Ravelympics. For those of your who are not in the know, or haven't heard me ramble on at length, the Ravelympics is a knit-along challenge to occur during the Olympics.

The idea is to pick something that is a challenge to you. Something you haven't done, or want to accomplish. There are various events, such as the Hat Half pipe, in which to choose from. You create your team with members and then pick your event and at the opening ceremonies, cast-on your project. Or begin. My understanding of the whole thing, anyway.

Now, if I want to be in the spirit and do something that challenges me, I would have to Follow Pattern Directions
. But since that isn't an event, I won't. :) I decided on Fleece to FO. Fleece to Finished Object. This event includes spinning the yarn and then knitting it up to something complete. Just so I don't over do, I figure I could pull off a chunky hat. Remember, you event must be finished by closing ceremonies.

After Checking the Official rules, I can prepared the fleece ahead of time. And this is what I see.





Each bag is filled with fleece. Raw, unwashed, straight off the sheeps' backside fleece. Smelly, lanolin-y, dirty and straw filled raw fleece. I had asked for wool from anyone that has a sheep. It arrived. By no means is this my fleece, I am merely the keeper of the fleece, the protector of the stash. With the facilities best suited to process it. (I'll admit that this was a consideration when buying my new house) But I don't think anyone will mind if I use a portion for my event, especially if I wash more at the same time.

So, I am beginning by running test in the Lab of the best way to wash it including which products and processes to use. Small tests in Mason Jars. I figure that I will need 4-6 ounces of washed fleece for my hat to be on the safe side.

So as I set all this up, blessing those who donated the bags of fleece, something occurred to me. In about 3 months, MORE bags will be arriving from the spring shearing which has already been scheduled for March.

Ahh....gulp! Well, I asked for it.

2 comments:

  1. I guess we need to have another wool wash marathon sometime...

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  2. Woo Hoo! Let's pick poo out of the sheepy fiber. From now on I work for cleaned carded wool. Grin!!

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