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| Wikimedia Commons image by Alan Levine |
Week two of the ABC meme and my B is for the Black Welsh Mountain sheep. Or at least kind of. You see, I was gifted a fleece by a friend's Mum and I was informed that it was from a Black Welsh Mountain sheep so it should have looked like the feisty beastie above. Now, what would a dyer want with a black fleece I hear you ask? Well, I do like a black fleece as they are very useful for blending and for contrasts in yarn, black being a difficult colour to achieve when dyeing fleece. So as I wasn't expecting to dye my new acquisition, I put it in the cupboard ready for when it was needed.
So I was not a little surprised when I was having a fleecy stock-take and found that my black fleece was in fact, white!
(It was in a thick sack hence why I hadn't noticed beforehand). Mmm, well not so much white as a rather mucky brown.
Added to that the fact that is had been at the back of my cupboard for...let's just say a while shall we?... and I wasn't wildly optimistic.
Here's what I had when I opened the sack.....
And in the bucket (think yourselves lucky the internet hasn't got smell-o-vision).
But, after several washes, I ended up with this.....
Sure there are some daggy bits but it is actually beautifully soft with a nice crimpy staple (about 4" give or take). There's no kemp and the best areas are bright white. Of course now I a) can't wait to dye it and spin it and b) am intrigued to know what it is! Any suggestions anyone? (Oh, and it is a large fleece - we are talking Wensleydale size here - The pic above is barely a quarter of it!).
Here's the staple for you fleece sleuths out there....
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7 comments:
Oooo... it's telling me it wants to be turquoise. But that might just be me.
What a beautiful animal. But I wouldn't know what to do with a fleece. So much to learn, so little time. I'd love to see what happens to it next.
Two batches dyed so far! The first was in fact a mix of turquoise and blue/greens (so not just you, Charlotte!) and the second mossy greens. Will post some pics once they're dry.
That looks just like the fibre I got recently, the woman said it was a cross breed, but I missed what it was a cross of :S
I'm thinking x breed myself but not sure what of either! In looking around I did find this site http://www.nationalsheep.org.uk which has some interesting breeds I hadn't even heard of, so I'll be trying to track some of those down for future spinning exploits!
Hmm... Is it possible the sheep in the picture was just very dirty? =P Other than that i would love to learn to spin, I've done it once when I was very little and it was amazing. Not sure i could afford it yet though...
I'm so inspired. I love to look at fleece and imagine myself turning it into yarn. Must be just as wonderful as turning yarn into a project! Can't wait to see how it turns out for you.
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