A few weeks ago, I had a yard sale. Don't ask me how, but I started chatting with a lovely gal about wool. She said that her in-laws had a sheep farm -- when I asked what they did with the wool, she told me they just "threw it away." Noooooo! From that, a beautiful relationship was born. (Yay for networking at a yard sale!) She brought me this:
The picture doesn't do this baby justice. I could easily fit myself inside this bag, multiple times. It's gigantic! Full of glorious wool, that otherwise would have been (gasp) thrown away. It's straight from the sheep - and it smells and feels heavenly. Of course, I guess it depends on who you ask. Hubs was downwind while I was sorting it and he said, "That smells. Bad." Ha.
So now I have all this wonderful sheep at my disposal. It needs to be sorted, picked through, washed, carded, and then made into roving. Since I don't have real equipment to do any of this, I improvise. Here's my "skirting table." Two sawhorses and chicken wire.
This is what most of the wool looks like in the bag. It's a tedious process to sort through it and get all the "barnyard boogies" out. But the cleaner I can get it at this point before washing, the easier the process will be.
Apparently wool is like catnip for dogs. This crazy boy wants nothing more than to eat the sheep!
I pulled this out of the bag - there were at least 3 just like this. I think the person that was shearing the sheep was trying to see how long they could shave without breaking the wool!
After a couple hours, I got it all sorted through. There are still barnyard boogies, but most of that will wash out. The small amount that doesn't will be picked out once it's in use, either when it's spun or when I felt it.
Lastly, here is what is left after all the wool was sorted. It looks like a lot of waste. But honestly, I use more of the wool than would be given back to me if I had it processed at a plant. They are kind of particular at the plant - they won't use the underbelly (too dirty), or the second cuts (when the wool wasn't cut short enough the first time, they get re-shaved; second cuts aren't good for making roving). The beauty of processing it myself is that I get to keep more of it. Waste not, want not. And, since most of the wool will be either wet felted or needle felted, it doesn't matter if it's a second cut or not. It's a little more work to wash it if it's super dirty, but it's well worth the time!
Over the weekend, my goal is to wash and card most of this. I won't get it all done, but I'll have a good start!
Happy Crafting!
-A
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