Scurf. Little dandruff-like bits caused by mites. You probably won’t see it unless you look for it. It often doesn’t make itself known until after washing a fleece, when it can lift away from the cut edge and lay, hanging, like dust motes in a shaft of sunlight. And like the dust mote, it’s not like you can just shake it out or have it fall off the combs in carding. It’s sticky, it’s ugly, and frankly a little gross. From everything I’ve read, you’d probably want to kick this fleece to the curb and find another. The general consensus is, “there’s always another fleece.”
I suppose that in many respects that’s true. However, if you’ve found this particular fleece after combing through website after website to find this very specific breed, you probably don’t relish starting over to find another shepherd. And anyway, the shepherd you did find was so nice and accommodating that you really don’t want to disappoint. Also there’s this little matter of the cleaned fleece feeling like a cloud that apparently is going to produce some wonderful yarn. So what to do?
Photo of North Ronaldsay sheep by Ian Caldwell
As it happens, I own every one of the combs that have been recommended for removing scurf, including fine cat combs, flick cards, and something called a slicker brush. I probably should have paid more attention to the admonitions about keeping your fingers well away from the teeth (my hands look like I’ve been attacked by an army of pins). Both the cat comb and flick cards took a long time to gather up all of the scurf, and then it had to be cleaned out of the teeth. The slicker brush, on the other hand, was reasonably fast, and it has a little sliding plate that lifts the garbage up and off the teeth for easy disposal. What luck that the cats didn’t like this one for grooming!
I’ve probably spent 2 hours de-scurfing to get what is spun here. This will be a slow process, but now that I’m done with spinning for my sweater, slow is just fine.
The yarn itself is quite fine in the single, and I’m anticipating a fingering weight yarn in 2-ply. I’ll do the appropriate measuring a little later. While the tips of the locks are white, the locks themselves are a mix of black, grey and white, with the black being the outer coat fibers. They are much stiffer and stick out of the spun yarn to make it a little more rustic than I was expecting. It really isn’t possible to remove all of them, so this is just what it’s going to be. I’m not even thinking about what this yarn might become, beyond a knitted swatch. I might see how it felts as well.
Meanwhile…
Yes, I really did finish spinning all of the fleece from the 2020 12 days of Christmas from Inglenook fibers. And I also finished knitting a sweater that is a jumble of stripes from that yarn. There were more than one gauge in the pile, which made lining up the stripes a little difficult, but I’ve decided that’s ok as well. I have a few ends to tuck in, and I’m going to cover the pick-up for the front bands with ribbon because it’s slightly messy looking on the inside, so not 100% done. I’m pretty pleased however, and blocking has done quite a bit to even out the various yarns. I’m hoping my next run at knitting up something from my hand spun yarns will be a bit more regular, but I think this is not bad at all. And it fits!
Now at the end of a knitting project, I need to decide what to do next. The queue is endlessly long for both WIPs and yet to be started projects. I think I’ll potter around in the studio tomorrow, return needles and stray cakes of yarn to their proper places, and lay out some unfinished projects to see if anything speaks to me. It’s probably a little late in the season for hats and mittens, but I know there are a few waiting to be finished, so that’s an easy place to start. This is the fun part!
In other news….
I’ve gotten a few requests to donate to the folks in Ukraine, and have found two places to do so with people that made me feel like I’d done something important. The first was through an auction by my friend Josefin who made available a small skein of her gold medal winning embroidery yarn to the highest bidder. I decided that even though I didn’t win the auction, I’d send in the amount of my bid to add to the amount from the winning bid and her own donation. After all, I was planning to spend that amount, so it just made sense to me.
The other place I donated was via a message I received from the Webs Yarn Store. Webs is part of LoveCrafts, and the company has employees in Ukraine. It seems really important to me to help the people who support my crafting. Some of these people have taken up arms to fight for their country. I can’t even imagine how that must feel. If you feel inclined, here is the link to the funding page. Reading about those people in Ukraine really got to me. I hope they stay well.
Meanwhile, keep spinning and knitting.
Sara, your sweater is beautiful. I love all the stripes and that you spun the yarn…well, that makes it all the more special.
We need to get together someday soon. Miss you my friend. Suzanne
I miss you too! At least there’s a sense that spring might be coming, so maybe there’s a road trip in the offing???
I can not wait to see you wear your beautiful sweater! It’s a work of art!
N. Jones