Monday, November 14, 2011

Step away from the fleece

A week or two ago Trish called my attention to the fact that after people have submitted their sheep's fleeces for judging at The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, and the prizes have been awarded, the winning fleeces are auctioned off. 

To, you know, people.  Who can then have the fleece prepared for spinning or knitting or dyeing and spinning and/or knitting or whatever. 

Now, I already knew about the whole business of buying a fleece, going in with a friend or two to do it if it seems like more than one could knit in a lifetime.  It just hadn't occurred to me that I might do this at some point.  And I suspect that if my stash could sustain me through a two-year yarn drought, Trish's could sustain a family.  I might add that Trish does not spin (despite my best efforts to lure her into that whole realm of addiction), further reducing the appeal of such a project.

So of course, we discussed the dates and time of the upcoming auction and agreed that we would not do a thing about it.

And then I went to the Fair.


Sigh.

More sighing.

Oh the sighing.

Next year.  Next year!!

3 comments:

Kathleen Taylor said...

omogod- those are stunningly beautiful fleeces! I love the smell of a good unwashed fleece. And though you can send the fleeces out for prep, it's not hard to do the washing yourself, and if you preserve the lock formation, you can spin from that without further prep. I usually wash (and dye, if I'm dyeing), and then I send fleeces to a mill for carding.

Note: beware of free fleeces. They're tempting to play with, but as a rule, they're free for a reason

Kathleen Taylor said...

also- that middle picture looks like it could be a silver Romney. Romneys have a fairly low grease component, and they're wonderful to spin. Look at that sheen! (Can you tell that I've been on a Fleece Buying Moratorium too?)

Anonymous said...

No. You are mad. Don't do it! Mostly, though, don't do it because I will be jealous, and will want to do it too, and I mustn't. Must. Not. Do. It. so please, just for me... donnnnnn't!