Fleece Scouring

I have been a busy girl, scouring my fleeces so that I can get to play with them. Both are actually now washed and are either dry or drying on racks in my house (the weather didn't cooperate for outdoor drying). Clematis, the Black Welsh Mountain fleece, is in pretty good shape, I think. I still have some scurf to deal with but it is otherwise a clean fleece. Madeline, the Jacob fleece, is another story.

The Jacob fleece is full of vm. I don't mean just hay or grass, which I could pretty easily pick out. It is the seeds and other tiny bits in there that have me worried. I plan to try to shake the fleece out, in sections, outdoors and get rid of what I can in that way. I have been reading, and I think that combs are the way to go to clean fiber like this, but I don't own any and can't really afford to buy them. I found plans on line to make a set of combs, but DH is busy right now and won't be able to get to that for a while. I read about someone putting a dry alpaca fleece in the dryer on air and getting rid of vm that way, but I am not sure about that plan. I can certainly try a small bit to see if it works. I will not buy another fleece that has not been coated.

Thursday last, I went into work but came home early due to not feeling well. I had planned to work from home on Friday and it's good thing. If I had to make the drive, I would have stayed home sick anyway. I wasn't deathly ill, just headachy, slightly nauseated and feeling washed out and weak. I stayed home from knitting night at the LYS too.

Saturday we got some stuff done in the morning and then headed down to Silver Spring to have dinner with friends. They treated us to a wonderful meal, good wine and great conversation. It was also our wedding anniversary - 34 years! On Sunday we decided to try going out on the boat. The forecast was for possible thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening, so we weren't sure how long we could be out, but decided to give it a try. We were home in plenty of time - the boat motor overheated and we actually spent the day at the marina working on the motor. Oh, well. It was a beautiful day and we were together. It appears to have been a pretty inexpensive and easy thing to fix, so that's good news, too. I finished scouring the Jacob fleece once we returned home, and watched the thunderstorms roll over us from the safety of the house.

The sleeves for the leaf and picot cardigan are about half complete, maybe a little less, and I am enjoying the knitting. I wove in some of the ends on the vest last night, in preparation for blocking and sewing the shoulder seams, too, before getting to sleep.

All in all, not a bad weekend at all.  Friday evening will be a spinning gathering at my house and, hopefully, a trip on the boat.

I hope you enjoyed your Easter.