Giving The Brown Icelandic A Go...
Today was the day... the victim was brown Icelandic fleece from a 2 year old sheep - very soft and fine...
The challenge was to find a suitable tub to do the initial hot soak since this fleece smelled very strongly of sheep. No one was going to put up with that smell at meal time today!
I got lucky and found a medium size plastic garbage can. This time I didn't use water that was too hot to put my hand in. It was too hot to be bath water but I submerged the bags and then left it for several hours to soak. It was pretty dirty - but I realize most sheep are - mine certainly were! LOL!
I did the rinsing in my kitchen sink. I figured one or two would be enough but 4 later the water ran clean. All the time I handled everything so gingerly, so carefully, you'd think I was washing dynamite - I had to laugh at myself! When I was done rinsing I seriously contemplated spinning it out in the washing machine and even went so far as to put it in but at the last minute I chickened out and rolled it in a towel like I usually do. Then it was outside on a rack to dry in the sunshine and summer breezes.
I felt pretty good, laying it out to dry as I could see the fibers in the bags was loose and when I brought it in it looked ready to card... maybe tomorrow. I decided to celebrate. Last fall I made 8 gallons of wine from my own Saskatchewan-grown grapes - just my own grapes and sugar and champagne yeast. It's the first batch of wine I've made in nearly 8 years so I'm pretty proud it's all home-grown. I siphoned it into fresh bottles for bulk aging and had a glass. It was pretty dry - and I'm not a big fan of dry wines, but it was still nice. It will be even smoother a year from now but for not being a year old yet it was not too bad. Then I started a wine kit of Cabernet Savignon, complete with oak chips, in the primary fermenter. All in all, not a bad day... Cheers all! 
Posted by Gloria Patre at 7/27/2010 5:22 PM 
Categories: Fiber
Tags: brown icelandic fiber washing fiber
Categories: Fiber
Tags: brown icelandic fiber washing fiber
Did anyone tell you how much like your mother you are? Is there anything you can't do or won't try? Actually I can't talk, I get the same from my daughters! She's actually not a bad person to be compared to. I guess the apples really don't fall far from the tree.
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Hahahahahaha! Very funny! Takes one to know one! LOL! From one apple to another!
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