Fiber Prep Season; for the love of the process

I just love this time of year.

The cooler weather, the leaves changing, the goldenrod still lingering, and wearing layers. 

It's also the time of year I pull out my acquired fleeces and go to town. 

Since I went full time with my yarn making business two years ago, I've also been in the process of tweaking and streamlining my entire process. 

Turns out I have a thing for lining up several projects at once and building up such a momentum it feels almost meditative. 

It may seem danuting but breaking it all up into little bits, it's quite managable and simple. 

In this age of Etsy's new guidlines of allowing outsourcing and now most recently Amazon Handmade, I continue to stick my toes further into the sand in order to stand up for what I believe in when it comes to a creator's creative integrity. 

I've also just recently (and finally) added a much needed tag line to my business title 

44 Clovers

: heritage yarns; hand spun & plant dyed :

Why "heritage" you might ask? 

To me, the word heritage stems from age old traditions and techniques and processes that I hold very dear to my heart. 

When I started spinning 15 years ago (this month!) I had been wanting to do so as a way to bond with the past when it came to textiles. 

Since then I have worked with all kinds of textiles especially fibers when it comes to spinning and I found I started to ask the questions of "where did this wool come from?" "where was it grown?" "Who worked on and took care of this animal?" The more I asked myself these questions and went seeking, the more I ended up being drawn towards raw fleece which I can easily find in my surrounding communities.

skirting a white shetland fleece

shetland before the wash

I love using my double kitchen sinks, a scoop of orvis paste, and the hottest water from the tap for gentle soaking

This shetland came out

A few weekends ago I was taking advantage of the warmer weather by skirting, drying and carding my fleeces on the front porch. 

skirting a finn fleece

carding a scottish black face fleece

spinning and plying my first skein of white new mexican churro wool


So far I've managed to get all fleeces washed and two carded.
Once all is carded I'll be ready to settle in for the winter to spin in front of the fire.
Then just like Fredrick, I can dream about the colors they will be come spring. 

Operation Wool

I don't find this time incredibly creative.

But it is pretty exciting for me 

as I sift through

bag after bag

of wool. 

I never know exactly the full potential of a fleece until I've through each step. 

And here's each of my steps:

from raw fleece to hand spun yarns.

I bought this unquiely colored New Mexican Churro fleece while visiting Tierra Wools in 

Los Ojos, N.M. back in September

which I then mailed home. 

This week, I finally got around to washing it.

I love my double sinks. 

I'm able to do a whole fleece usually in one day, in batches. 

Here in winter, I dry it above my woodstove. 

In summer, outside on the clothline. 

The wire hangers work well for srapping the wool over. 

At the same time, I've been working on carding up my Maine Island fleece which is a Cheviot cross. And raised by Lee Straw out on Metric Island. 

These are the fleeces that started it all for me;

using just local fleece as the base for my plant dyed hand spun yarns. 

These fleeces are always so clean, and just a pure joy to work with. 

Long soft staple lenths. 

The dreamiest. 

This basket is "yarn in the waiting".

A Maine Icelandic fleece, also very clean, wonderful to work with and is on the wheel right now. 

I got this fleece from Pondview Farm in Limington in exchange for skirting 32 of their fleeces. 

As my handspun business is steadily growing, and now with my first child along the way, I'm moving more towards doing less knitting for the shop. 

I will always knit for myself and my little family. But I've finally realized that knitting for the shop, in the quanity I have been in the past, isn't quite working out. 

I do have a collection coming out this spring of something delicate and plant dyed. 

Below is my latest finished piece, for me. 

My 6th Hitch Hiker Shawl.

So easy and so fun. 

Knit with my own handspun of 100% Maine cashmere from Black Locust Farm and dyed by Bill Huntington at Hope Spinnery. 

I couldn't resist a green cloud of cashmere. 

I have one more fleece to wash. 

A Scottish Black Face fleece from Lilybrook Farm in Hollis.

I just have to card the brown churro, black face, contining spinning the icelandic, island, those other two and by the end I think I'll have about 60 skiens I'm thinking. 

Which I'll then have a field day dyeing in my back yard when the thaw comes.