BFL cross, 50/50 split, skirt, wash, comb to clouds
Due: Nov 30/15

2015-08-02 Picked up bag of fleece from Christina at Twist.

2015-08-30 Finally had time to remove it from it’s bag, laid out on the table, and spent 2 hours skirting and picking out vm.

Several batches in cold soaks, one batch in hot soapy water soak, to be laid out to dry.

Initial counts:

Picked, skirted batch, in bag 2,162 grams
Heavy vm batch 423 grams
Super short staple/dirty batch 180 grams
Skirted/garbage batch 805 grams

Total weight 3,570 grams or 7.86 lbs
Total weight to be washed 2,675 grams or 6.09 lbs

Notes:
This is a big fleece, almost 8 pounds.

The fleece was not rolled up as a complete fleece usually is. Rather it was in smaller clumps of fleece.

While several were very nice and you could see the lock structure, I definitely found the side that the sheep typically laid down on as the locks were very matted and full of vegetable matter. Those had to end up in the skirt pile.

On a good note, I still have 6 pounds of usable fleece to process. No tippy/weak tips, locks are very sound and have a good ping, and the staple length ranges from 1” to about 6” or 7”.

I did find a lot of short cuts which fell out fairly easily as I shook each section.

There was one whole section though, almost 200 grams of just beautifully soft fiber, super dirty tips, but oh so soft. I couldn’t bear to throw it out. It won’t be long enough to comb, but should card up into rolags easy enough. No idea how this section came about.. maybe the shearer had problems with one area of the sheep during shearing. In cold water soak now.