Wonderful roving

I received a big box from the post office yesterday, and it contained the roving from a corriedale fleece I had sent for processing. I opened it to find two bags full of white, soft roving.

Here is a picture of the roving, and a lock of the original fleece. The difference is amazing. And this can be my personal and very big endorsement for the processor that did the fleece for me. It was done by woolynob fiber mill in Indiana (woolynobfibrmill@aol.com) It is a beautiful roving, white and not a bit of vm. I know selecting a good fleece has a big part to do with it also, I consider myself just plain lucky in that, since I often have limited selection and price range.

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/lusi222/detail?.dir=/corriedale+roving&.dnm
=corriedale+roving+and+lock.jpg

Here's some details on the fleece. I bought it at a fiber fair in Yellowsprings Ohio, in Sept. from a local breeder, Robert Milliken. The fleece was listed as 9.5 lbs and I paid $14. for it. I wrote about buying this fleece in a Sept 27th post. I skirted off some to keep to wash as locks and spin fine, and some that was a bit felted, that I didn't want included in the processing. When it was weighed in, there was 6.25 lbs of raw fleece. I have roughly measured the roving at around 4.5 lbs. It's hard to weigh those big balls of roving at this stage, I will weigh the yarn later.

So now I have lots of white to spin. I want to make sock yarn, at least to start with, and then dye the yarn. It is going to be easy spinning.

I am very tempted to say that I will never hand wash fleece again, after recieving such wonderful results. However, I have to compromise for now, and say that I will wash what is here at home now, and send any new fleeces I buy, straight to the processor.

CW