Mouse poop!

When are mouse turds cool?  Never - but it's part of this new process that is my current obsession. A few weeks ago I went to the Canby Flock and Fiber Festival in Oregon.  While there I purchased a bag of unwashed fleece recently sheared from a lovely silver/chocolate Romney sheep.

Unwashed means there are bits of hay, grass and (eww!!) even a mouse turd or two in it.  It smells somewhat unpleasant as well.

I didn't know what to do with it - but I knew that to make yarn you had to start here and I wanted to experience the whole process from start to finish.  I looked on the internet to find out what to do first.  Because, of course, if it's on the internet it must be true. 

The first thing I had to do was to spread it out and pick out all the bits of dirt, grass and turds (again.. EWW!!!)  Then I washed it via a very specific process (one wrong move and it could turn into a block of felt) - and then I spread it out to dry:

There are several options for the next step.  Use a fancy drum carder, use hand carders or use a flicker.  I have a flicker.  To use a flicker you take a lock of the washed and dried fiber:

and then you flick it with a flicking tool to get loose fibers that can be spun:



You spin them and end up with this:

Yarn!  This is just the coolest thing!  I'm so digging it.  I currently have a big pile of fiber drying on the kitchen table.  We don't need the table. We can eat in the living room in front of the TV. Soon my freshly washed fleece will be ready to be flicked (flucked?) and spun.  Once I have it all spun, I will knit it into something wonderful and will have created something from start to finish.

I have discovered that fiber is warm and alive and satisfying.  It makes me feel complete and connected to nature.  The process is fascinating.  Working with hand-spun yarn is better than therapy or yoga or even exercise.

My mother-in-law is amazed that I do this voluntarily and enthusiastically.  When she was a child she HAD to do this.  It was war time and if you needed a sweater - you started by shearing the sheep.  I wonder if I would enjoy it so much if I had to do it?  Maybe not.