Processing Chloe's Lamb Fleece

I currently have 4 sheep in my little flock. 2 ewes who are half sisters, one is a Shetland Rambouillet cross, the other a Navajo Churro Rambouillet cross.
I was blessed to be offered a lamb ram that is a Leister Longwool last year. He and my Churro cross combined and now I have another ram lamb.
He was rejected by his mother and we have bottle fed him. He is almost 3 weeks old and doing well.

Here is a picture of everyone resting out in the pen during some recent warm weather.

The Shetland cross was my first ewe. I got her when she was about 3 months old. She is spoiled like a dog. She comes when you call her name to be petted and get treats.

In this segment I will be talking about processing her lamb fleece. The fleece from her first shearing.

I currently wash all sheep fleece in Dawn Dish soap and the hottest tap water I have. I buy the mesh laundry bags for delicates that have a zip top and I put 8 oz of raw skirted wool into the bag. I wash three or four bags in each load. Have a stainless steel double sink, each sink holds about 3 gallons of water and I use a cup and a half of Dawn dish soap for each load. I do  one wash and then I follow that with three rinses, each one getting colder and colder in temperature.

Before I wash I skirt the fleece and remove as much unwanted junk as possible. There is a lot of vm in my sheeps' fleece as we don't coat them. I love to see them and their beautiful colors, though I know coating makes a huge difference in a fleece. If you have the choice, get a coated fleece.

After skirting, washing and drying I sort again. For Chloe I sorted to remove more vm and to sort the fleece by color. I will sort by coarseness as I pick if I feel or see a difference the locks. Now it is time to pick. I have a large Super Glide picker that I love. I did put Chloe's fleece through it, but it didn't get as open as I'dlike and there is still more vm. I am picking by hand now to remove sticks, hay, seeds and such. My tool of choice to open the locks, a dog comb I picked up at the dollar store.

Here is an unpick lock.

Here is that same lock after picking and combing with the comb.

Next I will card this fiber and pull if off the drum carder as roving. I plan to make myself an EZ Surprise Jacket from the yarn I'm going to spin.

Until next time...
Enjoy your fiber!