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!

Azariah an Origin Story

This post is how I choose the name Azariah for my fiber arts name and the stroy of the longest wip I have ever had.

In early 2009 we learned we we're pregnant with our 4th child. As usually goes for my husband and I, we had a name very quickly. The difference this time was we had a middle name for a girl and a boy and so didn't know what the baby was.

Azariah Floyd
Azariah Rose Makayluh

Not too long after we shared our exciting news with family and friends, I started getting sick. I was in my 2nd trimester and this was unusual for me. I went to my appointment and they couldn't find the heart and decided to do an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed that there was a baby, but no heart beat. We were heart broken.

We had begun setting up the house for our new arrival and I had started collecting cute things that were unisex of course.

I had also started to knit a baby blanket.

All the cute things, as well as the blanket, yarn and needles went into a box. I added cards as they came and my shirt from the March of Dimes event the next year.

To keep the memory of this baby alive, we decided to go with Azariah Floyd, I decided to make that my Ravelry name.

At the time most of my work was being donated.  Moslty to the hospital where my boys were born. I designed and knit or crocheted bereavement clothes for tiny tiny babies.  This would give families the opportunity to have a nice picture of a baby they lost.  I had be doing this ministry for 6 years before my loss.

About a year later I learned about knitted and could no longer make the tiny items to gauge. So I took it as the Lord moving me on.  Move on I have. I spin, dye, design, knit, crochrt, weave, design and teach. We moved to the county to have fiber animals and I have learned to really cook and can.

A couple of weeks ago at church one of the pastors announced that he had become a grandfather. The baby boy's name is Azariah. The Lord it's time. I took that box down from it's high self and with eyes closed removed the blanket and yarn.  Over the next two weeks I finished that blanket, for Azariah. I will be giving it to him this Wednesday night at church.