I did all sorts of things this weekend. Some, like repairing the screen door or cleaning the kitchen cupboards, just aren’t that interesting to blog about, so I’ll just skip to the good stuff. Several days of sun were predicted, so I hauled out the wool stash. I have three fleeces, and we won’t talk about how long I’ve had them, okay? One was given to me, and is washed, and carded, and ready to spin. And just sitting.
The other two are genuine New Mexico churro sheep, descendants of those brought by the Spaniards when they settled the Southwest, and still used for Navaho rugs. I have one black and one white, purchased from the university there. Both fleeces were washed before storage, so they aren’t disgusting, but neither are they completely clean and fun to work with, or carded, or anything like that. They are academic sheep rather than handspinner sheep, so both fleeces are full of straw bits and need quite a bit of work. I teased out and rewashed a bunch, probably about a pound of the white and less of the black. The white is a nicer fleece than the black, with less straw and longer staple.
The long-term plan for these is tapestry, inspired by both Navaho rugs and Norwegian tapestry designs, on a cotton warp. I’m not planning to dye any of the wool, but might blend a gray or two.
As threatened, I did start a new pair of socks last week. They’re Regia sock yarn, acquired from Webs a while ago, in my favorite colorway, “misplaced ball band”. Basic cuff-down socks, with a slip stitch pattern thrown in for interest.
It’s much fun to knit, and will be quite entertaining to wear too. They’re farther along than these photos, though not by much.
