Farm Friends Friday - Fiber Finds

Several years ago I dropped off a bunch of wool to be processed at Ohio Valley Natural Fibers. At the time it seemed like a lot of wool. Little did I know that in just a few years, six or eight fleeces would be nothing.

Everything came back in great order. As always. Well, except one box. Miss Ewenice. I opened it up and found a light gray fleece; definitely not her creamy white. The texture seemed reasonable, but the color was off. Way off.



I've heard stories about mills losing fleeces and sending out "replacements" in hopes no one would notice. I finally decided that must have been what happened here. It wasn't a bad box of roving, but as I didn't know who it really was, I couldn't get very excited about it.

I labeled it rug roving and set it aside. Might as well get some use from it. I moved it into the wool house and pushed it to the back corner.

During the mass loft clean out (watch a couple of those hoarding shows and they will scare you straight!) I again came across this sad box of fiber. I opened it. Still gray. It nagged at me though because I've never had any reason to question any other fleece I've ever sent up there.

I wondered if maybe I hadn't gotten it clean enough. Maybe the anti-static spray they used darkened it? I decided to spin a little, wash it and see what happened.



Guess what! It IS Miss Ewenice :-D. And it's lovely.



Of course it is. You are definitely crazy, lady.



One other "find". A stray strand of really poorly spun yet vaguely familiar white yarn. Do you know what this is? My very first spinning.

My friend Julie helped me spin this using her wheel one afternoon. The roving? Punkin. While I knew I didn't want to waste much of that, I also felt that Punkin would want to be the one to teach me to spin my first yarn. At the time I remember feeling really sad watching him literally slip through my fingers.

Sometimes that feels like a long time ago. Sometimes it feels like yesterday.

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