July 17 2026 (how did that arrive so quickly?) I am just back from my Doctor’s appointment (I passed my blood work and am good for another 6 month! still not quite back to normal but moving in the correct direction.) its summer so let’s do some summer things! Ok, so how many fleeces have I collected…. and now need to wash?

Fleece 1 for 2026:

A couple months ago I went south of Ottawa to the town of Spencerville, (it has a very photogenic mill you saw in a post a few years ago as well as a lovely small fiber festival).

1.1) fabulous parking space rite by the door of the event!  We were a bit early.

It was a small but well done event, lots of variety in booths and lots of shopping. From fiber to Yarn to finished products as well as fiber prep and weaving equipment.

1.2) a few shots of the sale 2026.

One of the booths had some very nice looking fleeces. I took a few photos there and then kept on with the photo documentation, definitely planning to come back for one of the fleeces.

1.3) The Sweet Sheep Co. booth full of bags of fleeces.

I am sure you have already guessed it was an Icelandic cross with lovely shades of tog from white to cream to grey. The thel also had lovely variations. Unfortunately as I returned to buy it, someone had spotted this fine fleece and had the bag in hand, and was BUYING IT!!! I was so disappointed. Oh well, maybe I will get next year’s sheering?

 1.4) shopping Oops, missed the fleece I had  wanted.

Seeing my obvious disappointment, the vender said she had a smiler Icelandic cross under the table…. It was bigger…. So I stopped the photography, percussed it and added it to the walker! (Ann ran it out to Glenn who was possibly snoozing in the car. Thanks Ann!) It was a much bigger fleece as you will see further down. That should keep me busy this summer.

 

OOPS Fleece #2, 3 and 4:

The local Ottawa Guild was contacted by a sheep farm outside of Ottawa wondering if we wanted their fleeces. They are primarily razed for meat but were described as having good fleeces and some were “not white”. Jean got the message and drove out to pick up the fleeces from the “organic sheep”. They arrived the afternoon of a guild social and we emptied one of the multiple feed  bag stuffed with what we thought was a fleece each,  onto a table to see what the fleeces looked like.  we found there were three fleeces in the first bag. I re-bagged them in clear plastic, so they could be seen, and admired, more easily. I selected two brown fleeces that night,  then the next week picked a black and white fleece which was particularly soft.

1.5 (fleeces in feed bags at studio), 1.6 (photos of the top of 4 of the feed bags showing fleece), 1.7 (the 2 dark brownish fleeces i chose) Organic sheep fleeces Jean picked up for the guild. (There are still a few bags left!)

1.8) sampling one of the fleeces, quick hand wash and mostly dry and sample spin the grease.

I left the two dark fleeces in the side yard, they looked reasonably serkerted, and took the multi-colour fleece to the cottage. Glenn got the 6’ folding table set up on the deck and I spread out the fleece to evaluate.

2.1) Third fleece from the guild it is multi coloured but mostly white and off white.

This particular fleece would be called lightly skirted. I did find quite a bit of second cuts, that’s short bits that the sheerer cut a bit high then neatened up the sheep with a second pass of the sheers. I pulled out the second cuts, any vegi matter and a few lumpy brown bits.

 2.2) spread out on the table you can see the fleece is multi-coloured

2.3) close up of parts of the fleece and bucket of rejected bits

2.4) second cuts some were longer than i usually see

2.5) picking and sorting fleece on 6’ table

I was sorting the fleece while shaking sections, picking out VM (veggie-matter) and short cuts. Then bagging similar sections of fiber, into clear bags. The local chipmunks and squires will have extra warm homes this coming winter. the Phoebe who had its nest in the corner of the deck was not quite as excited about me using the deck.

2.6) phoebe on the deck railing

I hit a much cleaner section and was starting to think the fleece wasn’t quite as filled with hay and burrs as I had thought then I noticed the ground…. What a mess! I am just over half way through the fleece. I will keep working on it over the next few weekends when we get down to the cottage (there is a lot of work to do there but this will make a nice brake).

2.7) the deck is a bit of a mess.

I was going to add the fleece bits to the garden, (it will hold water, suppress weeds unless the weed seeds are in the dirty wool, and help feed the plants, well the butt end wool  anyways), but there are quite a few burrs in there. since I don’t want burr plant popping up next year I think the most of the purple bucket will be garbage.

After shaking and picking the next step is a soak in the stock tank to wash it. But I have only 2 small bags of fiber from this fleece well picked and sorted, so I think I will switch to the Icelandic Cross from Spencerville.

 

Stock tank:

You have seen this part before, the 75gallon stock tank is usually used to water livestock, but it makes a great bath to wash fleeces. The larger sizes have a drain to make changing water easier. (they go on sale at the local princess auto so watch there flyers if you are looking for one, you might get lucky and find a second hand one on line.)

3.1) the 75 gallon stock tank from Princess Auto, I have added a hose and shut off valve to the drain.

I have added a hose extension and shut off valve so I can empty most of the water, then tip out the last bit. Other than the first wash (which tends to have a lot of weed seeds and soap.) the rinse water can be used on the flower boxes along the side yard. if the water is quite clean i can reuse it for the next soap batch.

3.2) I picked, shook, and pulled out a few burrs from the fleece, and separated the first part of it into five strainer buckets.

3.3) after letting it soak for most of the day the water was very brown.

I found a few spots with Sheep Dandruff but most of the fleece so far looks good.

Once the fleece had soaked and released a lot of the dirt, I lifted each strainer basket, resting it on the edge of the stock tank, and let most of the dirty water drip out.

3.4) once its reasonably less drippy, each was hung up by the side garden.

The first batch of was returned to the stock tank to rinse.  (They were hung up to drip while the water was changed). after the first rinse the soap seem to have left, that was a surprise it usually takes 2 rinses,  so on to the drying racks.

3.5) I have been using Ikea’s folding laundry drying racks.  

3.6) I also put the overflow fiber on the upper drying rack which also dried well.

3.7) here are close ups of the fleece after washing

 

the first batch washed and mostly dry:

This is defiantly part Icelandic, with a dual coat. The tog is quite soft and there is a bit of black kemp-like fiber in arias.

3.8) I may use this part to spin part of the weft for an Icelandic blanket (with tufts of tog).

I am working on washing the second set of strainer baskets. The amount I have left will be 3 or 4 more strainer baskets to finish the fleece off.  so its likely 13 or 14 baskets to wash this one fleece. Oh the tag on the bag said “Icelandic X” 5.20 lbs, “Midnight #44302”.

 

I had better get back to work and switch the second set of strainer baskets while its sunny and not raining. The weather continues to be hot, but occasionally we are getting cooler nights. We have seen signs of the smoke from the forest fires well north of us. The sky spent a day being yellow and we have smelt the smoke as it drifts across the city. I hope they can get it all under control, then out soon. I hope also that the weather is being kind to you and you can do some outside fiber prep.

 4) what odd weather, the rhubarb is starting again in one of its 3 pots?!