Wool

So...this weekend was the local(ish) fiber sale.

Here is most of my haul:

The haul

This is all for needle felting. The white is for bases. It's less expensive than colors. I figured the browns will be good for animals and I'm doing Toothless, so I need black. The orange on the bottom is for pumpkins. The rainbow will be for various projects. I saw these colors and couldn't help it. I found a tutorial for felted bracelets with a knitted base and needle felted design and thought that the girls would like one with a rainbow on it.

I also bought a 32" size 4 needle as they don't seem to be easy to find in wood. The price was reasonable.

Here is the one last thing I bought:

Wet fleece

Fleece info. 

That is most of a 6.25 pound fleece that I bought. It is Border Leicester, which has a long staple and a nice crimp. The tips are bleached and overall it is a gorgeous color.
I learned something important today. If I want the wool to dry outside, I need to start washing before 2 pm (the morning was busy today) as I didn't get it outside until almost 5. It didn't dry all that much.

Cordelia checking the wool

I moved it to my craft room in the basement. That's where I took the above picture. Not included in the picture is the first batch of wool that I washed on Saturday in my small utility sink. The fleece on the floor was washed on Sunday and is mostly dry.
When the wool was on the back porch, it looked like a sheep had exploded on the porch.

Thankfully the craft room is where the dehumidifier is located. I turned it up to max so hopefully it won't take the wool too long to dry. I won't be able to put it back outside as I have to work the rest of the week. I'll go down tomorrow and turn it.

I started combing the first batch. It matted a bit. I tried to be careful with it, Perhaps this amount of matting is normal. I think it's combing reasonably.

Ready to comb

I don't have wool combs, but I was told that I could use wide tooth combs. I found these combs at Meijer. They have two rows of teeth just like the wool combs and seem to be doing OK. I've only done a small amount. I won't mind doing it, but it will definitely take time.

Combed wool

 The bottom bit is fresh off of the combs. The top was rolled into a little "nest"

"Waste"

I was surprised by the amount of waste, but I do think that I was better at minimizing this with the later combings, so perhaps it won't be too bad. This "waste" can be used for stuffing and needle felting, so it won't really go to waste. I am curious, though, to see what percentage the waste will be. I plan to weigh the combed wool and waste when I'm finished. I didn't weigh the wool as it came so I'll have to trust what it said on the label for a starting weight.