I decided to dive into my stash and see about washing these lovely Merino locks to get them ready to spin. I’ve been contemplating what to do with them as I don’t really have enough to do much on their own. I decided to get them washed anyhow and I’ll start combing them when they are dry. Probably this evening because the weather to day is divine and they are drying quickly, even in the shade.
I have three natural Merino colours: grey-brown, creamy white and dark chocolate brown (not pictured).
The Ziploc bags were stuffed full of these locks from my friend, Diana (go check out her blog – it’s excellent and has lots of information about her fibre exploits).
After sorting through each bag, laying each lock out in piles, I laid them in my mesh laundry bags and prepared the sink with the hottest tap water our house makes, which is hot.
I saturated the water with Sunlight and let them soak for about 20 minutes, then rinsed.
Currently, the locks are all drying on the balcony, in the shade like I said. I am hoping to spin a true worsted spun yarn with these, mostly for the experience. Beth Smith wrote out a great and easy-to-understand definition, from PLY magazine, as “… always hand-combed, with all of the fibres aligned and all of the butts (cut end that was attached to the sheep) and tips (the end that was facing the sun) of each individual fibre facing the same way.”
I’ll keep you posted on my progress …
Happy Spinning :)
PS. June’s episode of The Wool n’ Spinning Podcast is live and can be found here.
