Our Fibreshed was the grateful recipient of many pounds of raw Suffolk fleece donated by the good people at Mason Bluff Farm in Sechelt (and by ten happy sheep who were glad to be shorn of their winter coats). The wool needed to be sorted and washed before it was usable, though, so several Fibreshed members got together at Fibreworks Studio & Gallery to do the job. (Huge thanks to Alexis for offering the use of her spacious deck.)

The first task was to sort through all the wool, discarding the bits that were too coarse to use and removing as much VM (vegetable matter) as we could.

Then the wool went into tubs of very hot water mixed with a good quantity of Dawn dish soap. Sheep do pick up a lot of dirt over the course of a year!

Look at all this beautiful, clean fibre just filled with possibilities! We’ll use this for future Fibreshed projects. We all left with a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day.

 

Photos by Ann Harmer.