I'm a very happy spinner indeed. Kind spinners keep sending me lovely wool, and now it's autumn, and that means it's shearing time in Scandinavia.
This is what I've been scouring today:
Lovely Finnwool sent to me by a Finnish spinner! It's soft, has lovely crimp, and it's very clean. Still I have to scour it, because there's dirt in it. Scouring Finnwool is delicate work. Don't touch, only look:
It felts. Warm water, detergent, and agitating makes felt out of this wool in a couple of minutes.
This is what I've been scouring today:
Lovely coloured wool. I can't wait til I get to play with fresh fleece from our sheep next spring!
SvaraRaderaYes, it's a nice brown color. I'm thinking of spinning Finnish and Swedish landraces in natural colors for stranded knitting.
RaderaDorotea (http://doroteagarbergs.blogspot.se/2012/09/att-sticka-ett-par-eldroda-vantar-en.html) spun her wool without washing it before...? I wonder which version is most common?
SvaraRaderaWhen I saw your first image I thought for a second or so that it was a picture of a hundred mice crawling over each other ;-).
/Anna
Both ways are used, but nowadays when we often spin wools from countries with sheep diseases like Anthrax we want to wash the wool. The tools wear out faster if you use them on dirty wool, and the wool is easier to spin when it's clean. Just think about all the dust, fungal spores, microscopic parts from other plants, and other things you inhale if you card and spin dirty wool.
RaderaLovely wool! I am collecting Shetlands for some natural color stranded work myself.
SvaraRaderaWonderful! Double coated Shetland would go well with Finn and Finull.
Radera