And now the hard part starts

So, I started washing the new fleeces.

Clementine's anyway. Hers is the dirtiest of the six. The size of these sheep fleeces really puts the Pygoras in perspective. Yowza.

I will eventually find a faster way to do this, maybe in the washing machine, but for now I'm doing it one small batch at a time in the sink with a salad spinner. I can keep a pipeline of three batches going at once. Soak, rinse, spin. Actually, it's more like soak, rinse, soak, rinse, soak, rinse, repeat repeat repeat. Anyway, I have found that this micro-approach the first couple times around really helps me understand the ends and outs of a process, so I slog on. I still have a couple of hours of work to finish washing Clem's curls.

Then I plan to comb it (instead of carding.) Spin it. And, finally, make myself a sturdy, fisherman type sweater. Woohoo. Hopefully it'll be ready to wear by next winter. Or, considering the way this winter is hanging on, maybe by the end of this one. :)

Given what a wet, dirty, smelly job it is, I get an amazing kick out of seeing the end product.

Here's what it looks like before and after it's washed.

Clem also has a whole rainbow of colors under all that dirt. (Um, yes, there are still some bits of hay and dirt in there, but I can get that out as I comb it.)

As always, I have onlookers.