Shearing

This is shamefully, not a fleece from this spring's shearing. It is from last year's! So, it is definitely time to get it washed-to make room for some more dirty fleeces. Seriously, I love the smell of raw fleece, my kids and their playmates can be somewhat less understanding. Sadly, I'm undecided if I will be washing more raw fleece this year or not. We in the bay area are facing a serious drought this year. All of the washing water can (painstakingly) be used in the garden (it involves a lot of hauling on my part) and so the water wouldn't be wasted but its still something I debate about. I may have to take a look at the fleeces all together and see if there is anything really worthy of me processing by hand. I'm loving what I've been getting back from Morro Fleece Works so much that I may send most of it there this year. This is the last of Piper's dirty(romney) fleece:

And then clean. Shiny, shiny, shiny!

Of course, I should be finishing this post with a picture of Piper's yarn, but I haven't gotten there yet. This is more of Rita's merino blended with alpaca in a simple, soft 2 ply. I've made a couple of hats with this yarn now and I seriously can't get enough of spinning it. This is my total make out yarn now.