Today was a wonderful, wonderful day spent doing something I enjoy with a truly special (wink) bunch of ladies. I just adore them.
We met at Diane’s at 8:00 AM and hit the road to Kingston. Diane drove while Reina, Bonnie and I knit. How often do you find four knitters in one car???
First we hit the Wilton Road Custom Fibre Mill – a brother & sister operation (forgive me for I can’t remember their names – it’s been that kind of day). They gave us a tour of the mill and explained what each machine does. It was wonderful and made me want to start a mill. Don’t laugh… I have the room!!! I just have to build a barn, get some sheep, build a mill and buy all the equipment. Maybe I’ll put that on my 2011 to-do list! Haha. At the Wilton Mill, I bought myself some Alpaca roving and some Llama/Wool roving.
We hit the Wool Tyme in Kingston (sorry, they don’t have a website). Here I purchased some Sugar & Spice cotton to make more Beanies for Preemies (that’s what I’m calling it).
After that, we went to the Kingston Brewing Company for a wonderful leisurely lunch (where people stared at us because all four of us were knitting).
Lastly, we hit Woolly Acres farm where we checked out some Shetlands. I ended up with this in my garage…
Now tomorrow, I have to get some lingerie bags to wash all this stuff. Oh, wait, first I have to skirt it. I’m wondering if I should build a rack like they had at the farm… It’s essentially a big rectangle made of wood (2×4’s maybe?) with some wire mesh on top to sit the fleece on.
Anyway, that was today’s adventure. I can’t wait for the next!
Ha! Mom didn’t see the fleece in person or she wouldn’t call it ugly! It’s gorgeous – just like mine, LOL!
To skirt it, all you do is pull off the bits that you don’t want to process. I did mine this morning. I laid them on a sheet on the grass (so they wouldn’t pick up any more debris from the grass cutting around here), then I went around the outside edges and pulled off anything that looked like it was caked on. If it was just sticky tips that I thought would wash off, I left it.
So you don’t really need a frame unless you’re going to buy lots of fleeces that are not skirted. The ones at Rheinbeck will already be skirted so you won’t need it for those.
It was fun, wasn’t it?
That fleece looks UGLY, but I have all the confidence in the world that you will make something very BEAUTIFUL with it in time. Glad you had a nice day!