Icelandic wash day

Faith trust and Icelandic dust.

Ok im a nut, but we all focused on that already havent we?!

Im washing Icelandic. Its fracking AMAZING.
So i have had some icelandic yarn in the past. Its scratchy and not at all next to skin soft. So i assumed, washing an icelandic fleece, it would be the same. Scratchy and not next to skin soft.

I had my opinions handed to me on a silver platter.

So icelandic has two types of fleece. The Thol or the super soft undercoat and the Tog. The more "roughish" outer coat. Its so not rough! Its actually quite pleasent.  Maybe not around the neck soft, but totally mittens soft. I believe im going to spin this to make thrummed mittens. Anyway i wanted to share this link all about Icelandic fleece. Because its just really Interesting!! I have some washing, some raw which may be too full of VM ( veggie matter) to clean properly, and some dried and ready to go!!
I have been hand carding this. By fluffing it by hand. Outside to let the vm fall to the ground where it will. And will spin this my the cloud. IE just grab a handful and let it go to town! It will make a beautiful and lofty single. If i make a nicely balanced single ply yarn i should be able to knit thrummed mittens out of it. Which are mittens which have little thrums, or poufs of wool that are unknit inside. it dosent come apart! Those tiny poufs eventually felt inside around your hands causing extremely warm mittens!! Perfect for our Alaska winter!

Is it worth trying to clean??

So those are the dirty fleece. As you can see it looks brownish whiteish dirty lol!

Here is some washed.

So those are all washed, but un picked or carded. Some are still drying :) You can see the wool colors are starting to come out, more grey tones. Its also getting arker outside. But still lots of VM in places!! But all the lanolin is gone and a good chunk of the dirt is too!

Now this last batch is from inside. Hand picked and carded to fluff it up. The grey is all throughout and the brown locks are more woven in and spread out. They will pop when spun though!!
Not bad for a fleece to fiber project! Next up is fliber to yarn! then from there. Welp thats another day! first we have to get the rest of it washed and dried. Half a fleece to go! :) the DIRTY half!

Project April

This is April.
The fourth month of the year. Spring is coming soon. Its still snowy out but its warming during the day, sometimes up to 50. The snow is slowly melting and its breeding month for the Angoras. If only they would work with me. They kinda like to make breeding hard. Let me tell you the phrase breed like rabbits. Not true. NOT true lol. They dont like to do it on command. Or when you need them to. We have a short breeding season. I dont want to breed them after July, Babies will get too cold in the fall! And August is the end of summer :)
Anyway its April. Today im working on crocheting a shawl. Its a test pattern for a lovely designer in Flordia. Im envious of where she lives! Its done in a pretty thread that changes colors in a gradient. Aqua, purple then pink. 
Tomorrow i plan on doing some spinning. I bought this commercial yarn that is a gradient ( I ADORE gradients) but i felt it was boring. So i got two and im going to ply them onto one another, opposite so it changes color, more fun that way!!
Children have appointments this week too. Dentist, eye appointment, and a dermatologist. I also plan on washing some wool, carding it for spinning, attempting to breed my pretty angora girl again, Fourth times a charm?? Two days left in the week, lets see what we can do!

Who you want to be

Who you want to be, and who you are arent always the same person. A lack of motovation seems to hinder the process of getting where I want to be and as such trying to better myself daily.

The things I want.
The things I am.

Do we need to label it all out? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But the starting place is always the hardest place for me.

Ive always wanted to have a quirky store, possible a stone, candle and handcrafted soaps shop. Ive always loved those things. Or a yummy bakery or coffee shop. Quirky. Something offbeat and unusual.
I wanted to wear long skirts and crystals, knit sweaters and live in a cottage on the beach.

But thats not where I am in my life.

Where I am is living in the town i grew up in, In Alaska. On 3 acres in the woods. I have my 5 kids, husband and 11 angora bunnies.

Im a spinner, a knitter, a photographer. I stay at home with my kids. I have two dogs and a mini pony.

So i guess i did get the quirky part down, at least somewhat. I sold things online for a while. Not like a brick and moter store, but something. I havent done much with it in some time, but maybe that will change :)


The hardest part, is finding time to write now!