Swaledale fleece - to dye or not to dye that is the question

Swaledale fleece, washed, carded, spun and plied

Not much blogging but plenty of slogging away lately on the the two unwashed fleeces a brought home from the Yorkshire Dales last year. Finally its all been sorted, washed and the first 150 gms have been carded, spun, plied and washed again.
Now: to dye or not to dye, that is a question still unresolved.

The wool is lovely as it is; a little harsh in places maybe and neither carded or spun to perfection but quite unique and all my own work.

Too many sheep - not enough knitting

The house is full of wool but very little has been stitched of late. Its been a strange Summer and rather sad. My sister Mary was suddenly very ill and in July, not long after my last blog, she died. We had some lovely family times together in her last few weeks. She was such an amazing character, she gave so much to so many and we miss her.

Unscoured Blue Faced Leicester fleece

So blogging about knitting has not been on the agenda for a while. At one point this summer we defied the elements to briefly go camping in the Yorkshire Dales. We met lots of sheep and despite my stated determination not to buy I came back with an unscoured Swaledale fleece, unscoured Blue Faced Leicester fleece and a kilo of beautiful Wensleydale combed tops.

It's now all lurking in different parts of the house in various stages waiting to be washed, dyed, combed, carded or spun. The Blue Faced Leicester was hilariously curly, but I have to say rather whiffy too! Washing it was not something I wanted to do in my kitchen so its been a question of dodging the showers. Its been a bit of a learning curve too - book in one hand, fleece in the other. Something will come of it all eventually I dare say: but will it be wool or worsted?  I will try and keep you posted. I might need some wool combs and a new spinning wheel yet!

Wensleydale combed tops

Rolled up unscoured Swaledale fleece