In May we began our “Fleece to Fashion” project – taking sheep or alpaca fleece straight from the animal, skirting the fleece (getting rid of dirt and yucky bits), washing it (sheep have dirt and lanolin oil, alpaca have dirt), drying it, picking it (breaking it into manageable fluffy bits), carding the fleece (to get the fiber to lay one direction to begin spinning it into yarn or to felt), then spinning the yarn to be dyed and used in a final project.
It is a long, but zen-like process of working with our hands and taking time to “just be in the moment” as we work to create our final project.
