Yesterday we delivered 42 pounds of fleece to Zeilingers in Frankenmuth, MI, to be made into four batches of roving. If you haven't been to their mill, you are missing a super treat. When I go back to pick up my lovelies, I will try to remember my camera so that I can give you a tour. Gary has always been there to greet me at the door, help reweigh the fleeces, offer advice, and answer any questions that I have. I had 4 batches to be blended which I'm going to describe to you.Blend # 1 - 11.3 pounds - 50% Merino, 49% Alpaca from Ana, pictured above, and 1 % Mohair.
.jpg)
I purchased the white Merino from Genopalette, McMurrys, this winter with this blend in mind. This picture is of their Merino lambs that they were kind enough to send to me. Notice the lambs tails haven't even been docked yet so they must be quite young.
.jpg)
The beautiful white mohair is from Edie, here in Michigan and her store SpinningMoonFarm. This is a picture of her little Ted born this spring.
Blend # 2 - 8.84 pounds - 35% Our BabyDoll Sheep fleece and 65% alpaca from Lady Belita and Celeste.
Blend # 3 - 9.28 pounds - 25% colored Merino from Genopalette and 75% brown alpaca from Sonata (pictured above) and Orion (you've met him here many times because of his school and 4-H adventures).
Blend # 4 - 13.3 pounds - 100% alpaca from the seconds (neck and hip fiber) of Ana & Pollux (WHITE), Luke, Orion, Polaris (BROWNS), and naughty Gunny (BLACK & GRAY). These colors will be added around each other in the roving. It's called a 3 way swirl.
Just in case anyone is interested in the finances involved here. The cost was $308.72 but Zeilingers offers a 10% discount if paid there by check, so it was actually $277.85.
♥ ♥ ♥
Now the anxiety of waiting 2 months for it to be finished. An incredible amount of time and energy goes into this final act of delivering fiber to the mills. I wake up at night thinking about what I want to do and spend hours on my deck going through each fleece, discarding vegetation, second cuts, and coarse fiber. Today is a little anticlimatic. It's sort of like getting the kid off to college the first time - the years of prep and worry and then just dropping him/her off. This analogy is an exageration, of course, but you get the idea.
5 comments:
Woo Hoo, do post pics when your babies fleeces come back home! I'm in the process of sending out my first fleece too, and I'm so excited. Now, if only I can find a suitable box. That's the only thing holding me up. I'm sending mine to spinderella's. I will check out Zellingers, the next time during the fiber festival in NY.
Oh, how exciting! I can't wait to see them come back. How did you decide what percentages to use? Did you just play with the fiber until it felt "right"? Did you learn from other farmers?
Ooooo Genopalette has some top notch fleeces. Can't wait to see how your roving comes out!
I am sure the roving will be wonderful. Can't wait to see it.
Wish Zeilinger's would be open when we come through there but it's usually on a Saturday or Sunday. Tried to head to the Michigan U.P. last weekend but it didn't work out. Now we're watching the storms in the Midwest for this weekend hoping we can still head that way. There's just something very unappealing about driving hundreds of miles into a region that has a severe storm warning in effect.
Post a Comment