June Meeting and CVM Fleece

Yesterday's meeting was wonderful. Thanks to all of you who worked so hard to put it together. And a big thank you to the members who gathered up and skirted all of that fleece. What a huge job! And in the heat, too.

I'm posting some information on how to wash fleece and about CVM sheep.
Click here for information on the CVM breed. After reading this, I can easily see why they are named California Variagated Mutant.

Here's a little bit of information on the fleece quoted directly form the CVM site:

Fleece: CVM color patterns vary widely, especially in the darkness of body wool. Unlike many sheep, the CVM will not fade with age, but rather darkens from birth to their first year. With the wide variety of color patterns, including dark grey, black, brown, moorit and spotted, not excluding the barred face badger pattern typical to the original CVM's a breed description has been difficult. Fleece should be bright, uniform and dense, of high yielding, long staple, fine wool. Sheep will average about 8lbs of wool yearly with spinning counts from 60-62's quality. 12 month staple length averages 3-6 inches. Wool should have a well defined crimp from base to tip, be pliable to the touch and free from kemp or objectionable fibers.

Now, for the washing. I do my fleece in the machine. These directions are from a site on alpacas, but I do the same for all my wool fleece. Because I'm in a hurry this morning, I will give you the link. It goes through all the steps and tells you how to wash small batches using a salad spinner or larger ones in your washing machine. Click here.

I hope someone else will write a post about the weaving demonstration. It certainly caught my attention. I think I have found a great way to use up some of my wool.