Margaret Miller

Fine merino on the left is sopping wet and ready for a rinse. There's a slight smell but not as strong as I supposed it might be. Perhaps late autumn impeded the process. It was soaking for about a fortnight I think. The bath water is now ready for the batch of Corriedale. I've had this fleece a while and it's quite sticky so it will be interesting to see what happens. The instructions I'm using are from Wool Ewe. . .

The guild is inviting people to come and try spinning. It's a great idea because people will get to use our equipment instead of having to beg borrow or buy a wheel which may or may not be in working order. To help the day along we've decided that we'll do all the preparation beforehand. Again this means our visitors can try spinning without worrying about extra procedures or paraphernalia. These are the batts I've done so far, more tomorrow. Some of my friends prefer greasy wool so they will flick card some fleece as well. It all benefits the new spinner because they'll get to see two preparations and perhaps respond more to one than the other.

Just add water , a photo by MargieBaa on Flickr. Via Flickr: The first step in the Fermented Suint Method for washing fleece. Superfine merino to get it going. We're using Wool Ewe's instructions mozfiberlife.wordpress.com/fsm/ as closely as possible. +Janet Knoop instigated this little exercise :) Oh and that two tone look - that's actually the dirty tips next to the shorn butts, same fleece.

Corriedale , originally uploaded by MargieBaa . After 1hr this is as far as I got with the Corriedale which my friend flicked for me. It's been a long time since I did any serious spinning in the grease.

Weekend Sweater: the back , originally uploaded by MargieBaa . Weekend Sweater: the back

picplz_upload , originally uploaded by MargieBaa . Wool and bamboo handspun and knit scarf.

Randomly spinning small quantities of tops then Navaho plying them to maintain the colour separations has created a beret with circles. The pattern by Diane Mulholland is freely available on Ravelry and can be used with all types of yarns because it is based on a swatch. It was knitted in the round starting at the brim and working inwards. Approx 12 wpi.