What a scorcher!

Well, it is one of those days that you plan to do everything early.  They are estimating that it will get to 42 degrees here in Melbourne!  When it get's like this the one thing I don't want to feel is that I have wasted a day, so I got to washing some fibre and taking advantage of the hot weather for drying.  My D.H. hates the smell of wet fleece drying over the heating vents so this is a perfect opportunity to stock up on washed fibre.

Add to that an old washing machine that is parked outside my Laundry door and I am set.  I have really found that washing a fleece is stress free as long as you keep the water hot and maintain the temperature whilst you are washing and rinsing.  Any change in the temp and you risk felting your fleece, but if you work quickly and use plenty of dishwashing liquid in the wash/soak  and vinegar in the rinse/soak it really comes up a treat!  I now have fluffy fibre with no residual grease.

In a perfect world I would go on to dye it, but if you felt how hot I was, and how hot I looked, you would forgive me for letting it dry and leaving the dying for another day.

An old washing machine makes it a lot easier

English Leicester fleece going into hot soapy water

Just the odd toss to dry it all through - four fleeces in all!

I have also taken advantage of the time indoors to organise photos of some of my latest yarns.   I love the combination of Wool, Mohair and Silk (in all it's various forms)  and it is from these three combinations that I then dye and spin my yarns.  Then of course you choose a method of spinning and that is really based on how the fibre 'speaks' to you - yep, you are right, it is an exact science! These yarns are all in preparation for markets coming up, some of them will be used for scarves and cowls and might eventually go on my website.  Winter will come soon enough but until it does, I am making yarn while the sun shines!