Baa Baa Black Sheep

...have you any wool?
Yes, maam. One fleece in the sack of "all the fleeces".  Would you like to spin it?
Yes, yes I would, thank you.

The "black" fleece was the second of the fleeces to be cleaned in the FSM vat. You can read about how it was rinsed and left out to dry twice in the previous post.  Here is the fleece drying (first time around)

I ran out of room on my drying racks. Evidently I need more.

It's quite a lovely colour. I think of it as dark chocolate brown.  As with all the fleeces I inherited, there is plenty of VM and there was plenty to skirt.

Here's a little chunk I brought inside to test. I have my tools ready - comb and hands. Doesn't that colour just look delightful?

 These locks are about 18cm / 7" . Lovely.

A little combing of both ends (like brushing the tail of a My Little Pony while you hold on tight to the other end so you don't yank all the nylon out of the tail) et voila - FLUFFY STUFF

I decided that this time I would see if I could make some roving. Of course, I don't have a hackle. Nor do I have a diz.  But I do have this antique needle gauge (which is in neither metric nor US sizing so it's rather useless as a modern gauge).

Not too shabby. I admit, this would have worked much better with some sort of hackle to hold the fibre, but I managed with my hands.

Spun up a sample on my mini Turkish.  It feels a lot like the white Shetland I spun. Perhaps it is Shetland (or related) wool.  Regardless, since it seemed like Shetland, I decide to spin it as I had found that white Shetland preferred to be spun - as lace weight.

Then I grabbed both ends of my "turtle" off the spindle when I was done and proceeded to whip up a 2-ply.

 Washed and now I wait for these few meters to dry.

I believe I know what yarn I will use (after spinning more) to knit an edging on my Shetland Lace table runner.