Merrimack Valley Fleece and Fiber

07/13/2026

Free spinning event in Milton, NH!

07/13/2026

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1031230916158448/?fs=e&fs=e

07/13/2026

Day 14 of the 1st Fermented Suint Bath of the season… I have one more week to go! This is a picture of me following directions and leaving it alone! lol Some pics from around the yard… the nice thing about doing all the wool washing over the past few days is that I have had time to really notice all the plants and flowers in the yard, get to know some of the birds and other critters out here. I have been really working on making tweaks to my wool washing procedure… and combing and ungodly ammount of wool… for example… taking this horribly cotted (last step before felted mess) hunk of Gotland/Borderleister cross and turning it in to 1) True Worsted prep, 2) Woolen Prep, 3) “waste” wool… the waste will likely be turned into dryer balls! Stay tuned!

Edit: Of course, also watching the dogs while my housemates are away!

07/12/2026

07/12/2026

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07/10/2026

07/10/2026

Good morning! We are on day 2 of the wool washing/prep marathon… oddly enough timed perfectly for the Tour de Fleece… when fiber folks do their fiber work in the spirit of the Tour de France. We are on “stage 7” of the tour de france… today is a sprint focused day rather than a tough mountainous day…. which is perfect for wash, rinse, dry, comb, repeat! I found the rest of the Gotland cross fleece… which was free, but is also a cotted mess. I have learned alot from processing this fleece. I don’t know that I would do it again… but I have been rewarded with alot of nice fiber. I have some of the “shorter” stuff I combed out of other bits of this wool over the winter drying.

I didn’t realize that suint fermentation is not a substitute for a scour… it does take a-lot of the work out in that I can get away with a cool soak, a hot scour, and a rinse… when I washed the white (Floki and Sprite’s wool) it was several hot scours and rinses to get it clean. Suint fermentation does not remove lanolin… so over the winter these fleeces got tacky… but a wash is doing wonders and I am going to enjoy combing these over the next few days.

07/09/2026

Hello all! Its been a busy day so far washing wool! This is from a local farm. I Used Suint Fermentation to wash this last summer… and I am doing a hot scour and rinse before I get set up to card and spin this Romney cross wool! Of course we have a pic of a yard milkweed plant… I keep wanting to figure out how to turn milkweed into yarn. I will do it one of these days!