The NBN may provide a far superior service in regards to speed and download but it seems to disappear from time to time - hence my absence.

Today was spent doing a variety of odds and sods - clearing wood out of the path of the truck that will be delivering the gravel, trying to cut some reo up so it fits on the back of the ute (no such luck - will resort to the angle grinder as I am apparently too feeble to use the bolt cutters), washing wool according to Fran's instructions, a bit of spinning, reading my newly arrive book on spinning (The Spinners Book of Fleece), bringing the bottom half of the future dresser in from the back of the ute (it was heavy so I left it there till I felt a tad stronger), and generally messing around.

I took my free fleece in to Jo yesterday (apparently Thursday is her day in town so I just caught her, but as I had brought up her bin from the street she gave me a few seconds). She took one look and said to throw it out but being the stubborn sort, I have not done that. She did give me the end of a bag of fresh Corriedale to play with, however, so I did not take too unkindly to her frankness. What I had actually wanted, but failed to get was a bottle of Unicorn wool scour so I could play with washing it, but that will have to wait until Sunday now.

Now for the boring spinning bit, so if this does not interest you, switch off now. I will try to explain what I am doing and why.

When I first started, my main aim was to get some twist into a continuous thread. This did not work terribly well, but I seem to have got to the point where I am not often creating non-viable bits and if I do, I seem to manage to catch them before they head into the orifice and over-spin them (core spinning) with a bit of extra fibre so they toughen up. As a result my yarns now look like this once plied and finished.

 The different length skeins result from using the chairs at the History Room for three skeins, and the niddy noddy for the fourth one.

 Here's a close up so you can see I am still fairly variable in thickness, but the overall thickness is certainly up to knitting up the jumper that is the goal of this particular spin (200g each of this and white, 800 grams of a lighter grey colour).

 This is the result of using new greasy corriedale wool, flicked and spun - I am rather pleased with the result and it is certainly a lot easier than the older wool which, as you will see below, did not respond well to flicking. My goal is to have this bobbin full by Sunday to show off to Jo. This bobbin is being spun from the tips, the next will be spun from the cut end to see what difference it makes.

 This is the older wool, greasy. First I tried flicking it to no avail, then I used the carding combs and rolled it into cigars rather than rolags so I could spin from the ends. Carding fine wool I discovered, results in lots of noils, and since some of this has very short staples (as little as one inch), and double cuts it is all a bit messy - but an interesting process nevertheless (and no, I will not be persisting with this particular bobbin).

 Here are some close ups of the older fleece - as you can see the staples are sort of glued together with the lanoline and poor handling, but there are many in there that retain their shape and which have adequate length. which is why I have persisted with them.

 I gave the instructions Fran provided a go today. The first time I did not hold onto the staple and as a result it ended up looking as if I had swirled some cotton balls in warm water until they disintegrated. Oddly enough, despite the wastage when I flicked them, they do see to spin rather well (I tried one that was almost dry).

The others I hung onto them individually, so they have retained their shape and have come up well. I have left a little dirt in the tip end so I can tell the difference and this will come out when they are flicked. Since I am flicking each staple as I spin, I will not lose track of myself.

The soap bar in question has previously been used for the purpose of lubricating screws so had a little 'scrubbing board' effect on the surface that worked rather well. And now it is washed, the wool is as  good as new, so I am a happy person. The really matted tangled stuff I will not bother with, but I am thinking I need a bucket lined with one of the many spare pillow cases I own, so that sort of thing (and left overs from flicking etc) can go in there, get washed when it is full, and felted into weed mats for the garden plantings rather than wasting it.

I think basically Jo and I are on a different page to some extent. I like experimenting and am  not bothered if I have to discard failed attempts. She is of the view you need to get a useful product from your effort. A material one that is. My useful product from a failure is a learning experience so I don't see this as a problem.

This is an example of the more tangled bits with no discernible start and end. They will end up in the pillow slip for gardening purposes.