Anyway, one of the managers of Great Balls of Yarn happens to also be a spinner. (She's a member of my Boca Knitting Group as well, and she was one of the first people I met who actually spins. I'd blame her for my obsession, except that I bought my wheel before I knew that she was a spinner.) Marnie's neighbors/friends have sheep, and she had a bunch of fleeces that she was given. So she decided to have the Sheep Festival to share her knowledge and expertise with other south Florida knitters.
The process of making yarn starts with fleece. I'm stating the obvious, I know. This was the first time, however, I've seen raw fleeces. Marnie had several black trash bags filled with the raw fleece (and I got to bring one of those bags home with me!). The sheep are outdoor animals, and they are not given any sort of a bath before being shorn. So the fleece has some veggie matter (and poop, too, although that doesn't sound as nice as saying "veggie matter"). So the first thing to do is to wash the fleece.
Marnie used a plastic tub filled with hot water, and added a little dish detergent. You need the mild dish detergent rather just soap because of the lanolin that's present in sheep wool. The dish detergent will cut through and eliminate the grease from the fleece. It is possible to spin wool with the lanolin present (it's called spinning in the grease, I believe), but most processed rovings are relatively lanolin free.
The fleece was put into the hot, soapy water and allowed to soak until the water was cooled off. Then we drained the tub, and gently squeezed out the fleece. The tub was refilled with clean hot water, and the fleece was put in to rinse. After two or three rinses, the fleece was spread out to dry.
Marnie had previously worked up some of the fleece, so were able to go on to the next step. I figure that normally, it's going to take about three hours to clean the fleece, not counting the time for it to dry. So that bag I have will take an entire day, minimum, to wash.
Once dry, the fleece needs to be pulled apart so that the fibers can be spun. This can be done by hand or on carders. And actually, once you've pulled it so that the fibers are separating, it's possible to go ahead and start spinning the wool.
Marnie had English combs, so she demonstrated the hand carding. These particular combs are very sharp, but otherwise it's like brushing hair. The point is to separate the fibers and get everything going in one direction instead of being a tangled mess.
Then the combed fibers were loaded on the drum carder, which further separates and straightens the fibers.
At this point, the roving is looking very nice. You can still see some nubs, but a couple of times more through the drum carder took care of that.
The finished roving is ready to spin, or to be dyed if you prefer.
Marnie used the newly carded roving to demonstrate her wheel. I had my wheel there, too, so I was able to do a little spinning. I also showed off the drop spindle, and wow'd the crowd with my newly acquired ability to walk and spin at the same time.
The second part of the Festival as dying the roving and yarn, but I think I'll wait and tell you about that tomorrow.
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