Moorit merino fleece

Yesterday we went to the Massachusetts Sheep & Wool Festival despite (again) the bad weather forecast. But lo, not a drop of rain fell on us or our fleece. I think the festival was well attended and there were lots of kids. The angora rabbit booth was a hit with the children who got to hold them for as long as they wanted to. And there were lots and lots of sheep to pet and watch. The 4-H kids did an awesome job shearing their sheep--some looked like perfect peach fuzz!

I scouted the entire festival for a good fleece and indeed I found one very early on during my search. This is a beautiful moorit merino fleece. Not even the prize winning fleeces at the festival come close to this one. I am quite enamored of it. Here are two pictures: one of the rolled up fleece and the other of a bird's eye view of the fleece:


that's Cayman up there, one of my two cats. He loves sheepy smells!



The fleece comes from Foxhill Farm in Lee, MA. They told me that their fleeces won 7 prizes at the Maryland S&W Festival, including (I think) the grand champion ribbon. They also have a lot of very nice cormo rovings and yarn, which I had to stop myself from buying since the fleece was very expensive.

Anyway, back to the pretty moorit merino fleece. It is super soft and very crimpy. I tried to take photos of it, but because it was night time, I don't think the pictures do the fleece justice. But here goes:



and here's a close up picture of some of the locks:


As I always do, I immediately washed a few ounces of it once I got home. And today, I combed about 30 grams for spinning a sample skein.



I am thinking I'll probably spin this lace-weight since the wool is so crimpy and then make a lacy shawl. We'll see what happens. I keep day dreaming about what to do with it.

Speaking of lace-weight yarn, the reason I haven't spun up a sample skein of this wool yet is this:



a 70:30 merino:silk combo. I love this merino wool too (though not at much as the one above). It is custard moorit color, which once I washed matched really well with tussah silk, so I combed the two together and now I am staring at a shimmery creamy yarn. This will most definitely become a lacy scarf, especially since I only combed enough for that. I ordered a fast bobbin and whorl too, so hopefully once I get it, I won't take so long to spin this stuff.

Hope yall have a good long weekend!