Silver Corriedale preparation to finished yarn

Well firstly you get a very smelly filthy fleece and then decide it is so beautiful that you want to spin it in this state!  Yes I know I am mad lol.  But the lanolin that comes off with some dirt is so good on the hands.  Now is the time to insert a paragraph about proper hygiene etc lol.

In the pic above is the cloth, an old bathmat, that is placed across my thigh so that I can flick the ends of each staple with the little flicker brush against it.  It is covered in very greasy dirt as is my flicker so I have got myself another at the fibre muster a few weeks ago and shoved it in with some birthday goodies later this month.  That one pictured will not be able to go near washed fibre and as all the little wire tines are set in leather they are not washable either.  But it was only $18 so not a huge outlay.

Here's all the lovely flicked locks looking a bit cleaner but still extremely dirty ready to be spun up.  I have it stored in a scented bin liner to keep the smell inside the bag while I am not spinning it.  Anything unprepped has to stay outside otherwise the darn cat will sleep in it and stink.  Don't relish having to wash the cat to remove the filth.  These are all being spun from the same end of the lock in a worsted type yarn which when navaho plyed and scoured (washed) and thrashed a few times against a pole outside result in the yarn which is ready for knitting in the last pic. 

Hard to believe but so worth the effort.  I still have a mountain of this fleece to prep outside on a sunny day.  Definitely not a job for indoors but so worth it and yes unfortunately the photos are very accurate!