Random Farm's Tilda and Biscuit Fleece Project - Washing and Storing
Hello friends,
Yes, I went and bought two more raw fleeces, but in my defense, it was only 500 grams of fleece each. I saw a social media post from Random Farm in April announcing the release of their raw fleeces after they'd been taken to the 2025 National Black and Coloured Sheep Breeders Association Competition. After searching through the photos of their fleeces available, I was really tempted by two raw fleeces, from the sheep Tilda and Biscuit, so I bought 500 grams of each of them.
First up we have Tilda the sheep, who is a silver grey pure-bred Romney, with fleece of 34 microns across and a staple length of 13 cm. Her fleece came second in the Strong Handcraft Fleece section at the National Black and Coloured Sheep Breeders Association Competition in 2025.
With her fleece I scoured it using my previous method of scouring wool using Unicorn Scour Power, but this time I used a new drying method.
Usually I put scoured fleeces into plastic trays to dry while outside, but I have the problem of fleece trying to blow away in high winds, and also when I bring it inside Missy and Rosie cats think of them as warm and fluffy cat beds. I saw a social media post a while ago of someone using a foldable fish drying mesh rack to dry fleeces and yarn, so I was interested in buying one, and I eventually found it on Temu after I couldn't find any for sale locally in New Zealand. I opted for the four tier rack with zip closures as it gave me many options for drying fleece, fibre, and yarn. It also folds down into a very small space for storage.
And the new system works great for both outside the house, and also for hanging inside near the fireplace on cold nights. It didn't take very long at all to dry, hung up safe from both winds and cats. A quick flick carding of Tilda's dried fleece shows a nice clean and long staple with great crimp in the fleece.
Biscuit the sheep is a silvery-grey romney/corriedale fleece, with romney lustre and corriedale softness. Her fleece was shorn when she was 18 months old, so this is her two-tooth fleece, at 31 microns and a staple length of 14 cm. Biscuit's fleece came 4th in the Mature Strong Handcraft Fleece section at the National Black and Coloured Sheep Breeders Association Competition in 2025.
Random Farm suggests spinning this fleece semi-worsted/worsted style, which require wool combs to align all the fleece in the same direction. I have actually have a set of wool combs ordered from Majacraft, but I'm waiting for them to arrive so I can try this method of fleece preparation.
When dried I flick carded a lock of Biscuit's scoured and washed fleece, and it turned out just beautiful, with two toned colours on a long staple. I'm looking forward to using my new wool combs with this fleece when they arrive.
With four scoured and clean fleeces now in storage, I will not buying any more fleece for quite a while. The next step for all these fleeces is to process them for spinning, by either drum carding them, or using my wool combs.
And I just wanted to say a big thank you to Random Farm, who gave me permission to use their photos of Tilda and Biscuit the sheep in this blog post. Please check out Random Farm's Facebook and Felt pages to see all their lovely fleece available.
There won't be a blog post next Thursday, as I'm having cataract surgery on my left eye next Wednesday. I am planning on posting a blog a week after that if all goes to plan.
Have a wonderful day.
Julie-Ann
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The Artsy Housewife's Abalonia's Apple Tree Cross Stitch Finish
Hello friends,
I have a new cross stitch project finish to show you today, with The Artsy Housewife's Abalonia's Apple Tree cross stitch project being completed in early this May.
It was only a little while ago that I posted this in a blog as a new project I was working on over the autumn. In the next few weeks after that, I monogamously worked on this cross stitch project until it was finished. I am currently having eye sight problems (which will soon be fixed with cataract surgeries in the next few months), and the Aida in this project was the only one of my current WIPs big enough for me to see easily while cross stitching.
And now that Abalonia's Apple Tree is now finished, I am so very pleased with the results. This cross stitch project finish shows off everything good about the autumn season with shades of red, orange, green, and yellow, and I just love the big and small details of the pattern.
The cresent moon and stars are just so beautiful.
And so are the blackbird and the ripe red apples.
Abalonia, the fox, is so nicely detailed in shades of browns, reds, and creams.
The wicker basket has wonderful shades of brown and cream, and it really stands out against the Fiber on a Whim Old Gold 18 count Aida.
I am very happy with this project, and all that remains now is to find a perfect frame to house it in. I hope to get that done in the next couple of weeks.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Frederick the Literate Cross Stitch Project
Hello friends,
I recently began a new cross stitch project, Frederick the Literate, by Dimensions. This cross stitch kit has been a unicorn project of mine for years, but until recently I haven't been able to get hold of a copy of my own. When I usually try to track it down, it's always out of stock in New Zealand.
Luckily one of my sister's found it available on Spotlight's website, and it was on special, so I bought it immediately before it sold out. After waiting for what felt like forever, and dealing with courier issues (who nearly lost it), I cracked the kit open and got started.
The kit contains two of my favorite things, cats and books, so I was especially excited to start stitching, even though the background aida was black in colour...
As typical with Dimensions kits, the thread was on cards, so I used a hole punch to make space for threads in progress. And since Dimensions often use combined threads, I had to come up with a plan to deal with these mixed threads as well.
And this is my progress with Frederick the Literate cross stitch project so far. The books on the top row, in the middle, are in progress. I never do any back stitching on a project until the end, so right now the books are looking pretty blocky. It won't be too long though before I start cross stitching the cat, which I'm excited about.
Luckily this cross stitch project isn't too big, so it won't take too long to complete over the coming months of autumn and winter.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Gotland Fleece Project - Scouring, Washing, and Storing
Hello friends,
Back in April 2023 my husband and I went on a road trip to the Mackenzie country to celebrate our wedding anniversary. On the way home we stopped off at The Oamaru Textile Emporium (TOTE) to do a little crafting shopping. I'd been eyeing up their raw fleeces online, and spent some time in the store when I got there, going through all the raw fleeces they had available until I found the one I'd been looking for.
I've wanted to process and spin a Gotland sheep fleece for a while, and they had this beautiful chocolate grey fleece in the store. It came home with us, making the whole car smell quite sheepy as we traveled back to Dunedin...
When we got it home, I took the fleece out of it's plastic bag, and laid it out to see exactly what I had bought.
Back when I lived in Wellington I belonged to Creative Fibre New Zealand, and was an active member of the Tawa Fibrecrafts group. One of the many benefits of belonging to Creative Fibre NZ is taking part in one of their many courses, including one I attended on choosing raw fleeces, sorting them, and processing them.
I was very happy with the fleece when I laid it out, there were no second cuts, the fleece was in great condition, and all the unspinnable parts of the fleece had already been removed for me.
I invested in two books, The Spinner's Book of Fleece by Beth Smith, and Camaj Fibre Art's The Art of Washing Wool, Mohair, and Alpaca by Mary Egbert. These two books told me everything I needed to know about scouring and washing gotland fleece. Recently, now in 2025, I decided to scour and wash the Gotland fleece using Unicorn Fiber Power Scour, which is a wonderful detergent for scouring and washing unwashed fleeces. It's very gentle, but also removes all the dirt and lanolin from a fleece.
Filling a 6L tub with 60˚C water from out of our laundry room tap, I mixed in the calculated amount of Unicorn Scour Power mentioned on the bottle, and added the Gotland fleece which I'd put into laundry bags, and left each bag one at a time to gently soak in the scouring mix for 15 minutes.
As you can see from the photos, the scouring water turned a very muddy brown during the process, as the dirt and lanolin was removed from the fleece.
At the end of 15 minutes I lifted the laundry bag full of fleece out of the dirty water, and very gently squeezed out all the excess liquid. I then rinsed out the plastic tub to remove all the dirt and liquid, and then filled the tub back up with clean, hot water. I put the laundry bag back into the tub to rinse out the fleece for a minute with gentle swishing, to help remove even more dirt and lanolin from the fleece. At the end of this, I lifted out the laundry bag, removed the clean fleece, and then spun it in a hand-cranked salad spinner until it was as dry as it could be. From there, the fleece was placed in plastic containers which had good ventilation holes, they were laid out in the sun over the next couple of days until the fleece was dry.
Once dried, I placed most of the Gotland fleece into a brown paper shopping bag, and put it away in storage.
I flick carded a small sample of Gotland fleece remaining, so I could check the quality, and as you can see, the resulting clean fleece has a beautiful crimp, and the colour is a dark smoky grey/brown colour.
The handle is very soft, and over the coming months, I'll slowly flick card and then spin up some Gotland fleece singles. From the resulting yarn, I think I'll make a cozy winter jersey.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Winter Aurora Cabin Cross Stitch Project Update
Hello friends,
Each winter I pull out my Aurora Cabin cross stitch kit by Dimensions, and stitch the lovely aurora and snow scene while the weather is cold. I never feel like stitching it in the other seasons, so it's now my winter cross stitching project.
At the beginning of winter I was only 25% finished, but now at the start of spring I think I'm at around 66% finished. I'm hoping to get the Aurora Cabin cross stitch project finished next winter.
And now that it's spring, I've begun a new cross stitch project, another Dimensions kit, Victorian Charm. My sister and I are both fans of the TV show Charmed, and this cross stitch kit reminds us of the house in the TV show.
Our plan is to stitch on this together over the spring and summer, and see how much progress we get. Luckily the aida fabric is a dark navy blue, so we don't have to fill in the night sky in full cross stitch. And I've made a very small start on this so far.
As this is a small project, not as big as the Aurora Cabin kit, I should make some good headway this year.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky
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