My lovely merino fleece

Ok, I'm back and ready to talk about these pictures now *smile* Below you can see my lovely new merino fleece from Treenway Silks laid out on my (nasty) brown carpet. Ah, the joys of apartment living. You can see that the tips are bleached from the sun but they are very strong. I tried pulling on some to see if they would break off and they don't budge. I think it will add a nice tweedy effect to the final yarn.

One thing that did surprise me was the color of the fleece on the underside. Look at all that white and grey! Wow! I'm going to have to be really careful with my carding to make sure I get as consistent a color distribution as possible. I love the surprise colors though, this is going to be some really interesting yarn.

I want to be as careful with this fleece as possible because, as I mentioned before, it was not cheap. I started separating out the locks so I can start washing it bit by bit trying to keep the lock structure in tact. I saw a mini-tutorial on Ana's site and I hope this works out. Usually I just break off a chunk of fiber and stick it in the bag to scour it but I don't want to ruin this so I'm taking the time to be extra careful. If anyone out there has any more suggestions for preparing this fleece, please don't be shy with the comments *smile* You can also see some more of the different colors in this fleece here.

These locks are from the back end of the fleece near the legs and it's super soft. This whole fleece just makes me want to drool. I'm wondering if I should risk carding this on my drum carder. I don't own a set of hand cards or combs. I'm open to suggestions on these. Any purchase for me is a big purchase so I want to find out as much as I can before I make an investment. I love the finer fleeces and that's mainly what I buy now. Would you purchase fine hand cards or do you think the finer fleeces come out better with combs. I know that you have more waste with combs but you also have a better preparation of the fibers. I also know that I need to consider if I want to spin woolen or worsted because that will also determine whether I should buy hand cards or combs. I want to do a preparation that will cut down on the pilling factor as much as possible. PLEASE comment, if you work with fine fleeces let me know your favorite way to prepare and spin.

The final pictures are from our day at the Aquarium. We had a ball, the kids really enjoyed looking at all the big fish. My favorite picture of the day was of the bat? sting? ray that was stuck to the wall of the aquarium. Doesn't he look like some kind of weird smiling alien? LOL! Enjoy!