New Fleeces!!

I always enjoy trying out a new breed of sheep wool and when a breeder was advertising a "close-out" sale of 2008 fleeces I just couldn't help myself. I browsed the pictures and descriptions of all the 2008 fleeces before choosing 3.....which arrived today. Yea!! Upper left hand corner is a lovely fleece from an older icelandic ewe. I can't wait to play with this!! The fiber is soft to the touch. Lots of lovely crimp.....and there is even a soft sheen. Plus the color is lovely. This fleece weighs over 5 pounds.

Upper right hand corner is a picture of the Border Leister fleece I purchased. It's from an ewe and looks like it will be a sheer joy to wash up and play with. The fleece is over 6 pounds. I plan on dyeing some of it.

The picture on the bottom left is of another icelandic fleece from a younger ewe. Love the various colors in this fleece. This one weighs about 2 1/2 pounds. Wonder how it will spin. Will I get a lovely variegated natural colored yarn? Or will all those lovely colors blend together? This one also feels very nice, although it doesn't have the sheen the other fleece does. It is lighter in color though. I've never worked with icelandic or border leister. I'm really looking forward to playing with all 3 fleeces and discovering the characteristics of each.

Going from fiber to fabric.....here is a picture of my latest quilt. It is a table topper that was made from half square triangles that were left over from a swap I did eons ago. I had thought all the hst's had been used in a quilt (with matching pillow) project that I did. Guess not. Found these while I was looking for something else. While I wasn't pleased with the batting (the batting was real stiff, but did soften up with washing) I used, the finished quilt did turn out rather nice.