Today's planned blog post has been postponed due to the arrival of goodies in the mail!

The first thing is some knitting row-counter pins (and one knitting marker) made by my friend Daniel in Tennessee. Aren't they lovely?



The next two, and these were big surprises, are two fleeces (or actually, parts of fleeces - just a couple of pounds each, certainly not whole fleeces) that are going to be my first attempts at washing and spinning merino. Almost certainly, one of these will become my first Longest Thread attempt.

The first one is from a sheep named Henry, and comes in at 19 microns. It's from Karen Sanville at Rocking Double A in Marionville, MO, and I found her through an ad in the back of Spin-Off.



The second one (because I'm certain to mess up during the washing and/or spinning and need more!) comes from Melanda Park in Australia, and is documented at 14.1 microns. Neither picture really does justice to the amazing crimp and look of these fleeces!


I'll try to wash a few locks over the next couple of weeks, and maybe show some before-and-after pics. In the meantime, stay tuned for shawl and charkha project updates!