Fleece 2 of 7: Corriedale is finished!

If I thought this Corriedale fleece was gorgeous as raw wool (and I did!), I performed a very flamboyant happy dance after seeing how beautiful it was when washed.  The fiber is next-to-the-skin soft, with outstanding loft & elasticity.  Here is a side by side comparison of raw to washed fiber:

There is a small band of what is likely canary staining (a permanent stain) across the staple, but it is very minor and did not affect the soundness (strength) of the wool. 


I washed a good-sized portion of this fleece using my usual method.  I was very picky about how I loaded the mesh laundry bags, because I wanted to maintain the lock structure of the wool.  I kept the wool in a very thin layer and used more pins than usual to create compartments in the bag to reduce any chance of the wool shifting around during the washing process:

The washed wool came out perfectly clean, with no felting or matting, and with the locks beautifully intact, so I'm quite pleased with the results:

The remaining raw fleece has been vacuum-packed into storage bags, and now I have all of this lovely fiber to play with whenever I want.  I've had a tremendous amount of fun thinking about how I can use this fleece.  I love all of the natural shades of grey, and I have decided not to dye any of this fiber.  There are several knitting projects with stranded colorwork that would be perfect for using the yarn that will eventually come from this fleece.