Fiber Freak...

I learned this descriptive phrase while reading the memoir 'Sheepish: Two Women, Fifty Sheep, and Enough Wool to Save the Planet' by Catherine Friend. (you don't have to be a fiber freak to read, enjoy and laugh out loud at this book!)

I was recently gifted with a bag of American Bison 'fluff'. Being a granddaughter to a woman who raised two kids and a husband extremely frugally during the depression era, and the only daughter of that frugal grandmother raising me to be equally frugal, it comes as no great surprise that I will say yes to pretty much anything free...and I love trying out exotic fibers anyway!

The reason bison/buffalo fluff is so expensive? Woman hours I would think, sheer number of woman hours to clean it.

Okay, I have some consideration for my audience and refrained from taking pix of the sink full of buffalo, mud, grass, tick seed, cheat grass, alfalfa stocks and leaves and what all else was in that wool. Suffice it to say, YUCKY! But the pic above shows the buffalo drying after several soapy soaks and rinses.

The fiber got carded, which helped fling out some more debris, then spun from the batt. Rustic and lovely!
Then I spun some super soft Shetland and sat down to attempt my first 2 ply...

 

Uneven, thick and thin, truly a beginner spun skein- but I am ecstatic! That is what makes me a fiber freak!