Gulf Coast Blues, Continued

 The next Gulf Coast batts to be spun created a big dilemma. When I was done the first batt, this is all I had. The second batt plied with this one wouldn't give me very much finished yarn so back to the drawing board.

 I decided to spend a day washing the rest the Gulf Coast fiber in the stash shed. It was going to be a big job because it was really dirty.

 I had an unusual audience while I was working. This is Mommy. She is the elusive mother of the four kittens I rescued from the woods. It's weird that Mommy would hang out with me as she is very skittish. I rewarded her with some treats so maybe, after four years, she is ready to forgive me for having trapped her to have her spayed. After all, I did take all of her kids off her hands. She really has no patience with her grownup babies anymore and gives them a good swat whenever she can. I can totally relate.

 That fleece was so dirty I had to soak it for two days, changing the water often.

 See? Yucky poo. Literally.

 I still have my fleece draining hook in the front yard. The Mister was just asking me about it the other day. I think he wants it gone. It's staying.

 On washing day I decided to try and wash the piles of fleece the way I wash the locks.

 The theory is that if you use lots of soap you can scrub without any danger of felting. It works on the delicate Merino so why wouldn't it work on the more sturdy Gulf Coast?

 I had a regular assembly line going. Wash, rinse, wash, rinse.

 I only had four bags full so I was done in no time.

 I used hot sink water mixed with simmering water from the stove to get the water really hot.

 It looks pretty clean.

 Next up was adding color. I wanted to try and come close to the colors of the batts I already had but I knew that was going to be hard. I didn't write anything down as usual. Shame on me.

 I stuffed the clean fiber into the jars...

 ...and put them on the stove to simmer for a while.

The fiber seems clean enough and didn't felt so washing was a success but the colors are only so-so. I think I may have to come up with a new plan for this fiber because lots of little skeins are going to be pretty useless. I think it may be time to just get wild and crazy with it-after all, it's probably just going to end up as a stripe in a scrap blanket someday.