Tunis

Last year I bought just under two pound of raw tunis fleece from the spinning loft in howell.
After having it sit for a while in a plastic drawer, i finally got it out in march.
I divided the fleece and put it in mash bags for gentler handling.  Then I pre soaked in cold water over night before I washed it with 140F hot water and Orvus paste.  I only needed two washes to get it clean. After rinsing and a short spin in the washing machine, I spread it out for drying and after 1/2 day it was dry and i could start combing.
There were some weak spots and it was a bit of work to get the nepps out but after it was done, it looked very nice.
The loveley color from the tunis lam got lost after washing and i ended up with almost white with just a hint of a beige tone. I blended a sample of the fiber with raw tussah silk and the honey color added a bit more of color to the fleece and it got the warm beige tone back.

the fleece before washing

on the left the tunis without the tussah

right the color of the tussah silk

and on the bottom the sample knitted with the tunis tussah blend
I spun it worsted two ply wpi 12 and knit the sample with needle # 6 (4mm)





Now need to decide if i leave the color or dye it????