Last week I skirted fleeces.  Many...   many...   many fleeces. 

I don't usually have this many to do, but these were all my fleeces from this year and from last year too.  It was a nightmare.  I have learned my lesson.  And even though I had a reason for it, I will NEVER do it again. 

In fall of 2006, my then almost 12 year old Border Collie, "Frolic", tore her cranial cruciate ligament all the way through.  (This is the same thing as an ACL in a human.)  As far as we know, she didn't do this working or showing.  She probably just did it "being Frolic" - constantly running, playing, supervising the cats etc..  So she required surgery and rehab to make her leg functional again.  We opted for the more high tech procedure called a TPLO.


(This is Frolic.)

At the time, I was still showing her in obedience.  (Although she was almost 12, she thought and acted like she was 6.)  So I wanted to give her the best chance of returning to the ring and finishing our OTCH (obedience trial championship) and UDX (utility dog excellent) titles if possible.  (Unfortunately, it wasn't possible because by the time she was done with rehab, she had started to get some arthritis in her spine.  Her knee is great though.)  And as active as she is, I wanted the procedure that would allow her to start rehabbing it as soon as possible.  With the TPLO, you start with 2 minute on leash walks, 4 times a day, just 2 days after surgery.

The alternative low-tech procedure, called the lateral suture, is similar to the way they repair human ACL injuries.  Unfortunately, because of the difference in the angle of the knee, the procedure is not as effective in dogs.  It also requires the dog to have "crate rest" and do nothing for about 8 weeks while scar tissue forms around the nylon suture material that they put in as an artificial ligament.  I thought that after 8 weeks of being locked in a crate except for being carried outside to potty, both of us would be completely insane.

The downside of the TPLO is that it is more expensive and it is a more invasive procedure.  But the Veterinary Specialty Care and Dr. Silbernagel who did Frolic's surgery, did a good job with a pain management program and Frolic is a tough and determined little dog.

Back to the fleeces...  Because I was so tied up with taking care of Frolic and doing her rehab, I had no time to get my sheep-coats repaired, which meant that I had no hand-spinning fleeces to sell in spring 2007.  I just returned everyone's deposits.  I planned to just skirt these fleeces and send them in to have roving made.  But of course, I knew they were going to be a lot more work, so I procrastinated on that. 

So when I had to get this year's fleeces done, I had to get that wool monkey off my back and did the new fleeces (which were jacketed)  followed by the old ones (which were not).  Looking at all the waste from the non-jacketed fleeces made me ill.  I vowed to never do that again either.

So this year, I discovered two things I will not do again.  I also discovered that I much prefer skirting in the workshop portion of our big Morton building rather than my basement.  (Which becomes dungeon-like after an hour or two.)  And next year I am going to hire a "wool assistant" to help me with skirting and monkey grooming so that my turn around time is greatly reduced.  My goal is within a week after shearing and I will cross my fingers that I don't get the flu immediately shearing after like I did this year.

So now the 2008 hand-spinning fleeces are being mailed out to their new homes.  And at the end of the week I hope to make a drive to Wooly Knob Fiber Mill in Indiana to deliver all the rest of this wool to be made into roving.  I have two fleeces which I will have made into yarn at  Aunt Aggie's for a couple of special non-spinners who shall remain nameless.

Here is all the wool, ready to go.  Don't I look happy to be done?


At that moment, I wasn't sure that I even liked wool anymore.  But it has been about 72 hours and I think I like it again...