Olds College day one of actual class

How much fun this is going to be!
And how much work.
I can see that it will definitely take a year to complete,
after only reading the first three chapters of the workbook.

To start off:
I never should have gone off of my diet and eaten that reuban or onion rings!
Ya, I was in the bathroom from midnight until 4am.
I set my alarm for 7am.
I woke up with a sore throat and headache.
Blech!
Of course the coffee at the hotel is not Starbucks
and I only grabbed a small blueberry muffin for breakfast.
The shop where the class is held is only 4 miles away,
and I will be getting coffee across the street tomorrow.

I am enjoying my ten classmates and teacher.

Today mostly, we learned how to grade and sort a shorn fleece.
We looked at 4 fleeces
that had been shorn and then folded in thirds and rolled from tail to neck.
We unrolled each out onto the floor,
found the feet, back shoulders, sides
and britch (the nasty part).

We learned that the shoulders are the best to use, then the sides.
The back is usually weathered too much
and the legs may be too short or felted to use.
It makes a difference in the finished knit item if you use all the areas together.
My hands are silky smooth from all the lanolin!

We then separated the fleeces: southdown, romney, corridale and border leicester
for use in our year end project of ten sheep breeds.
That being a small report on each breed,
a 10 yard plied sample of yarn and a knit sample.

We spent the remainder of the day washing the fleeces
so we will have fiber to play with the rest of the week.

I relearned to spin on a  dropspindle,
once I bought a working one.
The one I originally learned on six years ago,
was poorly made and no wonder I hated spindling.
(To spin yarn with a drop spindle,
 you use a top like tool and spin the wool together without a wheel.
A slower process than a wheel, but very nice for thin yarns)
I must turn in 10 yards of this yarn before the end of the week.

In my reading I am learning some interesting facts:
For instance, before the Revolutionary war,
England's most exported item was wool.
It was illegal for colonists to spin wool or even have sheep.
It was an act of patriotism to make yarn.
Wool is still so important in England,
that the Lord Speaker in Britain's House of Lords
still speaks from the Woolsack and upon it rests the Mace,
which is the embodiment of power in that country.,
The Woolsack was originally filled with wool from Britain,
but in recognition that many Commonwealth countries also produce wool,
it is now stuffed with wool from all over the Commonwealth.

Enough interesting history.
I went to Walmart and bought some healthy food items,
have eaten my dinner and am finishing up my reading.
I don't think I will be spindling tonight, as I am pretty tired.

I have HEYTELLed with Hilary and Chuck,
so all is right with the world again!

I have been taking pictures all day
and will try to post some this week if not when I get home.
Good night South Bend!
I am blessed.