Welcome to Techno-Billies

Earlier this week I collected two large sacks of sheep fleece.  I had asked the shepherd to call me when he was shearing as I wanted to see how it was done. Either it was lost in translation or he didn't want an audience. When Steve met him by chance at the post office early one morning he said the fleece was ready for me.


As you can see the inspectors are giving it the once over before anything can be done with it.

This year there appears to be less lanolin in the wool, less vegetable matter stuck in it too - which is good! The poo is still there it comes with it free so I can't complain. The poo ends up in the compost so nothing is wasted!


The last time I cleaned this much fleece it was dire. It took 4 or 5 washes with detergent and then several rinses. And because we have an ecological waste system I tried to spread the waste water around the finca. It was really hard work and it used so much water I wasn't looking forward to doing it again.

But then, I heard about the …

Now in case you are a regular reader of my blog and are wondering what happened to bags nos. 1 and 2, do not worry, I didn't really post about them and you haven't missed much. Here is a photo of bag no. 2.




And the inside...


This is a perfectly usable bag and since I am definitely still experimenting it was a very useful learning project. Now Bag no. 3 is also a learning project. But the making of it was less aimless and by chance than bag no. 2.



The Brief: I want to use as much of the local fleece as possible in my bag. I also want the bag to reflect the local area or my life here in some way. I want the bag to be classy/sophisticated. I want the quality of the sewing to be super high, making it very 'couture'. Finally, I want it to be obviously a work of art more than simply 'craft'. Not to downgrade craft work in any way - I've been a craft worker for many years, but now I want to stretch myself a bit. It's a journey so please bear with me.


The fleece…

Firstly I would like to say a HUGE thank-you to everyone who commented,emailed and passed on their condolences to me. These are verbal gifts, so thoughtful, and treasured in their kindness. Especially Venomater who left such a nice comment that Blogger decided not to publish, even though I ticked the correct box. Apologies for Bloggers incompetence and sincere thanks for your sentiments.

It's been a time of gifts. Before I dashed back to Scotland, a cousin, on reading about my sewing aspirations, sent me a huge amount of quality fabric. Enough for a suit or a coat and then some! This is a gift that I could only dream about... now made reality. I am almost paralysed into indecision by the enormous generosity. Can I do this fabric justice? Will I actually be able to bring myself to cut the fabric? For the moment it is waiting both in my treasure chest of materials as well as percolating in my mind's eye, simmering beneath the surface of my every day tasks until the moment is rig…