I bought a beautiful CVM fleece at the Estes Park Wool Market. The fleece is absolutly gorgeous. It came from a 2 year old ram who was coated. The fleece didn't really smell bad at all and was very clean, so I figured it would be easy to wash (unlike my last targhee fleece). I noticed that there were some second cuts when I picked it, but it didn't look too bad to me, and the wool was so nice I figured I could deal. Turns out that there were a lot. That's where this fleece's lesson was learned:
Pick out the second cuts before washing or dying. It's a pain, but do it anyway because it sucks less than trying to pick them out after washing. I seriously just spent roughly 4 hours flick carding CVM locks to get the neps out. I only made it through like 8oz of fiber. The fiber is so soft that I don't want to spin anything else, but still, major pain in the ass. The hour spent digging through sticky fleece to pull out the second cuts is a much better use of time.
