A little help from my friends

A few weeks ago, I was digging through my fiber stash and happened upon some lovely, snow-white Corriedale fleece I had washed up last year. I pulled out a handful, and it felt rubbery, not like I remembered. Having never before worked with raw Corriedale I had washed myself, I figured it would fluff up after carding. Well, after a couple passes through my drum carder, I pulled the "batt" into "roving"...

How's that for scary? It feels as horrible as it looks. This is a sticky, neppy mess. So I wrote to the Spin List and asked for help with "sticky" wool. They all responded with lots of advice, the most common of which was to re-wash the wool in HOT water with a good dish washing liquid.

So I filled up my washing machine with boiling water and a good dose of Palmolive, and let it soak. After 2 hot rinses, I let the stuff dry in the sun.

It felt much softer this time, so I had high hopes as I sent it through the carder very slowly. After two passes, I pulled it into roving, and ended up with this...

How's that for success? This is soooo soft and fluffy. Maybe there's a nep or 2, but this stuff is wonderful!

Here's a side-by-side for comparison:
These are both 1 oz balls. Of the same wool. The one on the right is courtesy of the Spin-Listers. So, THANK YOU SPIN LIST!!!