Once upon a time a girl went to a spring fair in Puyallup, Washington.  And when the girl was at the fair she saw something that she had to have.  The girl was addicted to all things fiber and saw these beautiful fleeces up for sale and decided that she must have one.

But there was  a problem.

The girl was trying to sell her house and she was getting ready to move.  There wouldn’t be a place to clean and process a fleece.  Undeterred, the girl bought the fleece anyway and promptly stuck it in a big plastic bin.  The fleece was sad to be locked away in such an undignified way but little did the fleece know that life was about to get worse.

You see, the girl who had to have the fleece was moving to Florida.  So not only was the fleece destined to spend an extended period of time locked in a bin, the fleece was going to have to be locked in a bin in a hot climate.   In a garage.

The fleece was sad.  And sweaty.

Then one day the fleece heard the girl saying things like “wash” and “dry” and “lanolin” and he knew his time of imprisonment in the bin was coming to an end.  And 18 months from when he entered the bin, the fleece was filled with joy when he realized that his bin was not only being moved but that he was being taken into the house, into the air conditioning.

Wahoo… I’m the fleece and my captor has finally brought me in from the garage.

The girl opened the bin and the fleece gasped for air.  The fleece also filled the air with the “aroma” of hot farm lanolin and sheep sweat.  Smelled sorta good and natural and sorta not good and pungent.  The fleece was so happy to have his imprisonment coming to an end he almost jumped out of the bag.

I’m a Targhee fleece, out on parole.  That purple croc belongs to the mean girl that imprisoned me.

The girl shoved the fleece in the washing machine filled to the brim with hot water and Dawn dish washing detergent and just let him bathe.  The fleece wasn’t thrilled about this initially but then sunk down into the water and decided to relax.  Just as he started to get comfortable and the water started to cool just a smidge, the girl turned on the spin cycle and the fleece went around and around and around.

Dizzy, the fleece was so glad when the thrill ride was over.  The girl took him out of the washer and the fleece thought his life was getting ready to be a little less stressful.  But then the girl filled the washer again, shoved the fleece in and he was subjected to another long, hot bath.  And with long hot baths comes more of the spinning.  Eventually the girl was satisfied that he was clean enough and she put him out in the yard to sunbathe on the little drying screen that the girl’s husband made for her.

Here I am in the sun.  What is with this girl and doing things to heat me up????

The fleece laid in the sun for a while and thought his adventure was over. But suddenly the sky turned dark, the wind began to blow and a fierce storm came up all of a sudden.  Just as it began to pour down rain, the girl rushed outside and shoved the poor fleece in a laundry basket.  And the poor fleece returned to imprisonment by spending the rest of the night sitting in a laundry basket on top of the dining room table.

The end.