SHEEPISH  PURSUITS -- 2005
    We have a "spinner's flock" of five sheep.

    Our first three are a lovely mix we got from Kate
    Painter in Colfax, Washington, several years ago.

    Hershey is a huge chocolate colored Cormo cross.  
    We got him as a lamb, and he has grown up to be
    guardian to his two elderly loves:

    Patches is a grey badger-faced ewe who is too old
    to have babies anymore, but is a wonderful fleece
    producer and pet.

    Kelly is a white Coopworth ewe, also retired from
    motherhood; she produces awesome fleeces and is
    a pet.

    More recent additions are two older Shetland
    "pet" ewes that we got from Judy Colvin in
    Montana.  They are apricot in color and produce
    lovely fleeces for us.

    We also have an Angora buck "pet", Ken.   We
    started out with Ken and his twin brother,
    Charlie, but unfortunately Charlie has joined his
    Angora buddies in goaty heaven, so Ken holds
    down the Angora fort and is a friend to our
    Saanen (dairy) buck.
    We have a shearer come to our small
    farm in early Spring each year, and he
    sets up his electric shearing machine and
    then removes the fleece from each sheep.

    The shearer knows how to hold each
    sheep so it is comfortable and will hold
    very still during shearing.  If the sheep
    isn't comfortable, it will kick and wiggle,
    so he wants the sheep to hold still, of
    course.

    Once the fleece has been removed from
    the sheep, my work begins, as I start to
    process my wool for spinning.
    Wool Processing...three steps of processing for hand spinning.
    When the fleece is shorn from the sheep it is all in one big
    piece, like a thick blanket, that I spread out on a 4x8 sheet of
    plywood for processing.

  • Skirting...removal of any vegetable matter that I don't want in
    my fleece. Frequently there are tags around the very edges of
    the fleece that are just discarded because they're tattered
    from wear as the sheep goes through its daily routine.

  • Washing...I soak the fleece in very hot water and a
    detergent.  I am very careful not to change water
    temperatures or to let the fleece be stirred, sprayed or
    agitated.  I don't want the fleece to felt into one big solid
    piece!  After several hot water baths and rinses, the dust and
    some of the grease in the wool is gone, and I can spread the
    fleece out on a drying rack for it to air dry.

  • Combing...Once the fleece is air dried, it is ready for
    combing.  I use very large, very sharp wool combs on a
    handful of fleece, combing the fibers to remove any remaining
    hay or oat debris, and to comb out any very short fibers that I
    don't want in my yarn.  After I create my combed "roving",
    I'm ready to spin the wool on my spinning wheel.