Shearing is Done!!

Shearing is done!!! Yea!!! All 21 sheep are now sheared and loving their new look. I finished up the last one a couple of days ago. Feels absolutely wonderful to have it done, too. :.} Now the task of skirting and sorting begins. I have only set a couple aside as mine. The rest of the fleeces will be offered up for sale. And there are some very lovely fleeces this year. :.}

Every year there is at least one fleece that stands out for one reason or another. This year it happened to be a lamb's fleece. It stood out for several reasons. One is the color. This fleece is light gray (almost white in places) at the base and graduates in various shades of gray until the tip is reached.....where it is black. We have pulled several locks from various parts of the fleece and every lock has this same coloration.

The second reason this fleece stood out is that it was so clean.....which is rather unusual for a lamb fleece around here. My lamb fleeces tend to collect quite a bit of vegetation in them. The lambs are always in the feeder, under the larger sheep, under the llamas, or climbing over each other. So it's not unusual to get a lamb fleece that makes you want to say "yuck" when you see it. Usually the worse parts can be skirted and you are left with a pretty decent fleece that takes just a little bit more work than normal to clean up. That wasn't the case with this fleece. Very little skirting had to be done and it looks like it will be a sheer joy to work with. I honestly don't know how this little lamb managed to stay so clean. Especially since.........

Reason number Three.......the staple length of this fleece is ..................14"!!!!!!! Yes, it was hard to believe, but several locks were pulled from different areas of the fleece and measured. Then measured again. The staple length of this fleece is a whopping 14". I have never had a fleece this long before. It's incredible! Plus the fiber is amazingly soft and has a nice soft sheen to it. And all this from a little lamb who turned a year old a couple of weeks ago. Makes me wonder what his adult fleece will be like next year. :.} Needles to say this fleece has been set aside for myself. I can't wait for the weather to warm up (it actually snowed here a couple of days ago) so I can get it washed and start playing with it.