wool

Several year ago I had a few little southdown sheep.

I loved them more than was reasonable.

After a year of having them I added two young icelandic ewes. I though my ram and the new girls might produce some lovely interesting lambs but it was not to be, Robert my ram was too short and fat and the Icelandic ewes were too tall and would not hold still no matter what lovely thing he told them. He needed a step ladder or even a bucket would have worked, poor guy.

Though I no longer have sheep I did keep the fleeces from the icleandic girls first or hoggit shearing. They had been washed and carded into rovings in the hope that someday I would get them spun. Well I did. Oh my gosh I am so happy with this yarn I can hardly stand it.

Sometimes Icelandic yarns can be a bit coarse because the wool is "double coated" having a coarse longer hair and a finer inner down. This is called the Tog and the Thel. The fleeces from the girls is so soft and fine it is wonderful.

The darker wool is even softer than the white wool. Berry had the darker fleece, she was a black/brown moorit and Marliyn was all white. They are at a different farm now and producing lovely lambs and if these first fleeces are any indication, they are producing beautiful wool too.

I can't find the pictures of them, Marilyn was a strikingly pretty ewe and Berry was too but not as fine and delicate as Marilyn, she was more flighty and a bit more athletic, and I thought she would have a coarser fleece but it is wonderful stuff and the color in the photo does not do it justice.

I will dye some of the white wool and make a traditional Norwegian sweater I think, maybe in blue and natural white.

This is beautiful wool, fine, soft and full of possibilities. I can hardly wait to start working with it. It is just a matter of finding a pattern worthy of the wool.

By-the-way, what is it with cats and quilts, when I had them out the other day, Tasmanian was on them in a heart-beat.