April 11, 2005
Have Coffee, Find Cotswolds
It was an adventurous weekend out here in rhododendron land, and last night I went to sleep with multi-tonal "baa"s resounding in my ears and the memory of a long horsey face watching me as I watched the sheep that watched the wolf... Amy Wolf, that is: the sheep shearer.
It all began last Monday when my friends and I were holed up in our usual coffee-drinking spot for a good part of the day, knitting and chatting with caffeine and making plans for the week.
We thought we might all have a free day on Thursday and ought to do something special with it. One of us-- I'm not saying who-- came up with "why don't we go to some sheep farms and buy some fleece right off the farm?" quickly followed by "and I could post a notice on Spin Sales and see who is in the area and wouldn't mind having us drop by for a while!"
By Tuesday I had replies from two sheep owners, one on Bainbridge Island, a little farther than we wished to wander, and the other in Duvall-- perfect. Duvall is in the Snoqualmie Valley east of east of Seattle, a pretty drive on a spring day. We ended up going on Sunday rather than Thursday. Unfortunately only two of us could go, as one of us had to be out of town. We'll get her next time, my pretty!
It turned out that our new farmer friend Chris and his wife Crystal have a lot of land, four children, a big garden, eight sheep, thirteen lambs, a million chickens, two horses and a dog. Farming is just a hobby, as Chris works for Microsoft full time.
Of the little flock of sheep, three are Clun Forests... good eating and not bad fiber. The others are Cotswolds, an ancient longwool breed that is shiny and, at least at Chris's farm, very soft. Two of the adults are natural colored, which on this farm means that they are gray on the "inside" (body) and black on the "outside" (face and legs). The others are white, and all of them have characteristic bangs on the forehead that look as if they should be tied up with a pretty bow.
If you got a picture of this in an email, could you resist going out to their farm? Wouldn't you wait through nine shearings while freezing due to underdressing for the weather to get that beautiful natural-covered, coated fleece? Wouldn't you be gloriously happy and looking forward to spinning the beautiful soft crimpy wool that was still steaming in your hands from the warmth of the sheep?
We couldn't. We did. We are.
Posted by Sheila at April 11, 2005 06:53 AM Posted to Spinning | TrackBackOh my goodness, look at the sheen on those lovely locks! What do you have planned for this yummy fleece?
Posted by: Melanie on April 11, 2005 07:51 AMI'll echo what Melanie said, makes me want to just sink my fingeres into those fleeces!
Posted by: marti on April 11, 2005 07:57 AMOh, I would wash the locks and just spin out of the colored ones, if they were mine. When I used to buy Lincoln/Finn cross, I would do just that, spin out of the locks for a textured yarn. The white one would have a bath and then go into the huge kettle and have a a few squirts of color. I am having silky fleece envy, Sheila. This is becoming a bad thing... Now, the question is, what are YOU going to do, you lace spinner, you?
Lisa S
Years ago, I was at Orcas Island and found a funny little yarn shop that had local artisan yarns. One of them was from a convent on Shaw(?) Island that claimed to be one of the only Cotswald crofters in the western hemisphere. I haven't yet knit up the yarn I bought, but I keep wondering if anything I knit could make it lovelier than it is in the skein?
It seems the Cotswalds have moved inland!
Posted by: Zeila on April 11, 2005 08:04 AMZeila, that's true... Chris bought his first Cotswold from Mother Hildegard not many years ago, who is on Shaw Island, I believe. There are very few Cotswolds around here, he only mentioned one other. I read somewhere that there are only something like 800 natural-colored ones in the world. Here's a link to the monastery, which has pictures of the natural Cotswold.
Posted by: Sheila on April 11, 2005 08:15 AMI wish I could have been there. I love watching Amy at work! And Mother Hildegarde is fabulous and really knows her stuff. She has worked hard to produce some awesome animal fiber. If anyone feels like supporting the Monestary, I highly recommend the fleece. One of the nuns specializes in herbs, too and makes some outstanding tea.
Posted by: Kim on April 11, 2005 08:42 AMWow Sheila! I can't wait to see what you do with this!
Posted by: elizabeth on April 11, 2005 09:05 AMOh my god, Sheila! And that looks like Sherlock in the back picture...
Posted by: Janine on April 11, 2005 10:07 AMThe fleece on the left makes me think of Fenna's Shawl, in Myrna Stahman's book. It's just your basic, no-frills Faroese, but knitted from naturally variegated handspun, so it appears to be something incredibly special and rare. It's projects like that one that make me wonder if there might be something to this 'spinning' thing. ;-)
Posted by: Beth S. on April 11, 2005 10:31 AMFor Mother's Day, I don't want diamonds or pearls, just beautiful fleeces like these . . .
Posted by: Roi on April 11, 2005 04:48 PMomg, it's beyond gorgeous!!!
Posted by: vanessa on April 12, 2005 03:35 AM