Monday, November 13

Field Trip!

The Fabulous Phoebe and I went to visit a shetland 'ranch' that's right near my house this morning, to buy some lovely fleeces. You should see how peoples' eyes go wide when you say "yes, really, I want all of them that you have left." After money changed hands, we got a tour, and here are some of the highlights.



This guy was out standing in his field...




This cutie wanted her picture taken, and went right up to the fence to say hi.




He was keeping some of his non-breeding rams in one pen (one had a 'fading gene', and his coloration was fading, so they didn't want to breed that through their stock). The one on the right had obviously been in a battle recently.





This group was ready for its group photo. Ok, together now people! Everyone move this way and face the camera! One.. two.. three... smile!





And finally, here's the haul from the day. Eight shetland fleeces, varying from 2-3.66 lbs, with staples varying from 4-6", in light grey, cream, and white. One fleece has been washed, and is laying out drying right now. Seven need washing. They will all need carding, and I've already made arrangements to pick up a drum carder from the Llama store tomorrow morning. (The same one I rented to process the previous shetland featured in MJ's photos.)




From the driveway of the sheep ranch, we had a great view of Pikes Peak, and since I had the camera, I had to snap a quick pic.



3 comments:

MJ said...

Mama sheep go "BBBAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Baby sheep go "bbbbbbaaaaaaaaaa"

hehe

glad you had fun!
Looking forward to more touchable clouds! otherwise known as shetland roving :) are you gonna put more sparkly bits in it? I hope so, that was SO PRETTY!

Crazy Colorado Knitter said...

Yes. the plan is to blend in sparkly bits, and maybe blend other fibers with the wool (silk? angora?) to find a custom blend that's awesome. :)

Maus said...

Beautiful pictures! I really like that guy in thef irst photo, he looks very sure of himself. And all that fleece!!! It looks very clean, should be a joy to work with.