Well, the Ladybug is off on her way to church camp, and I’m not sure if I’m having more trouble right now with the fact that she’s “gone” and out of my reach for the moment or the fact that she’s actually old enough to go. Putting her on that bus really hit me in the gut that she’s turning 9 next month and 9 is half of 18, which means we’re halfway through our home-raising years! (Be still my heart, I can’t breath…) It also means I’m old enough to have a child in 4th grade–and not just figuratively, but I actually have a child in 4th grade! (I may just keel over right here…) How does this happen?!

In the meantime, here’s a fun post about our sheep shearing 4th of July weekend. (And just for the record–don’t wait until the 4th of July to shear your sheep in Virginia!! We have a never-ending issue with getting a shearer scheduled.) If you homeschool, you should pin this post for your Farm unit or your Easter unit–in case you’re not able to get out and see it live.

My sister, niece, and nephew were in town this year.  Last year we made it public and had a couple drop in guests. This year it was a month later, we had to reschedule twice, and were just desperate to get it done!

We had 15 ewes (that would be the ladies) and 1 ram to be sheared this year. Since we don’t shear lambs their first summer, and we had 20 lambs this year, we had more unsheared than sheared when we were finished! And this year our grass is better than ever and for the most part the sheep all looked in good condition. You can immediately pick out the ewes that are nursing twins, though, they’re always skinnier. Nursing growing twins is hard work!

A few fun sheep and wool definitions for you!

WOOL: The fiber coat of sheep when it’s on the sheep.

FLEECE: The fiber coat of sheep, when it’s off the sheep.

FIBER: The outer coat of animals that is used in the production of textile materials–including wool, cashmere, Angora, mohair, and qiviut (that’s the wool from muskoxen–who knew, right?) This could also include hair and felt from buffalo, llamas, alpacas, and any other naturally produced animal hair product re-worked into a textile.

Even though technically these each have different definitions, our experience has been that they’re used fairly interchangeable–which can be confusing at first! {smile}

SKIRTING: Spreading out a fleece and picking, cutting, or otherwise discarding all the worse chunks and clods of dirt and yuck–usually around the edges. We have also discovered that running a leaf blower over the fleece while spread out pushes a lot of dirt and dust out.

RAW WOOL/FLEECE: Straight off the sheep, no cleaning other than skirting.

LANOLIN: Naturally occurring “grease” in the wool that needs to be removed before the wool is used for any type of textile. (Breastfeeding mommas are familiar with lanolin products!) When you touch the inside of a raw fleece (the inside being the side that’s close to the sheep’s body) you can feel the grease in the fiber.

After skirting, your wool is ready to start the washing process. This is the point at which we send it to the mill. They wash it, pick it, card it, and then either put it aside as roving, or spin it on machines into yarn. 

ROVING: The “cotton candy” like, super-soft product after all the fibers have been cleaned, “picked” to separate them, and “carded” to align, smooth and stretch them. Roving can be natural colored or dyed. Roving is what a hand-spinner uses on a spinning wheel to make yarn.

SPINNING: Spinning is taking the roving fibers and twisting them into threads, then the threads are twisted together into yarn. The “ply” of yarn is how many spun threads are twisted together to make each strand.

FELTING: Felt is a matted wool product, created naturally if wool is agitated in hot water. If you’ve ever shrunk a wool sweater in the wash, that’s the natural felting process at work. Felting can refer to the process of creating felt from fleeces, or it also refers to the craft of producing something from the felt–like felting stuffed animals or accessories for clothing.

Now all the washing, picking, carding, and spinning used to be done at home by farm families (and still is by some amazing folks!). We choose to take ours to a local mill (next County over–how’s that for luck? We have better access to a mill than to a shearer!) for a lot of reasons–not the least of which is that I don’t have time to do it!

But we’re also looking forward to saving some of our raw fleeces to go through the washing and spinning process a few times with the munchkins as yet another learning experience. I think this would be an amazing activity to add to any home study of farming or colonial times. All you would need to do is find a producer and ask to buy a half or whole raw fleece–they might not even charge you for it if wool is only a secondary product for them. I know folks who only raise sheep for training their collies and throw the fleeces away every year!

You’ll find quite a few links on my Fiber Arts Pinterest Board. And here’s some tutorials for home-processing wool:

• Wool Washing in a home machine. (From a wool mill. Pay attention to the heating and agitating directions!).
• Wool Washing in a home machine. (With great pictures!)
• Wool Washing in a sink. (Flickr gallery with pictures and captions.)
• Washing Fleeces in a tub. (No pictures, but good directions from a fiber artist.)
• The Joy of Handspinning. (Website covers everything you need to learn.)
• Felting. (Step-by-step directions for felting wool at home.)
• Fiberarts Sites (A great big list of links for all kinds of fiberart sites.)

Oh yeah, and everything is on YouTube these days. I found at least 10 hand spinning tutorials in 2 minutes!

And if you’re a book person like me, well, here’s some titles in our Homestead Library…

• Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook. (Ah-may-zing! If you’re interested in handspinning and/or heritage breeds, this book is a must. The more I read it, the more I love it!)
• Turning Wool Into a Cottage Industry. (If you’re thinking about sheep and wool for your small farm, you need to hunt down a copy of this book. This isn’t for the fiber artist–this is for the farmer producing for a fiber artist.)
• In Sheep’s Clothing, A Handspinners Guide to Wool. (Great, easy-read reference for beginners.)
• The Whole Craft of Spinning. (This is more narrative than pictorial–but it’s a classic and very good at giving you the full picture if you’re completely new to the craft.)
• The Knitters Book of Wool. (This is for knitters and yarn-users, but it’s also a great help to farmers trying to understand their fiber customer’s needs and interests.)
• Wild Color, Complete Guide to Natural Dyes. (This is a personal area of great interest for me. I want to grow our own natural dye garden to color our natural colored fleeces. One day.)
• A Weaver’s Garden. (Told ya I’m into this! I also have A Dyers Garden and The Complete Guide to Natural Dyeing)
• Shear Spirit, 10 Fiber Farms, 20 Patterns, and Miles of Yarn. (This books would be a perfect gift for the Fiber-lover in your life, whether a knitting-Nancy or a farmer-Fran. It’s beautiful, fun, and real. It brings the sheep, the farmer, and the crafter together in the big picture.)

If you have any questions–email me! Wool is a secondary product for us, but one that we’re hoping to focus on more in the next couple years, so I’m in full-blown research mode lately! {smile}

Are you a handspinner or fiber artist? Or do you just call yourself “crafty” and leave it at that, like me? 

See where I’m sharing this week…