More Fleece!

The Good Lord hasn't been consulting me on His weather the last few days, so sunshine has been scarce and wind has been plentiful. Not a good combo for skirting fleeces. Finally, yesterday and today, the sun peeked out and I have a second group of fleeces ready to offer. There is more variety in this grouping, and therefore they are not all priced the same per pound. At this time I am not splitting fleeces up to sell by the pound, I am just trying to get them skirted and available.
**************************************************

Again, our sheep are not coated due to the heat and humidity here in Arkansas. They run around and play in clean pastures and they are fed hay and grain on ground level. But they are sheep, and they don't listen when I tell them not to get dirty!

*******************************************

Each fleece will be boxed and then weighed and you will be charged actual shipping charges, give or take a few cents, plus 80 cents for delivery confirmation. I will email you the tracking number as soon as your package is in the mail.

********************************************

Boaz is SOLD!

First up is our little registered Shetland ram, Boaz. He has a super soft fleece, probably the softest fleece I have ever felt, BUT....Boaz is short, the shortest one in the pasture. That means everyone else in the pasture "dribbles" on him at meal time, and since his legs are not so long, a bit more debris attaches to him. So, while he has a gorgeous fleece, he also has a lot of vegetable matter from tiny to large. Because of this, I am pricing his fleece below the rest. I have picked out most of the large vm, and if you are willing to pick out more and comb, you will have an amazing fleece to work with for a very little price.

Boaz's fleece is creamy white and has grey that is only visible from the back side (see above picture). It has a staple of 3.5"-5" plus, and weighs 1 pound, 8 ounces. Again, please be aware you are purchasing a fleece with lots of vm, some will wash out, some will need to picked out, and some will come out in combing. I have priced his fleece at $14.oo for the entire fleece, plus shipping and delivery confirmation.

*********************************************************

Next is Patches, a registered Shetland ewe. Patches has a really neat fleece. When she is standing next to the rest of the ladies, her fleece appears to be white, however, it is really a light cream to white. She also has a couple of spots of black mixed with the white (hence her name, aren't we original?) which you can see in the second picture. We have only had Patches since this summer, so I did not get to work with her fleece last year. Please look closely at the picture showing the locks before purchasing. She has a typical double coated, primitive Shetland fleece that is about a medium softness.

Patches has a 3"-5" staple, with some of the locks tapering out past 5". Her fleece weighs 1 pound, 12 ounces and is priced at $12/pound for a total of $21.oo plus actual shipping a delivery confirmation.

**************************************************************

Winston is SOLD!
And then there is Winston. Winston is our Wensleydale wether. When we first brought Winston home, he had just been sheared (in case you were wondering, that fleece is lurking in my stash!). Wensleydales have a fair amount of lanolin, and his previous owner recommended we give him a bath so he didn't get coated in dirt before he ever started growing those curls. So we did, and Winston would not have anything to do with us for the next 7 months. To top it off, when he saw us dragging the water hose out to fill up the water troughs, he would run to the far side of the pasture! He has come around now, and likes to be scratched under the chin.

Don't those curls just make you want to squeal?

Winston's locks are 3"-4.5" long (a few are longer) and the picture with the ruler shows the two different types of locks in his fleece. Most are curls. Winston's fleece weighs 3 pounds, 12 ounces and is $15 per pound which comes to $56.25 plus actual shipping and delivery confirmation.

******************************************************************

Jasmine is SOLD!

Jasmine is a registered Shetland ewe. Jasmine has a classic primitive Shetland double coat, soft and wooly at the bottom and wispy and coarser towards the end. The color is astounding, black, brown, cream, and dark and light grey are all present, with a very dark undercoat. Please look carefully at the photographs before purchasing. For those of you who love to spin your own sock yarn, this would make lovely, well wearing socks.

Jasmine's fleece has a 3"-6" staple and weighs 1 pound, 14 ounces and is priced at $12 per pound for a total of $22.50 plus actual shipping and delivery confirmation.

**************************************************************

Sweet Pea is SOLD!

Finally, I was able to skirt a fleece that I am very excited about. Sweet Pea is a Cotswold cross little girl. Her fleece shows amazing crimp and some curl and washes up shiny and soft. Sweet Pea's fleece has a lot of lanolin, which allows it to collect dirt a little more freely, so I recommend that it be soaked overnight in cool water to help loosen the dirt before you begin a hot water wash. Her fleece appears yellow in color because of the lanolin, but is creamy off-white when washed.

Sweet Pea's fleece has a 3"-6" staple and weighs 2 pounds, 8 ounces. Her fleece is a premium fleece and would be priced at $18 per pound if it wasn't for the weight the lanolin adds. So I took that into consideration and priced it at $14 per pound for a total $35 plus actual shipping and delivery confirmation.

*********************************************

If you are interested in a fleece or have questions, please email me at:

lorisarahbrown@gmail.com

Thank you for looking!

FLEECES!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY! The weather was beautiful today and I didn't have to work all day, so I was able to skirt a few of the fleeces! (Well, I should be doing laundry, but playing with fleece always trumps laundry!) I read another blog where a shepherdess was pricing fleeces according to how badly she wanted to keep the fleece for herself, and I thought to myself, what a good idea, sooooo...........all of my fleeces are $100 a pound. JUST KIDDING!!! I have made some decisions, and here are the first few I am willing to put up for sale.

************************************************************

All of the fleeces are $12/pound. They have been skirted, but not washed. My sheep are not coated, they are free to frolic "au naturale" in the clean pasture. They are fed grain and hay, both at ground level, but they ARE sheep. They still manage to have vm in their fleece.

**************************************************
Tabitha is SOLD!
First, there is Tabitha, a full blood Shetland. I processed her fleece myself last year and it produced a creamy, champagne white yarn and is very soft.

Tabitha has a 2 pound fleece and it is $24 plus actual shipping.

*******************************************************************

Bernice is SOLD!

Next up is Bernice. She is a Shetland/Border Leicester cross. She is a half sister to my favorite sheep, Naomi (whose fleece I just cannot bear to part with!). Bernice's fleece ranges in color from very dark silver/grey to light cocoa. The Shetland/BL cross produces a super soft, crimpy wool, with curls on many of the tips. The bottom picture shows the different types of locks within her fleece.

Bernice's fleece is 3 pounds, which is $36, plus actual shipping.

****************************************************************
Cyrano is SOLD!
Next, there is Cyrano. He is a registered Sheltand ram with creamy, very soft locks. He does have a few areas of very light grey, which are noticeable from the back.






Cyrano's fleece is 2 pounds, which is $24 plus actual shipping. (I don't know what happened to the middle picture - I cannot get it turned correctly!)


*****************************************************
Pricilla is Sold!

And now there is Pricilla. She is a full blood Shetland. I processed her fleece last year also, and sold all of it, with rave reviews, at fiber shows. Pricilla has a few dark strands throughout her wool, which gives a wonderful depth to the cream color when spun.

At 1 pound, 14 ounces, her fleece is priced at $22.50 plus actual shipping.

*******************************************************

Princess is Sold!

Pricilla has a sister, Princess, and they have pretty much the exact same fleece. One has horns, and the other has shorter horns, which is the ONLY way I can tell them apart in the pasture. Princess' wool is slightly shorter, a little more dense, but the color is the same. Because of this, I did not take additional pictures.

Princess' fleece is larger than Pricilla's, at 2 pounds, 14 ounces and comes to $34.50 plus acutal shipping.

***********************************************************

Liza is SOLD!

And finally, I have a really nice fleece from Liza, a registered Border Leicester. Liza's fleece is quite lovely, and I pondered for a good amount of time if I should keep it, but in the end I decided I could let it go. Her fleece is dark, chocolate brown to light cocoa and again, very soft. It is very lofty, and huge! The table on which it is pictured is 6' long and 3' wide, and

I bunched it up to make it fit for the picture!

This fleece has amazing crimp and curl, and at 3 pounds, comes to $36 plus actual shipping.

********************************************************************

If you purchase a fleece, it will be packed in a box, weighed, and shipped from zip code 72936. Please email me at:

lorisarahbrown@gmail.com

if you are interested in a fleece or have more questions! Thanks for looking, and more fleeces to come soon!

~Lori

Shearing Day!

Friday was shearing day at Sarah's Sheep Farm. We were very excited to see our first full crop of fleeces. We got everyone penned up Thursday afternoon to keep them clean and dry. Last year we sheared many of them ourselves, and figured out quickly that it was a wise investment to have a professional come in and do the job in a matter of hours instead of days. We met Danny Smith and his wife at Fiber Christmas in Kellyville, Oklahoma this summer, and have heard nothing but wonderful things about him, so we asked him to do our shearing this year. All I can say is "Wow". He was amazing to watch - and just like I have always said about ice skating, a professional makes it look so easy!

Here are Samson and Winston waiting their turns:

And the ladies awaiting their new "do's". My it was crowded in there.

This is Naomi, a Shetland/Border Leicester. She is my favorite, so I took lots of pictures of her.

Wow! That is a lot of fleece!

And the tiny sheep that remained under all of that wool.

Remember the really full pen of wooly sheep at the start?

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel a breeze?

And finally, a little teaser of the bounty that I now have at my house! All 31 bags of it!

I will be skirting fleeces and deciding which ones I can pry out of my greedy little fingers, and hope to begin posting the ones I will have for sale soon.