I hope to develop this blog over the next few months to chronicle my adventures in wool.
We live on a couple of acres in north-west Washington State in a really old (circa 1895) house. We bought the place a couple of years ago and are continually engaged in home and property improvement. It’s come a long way over the last few years, and hopefully within the next couple of summers we’ll get our fencing fixed and some sort of animal shelter set up to permit us to acquire a small flock of Shetland sheep.
I am an avid knitter and spinner, and I especially love processing fleece from start to finish.
As I do not yet have my own source of wool on the premises, I have spent quite a bit of time over the last year or so getting to know people in the area who raise fiber animals and purchasing wool and other fiber from them. And I found, once I started looking around, that there are really quite a lot of sheep and alpaca people right here in my immediate area.
So, I’ve gotten a bit of experience working with different types of fiber in the raw (right off the animal) state, as well as information relating to keeping animals (why people choose certain breeds, housing and fencing requirements, predator issues, etc, etc)
I think that Shetlands would be a good fit for our small-acreage situation because they are small, hardy, have lovely fleece, and come in all kinds of beautiful colors. I am a big fan of naturally-colored wool, and find it the most interesting to work with.
