Under The Son Farm

Well closed?

2012-02-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

Well closed.

What do you think of when you see these two words together? Firmly shut, sealed tight, locked up? I thought about the terms 'well closed' and those are a few of the words that came to my mind. Since the Shetland vernacular is different than even mainland Scotland, then those words should be defined into a better English translation.

According to the SSS committee, they transcribed 'well closed' to be 'of medium density'. So what does the opposite mean, not well closed? It would mean an open fleece, which is a disqualification of the breed standard. An open fleece would part with the wind, which is more or less ever present on Shetland, and not keep the sheep warm and dry. Since Shetland is so close to the sea (not more than 3 miles on any part of Shetland), it is also wet, blowing wet. So, Shetland fleece should be dense enough to keep both the wind and the wet out. If it wasn't so, the sheep would not survive or thrive very well, especially since there is little shelter on the Islands.

What is density then, in wool terms? There are a few ways that you can assess this. One, take a handful of fleece. Does it feel full in your hands? Two, part the fleece. Is it easy to part and is there a a large visible skin line without wool (not dense then)? Three, with a shorn fleece, measure the staple length vs. the weight of the fleece. Example, if the fleece is 4" long and weighs 4 lbs, it is a 1:1 ratio. This is good density.  An even better density would be a fleece that is 4" and weighs 5 lbs. (using the understanding that the fleece is not contaminated or heavy with VM). On the other hand, if a staple is 7" and it weighs 4 lbs, the ratio is only 1:0.57, this is poor density or an open fleece.

This evaluation is taking into account the characteristic 'tip' of Shetland fleece, which 'locks' the staple shut and allows the water to run off, and the fact that the fibers are fine. Coarser fleeces, of course, will yield a heavier fleece but may not have the required density.  Coarse is also a disqualification. It is a strong interplay of fineness, softness, density, crimp, and length that makes a good Shetland fleece. None of the characteristics alone, or even a few of them together, 'justify' a traditional breed type Shetland fleece.

Since the native Shetland has been around for 1000 years or more, the wool characteristics have been around for a really long time. A fine fleece, with good crimp (8-12 cpi), dense, with the tiny 'tip' is ideally suited to a temperate climate that is windy and wet. This is the ancient primitive Shetland type (as shown by the last post). The fineness coupled with the density and crimp traps the body heat and the tip allows the water to be shed or shaken off. The length, between an average of 3-5" allows the sheep to clamor up and down the seaside cliffs without tripping or getting caught in the Shetland gorse. This unique set of wool characteristics is what made Shetland wool world famous.   A 7 oz fine Shetland sweater was worn to Mt. Everest, so I think it passes the fineness and warmth test!!

This is a perfect example of an extra fine, soft, crimpy (wavy), dense (well closed) Shetland fleece with the perfect length. A great wool coat to wear while cavorting about the Shetland Islands!

1790 Shetland sheep description

2012-01-28T13:44:00.000-08:00

The Shetland Breed

February 2001

Shetland sheep 1790

from the Maidstone Gazette (Kent) 1790: Extract of a letter from Edinburgh, Oct 2

"Some shetland sheep of the fine wooled or kindly sort, which were sent from those islands to the Highland Society in Scotland, arrived lately at Leith; and upon being examined by several Members of the Society, have surpassed their most sanguine expectations. These sheep seem to be of a species different in several respects from any now to be seen in the southern parts of the kingdom. The wool is of a pure glossy white, very soft, close, and silky, and is formed into short curls of ringlets, giving a beautiful appearance to the animal. They are firm bodied, white-faced sheep and though rather of a small size, yet are much larger than is generally supposed, and the fleece of more equal fineness over the whole body than is usual, and perfectly free from any mixture of hair. It is hoped that every exertion will be made to extend this breed to all parts of the kingdom, where they are likely to thrive, since their wool is perhaps the completest article of the kind in the universe, uniting in one and the same substance the strength and softness of silk, the durability of cotton, the elasticity of wool, and the warmth of the richest fur."

I would dare say that this is the description of the 1927 Flock Book Shetland sheep, yes????

FFSSA launched!

2012-01-26T16:46:00.000-08:00

The launch of the Fine Fleece Shetland Sheep Association is official! We are a group of serious breeders of fine fleeced Shetland sheep that adhere to the 1927 Shetland breed standard as clarified by the Shetland Sheep Society's Appendix A. FFSSA is all about education and the promotion of our sheep and wool products.

Background: The men who gathered to form a Shetland Flock Book Trust in 1926 wanted to preserve the native breed of sheep on Shetland. They drew up a breed description, which is referred to as the 1927 Shetland breed standard. The vernacular of that day and the pecularities associated with the terms used on Shetland caused much confusion in the Shetland Sheep Society in the 1990's. Therefore, a committee was commissioned by the SSS to clarify the standard using words and phrases of the modern era (circa 1999/2000). This committee was composed of long time Shetland breeders who had much experience with the breed. They had visited the Shetland Islands and had quite a lot of interaction with the Flock book breeders themselves, especially since Shetland sheep were being imported to some of these UK breeders from time to time from the Island. Some of the Flock book breeders have had Shetland sheep for generations, including before the time the standard was written. This is an important point to remember for these are the breeders who intimately know the breed.

The result of the committee's research is what is called Appendix A. This Appendix in no way supercedes the breed standard, but clarifies it so that we know today what the Shetland Flock Book breeders have known all along - what differentiates a breed standard Shetland sheep from other sheep.

Examples: Why did they use the term 'wavy' instead of crimp? Because wavy was the terminology of the Island - Islandspeak, so to say. The word 'crimp' was not in the everyday language of the common people. Why 'longish'? Because Merino wool was short (~2"), and Shetland wool measured 3-5". It was not considered 'long' because long wools and Scottish Blackface were in that category. The Islanders knew of Merinos, and they had most definitely seen the Blackface. Other breeds that did not fit the description of the breed were the Cheviots and Romneys, other crossing breeds used on the Island. The Shetlanders knew of these breeds and their specific characteristics for wool, type, and bone. They knew what they were referring to when they mentioned things such as 'fine' leg and 'nose prominent but not Roman' because they were differentiating between breeds that were used for crossing and the native breed of Shetland.

Present day: FFSSA was formed to protect, preserve, and promote these sheep - the 1927 breed standard Shetland sheep as clarified by Appendix A. The same goals as the Flock Book on Shetland and the SSS in the UK. A grading system for the fleece was set up, based on a multitude of data collected from the Flock book Shetland sheep on the Shetland Islands, and purebred registered Shetland sheep from Scotland, England, Canada, and the US. The system incorporates the wool grading scale used by Oliver Henry who is the Jamison and Smith Shetland wool grader and who has around 40 years experience in grading Shetland wool. FFSSA has further refined the system by using the collected micron data to apply a criteria based on visual inspection (the wool itself and crimps per inch) and measured data (AFD, SD, CV) as well as conforming to the clarified standard. This system has been set up to allow breeders the chance to have a set of standards and parameters to grade their fleeces and see how they are conforming to Shetland sheep around the world.

FFSSA is for the breeder of fine fleece who would like education regarding the whole sheep, not just the fleece. Correct breed type is of utmost importance. Shetland breed type should fall within a certain set of characteristics, not as a cookie cutter breed, but as a breed with a variety of colors and markings with a fine fleece as was intended by the RBST's denoting the breed with minority status in the late 1970's (see The ARK article by Dr. SHU Bowie, 1983). FFSSA's goal is to fulfill this intention by education and promotion of fine fleece Shetland sheep.

FFSSA is also for the buyer looking for fine Shetland fleece in any form be it raw, roving, combed top, handspun or millspun yarn, or in any number of finished knitted, woven, or felted goods. We are here to help you find that special color in most grades of Shetland wool that you would prefer, and as our name implies, we are specializing in the finer grades.
I want to welcome all who are seriously interested in producing, preserving, and protecting fine fleece Shetland sheep and their products to visit our website at FFSSA.

Fine Shetland wool

"extra fine, soft texture, longish, wavy, and well closed".

Note: FFSSA is NOT a registry.

Mild January pictures

2012-01-11T01:59:00.000-08:00

Snapped a few random pictures yesterday since it was so nice. Winter is set to return to Indiana today.

The ewes - waiting for dinner.

The rams - waiting for their snack.

No, they don't have coats this year. The hay they are getting is grass and they are staying fairly clean.

Torvus and Dreamie.

Apache.

Wonderful Shetland breed character.

Velour.

Velour's fleece.

Broderick - going on 3 years old. He is on the left, next to Blue in the ram picture above. Cleggan is facing away from the camera.

Coburg.

Tori will probably be showing him at the fair this year.

Emsket fleeces samples. A bit washed out in color. Definitely more blue in real life. A batch is being washed for yarn.

Finished this shawl back in Nov. Romney/Mohair blend from a friend, dyed with cake dye.

Shetland Jumper weight yarn

2012-01-04T12:37:00.000-08:00

Can't believe I did it! 700 yards and 4.6 oz of soft, white, fine breed standard Shetland yarn. For a future Fair Isle project. THIS is what Shetland should spin up to be. Now to spin up the remaining 8 oz. A sample of this fleece was pictured on Nov. 11.

Shetland weather??

2012-01-02T11:50:00.000-08:00

Ok. I would really like to know why the myth that says the weather in Shetland is worse than here keeps getting perpetuated. Here is what it looks like from my back door right now.

The fuzzies blowing horizonally is snow. Gusts yesterday were up to 50+mph. Today they are only up to around 30-35. It is around 25 degrees right now and supposed to get down to 16 (no doubt less than that here). Wind chills will be below zero.

Temperature in Lerwick is 39 degrees right now and the temp for the next 10 days, both high and lows, is around 38-40 degrees. Balmy.

I think I can safely say is worse here.

My current big knitting project - sweater in two ply handspun, one ply dark grey Shetland mule and one ply a Shetland 3 way colored roving of purple, red, and blue. Tighter gauge - size 5 needles with a sport/light worsted yarn. Love it.

Off black fine Shetland fleece. All these fleeces in this color are washed and almost dried. Will be shipping out for millspun yarn soon. Definitely more efficient to wash a whole batch of the same color up at the same time.

End of year review/ Looking forward

2011-12-30T12:26:00.000-08:00

Hmmm . . . . what a year. Did lots of projects this year. Fair Isle mitts, vest, hat and gloves, wadmal blankets, gansey patterned stockings, plain mitts, gloves, hats, socks, a shawl and scarf, lots of handpainted yarns, fun classes, tons of handspun yarns, and that is just the "working" end!

The Shetland sheep, who make it all possible, are just fabulous. We continue to breed for only the best quality, fine fleeced Shetlands.

Fine fleeces abound to be made into yarn and roving. Saved some for the mill spun yarns, which I'm washing up right now. "Black" and emsket are on the list for yarns, with the black being an off black/Shetland black.

One lock sample of the several fleeces that are being washed for millspun yarn. Excellent elasticity as required of fine Shetland wool. Great length too.

As compared to the black Shetland skein, you can easily tell that these locks are modified and not pure black.

I really like my millspun yarns. It is so nice to just run downstairs and grab a skein and start knitting, knowing that there is enough of that "color" already made. Expanding that repertoire is the goal so that there will be the whole Shetland palette to choose from, for both myself and my customers.

The ISF Best Fleece on Hoof award was supportive of our breeding goals. It is always nice to win the most coveted top award for our breed stock based on what Shetland sheep are bred and known for - the fine crimpy soft fleece.

WSWF was just wonderful. It was great to meet Kate and Alan. Learning just flowed the whole weekend long. I could do this kind of weekend several times a year! Winning Reserve Champion Ram with one of our ram lambs under these prestigous Shetland breeder judges was nothing to sneeze at either.

And, of course, lots of Shetland friends who are so supportive of fine fleece Shetland sheep!

Looking forward to 2012. Here are a few of the "things to do/will be done" list:

There will be LOTS of lambs! Many of them will be purebred in 2012. We will be keeping several but many will be for sale this year.

Several older (but not that old) ewes will be for sale at weaning. These will be breedstock quality.

We have several ram lambs that were kept back this year. We should only be keeping a couple of them so several will be for sale later this summer, after evaluations. I need to look hard at my older rams as well and possibly sell a couple of those.

Will be looking for a second crossing sire, one smaller than the BFL but still possessing fast growth, meatiness, and a narrow front end. Preferably with a good fleece. This one will be used on the smaller purebred ewes so I'm not looking for a ram to get over 200 lbs in adulthood, preferrably not over 180 lbs. Yes, the intention is to breed at least half of the flock next fall to crossing rams (the reason being is that we have almost reached our limit in retaining the best purebred stock for our needs and only need to breed a few for replacements and for purebred sales).

Will be looking for another purebred horned fine fleece breedstock ram that is unrelated to our own stock. Preferrably a dark moorit with no iset and no modifier. If you who are reading have one with these criteria, or will possibily have one, please drop me a line.

Lots of wool will be sent out for combed top and yarn, hopefully all in Jan., to be available for sale later in the year.

Several hides need to be sent out for processing for the same reason.

On the wool end, I'd like to do more felting and making of garments or blankets out of felt, make a Fair Isle Shetland sweater out of my handspun, preferably out of my hand carded rovings and my own design, weave more wadmal Shetland blankets and make braided rugs out of britch, and keep knitting the stuff that I have been (currently working on a handspun varigated dyed Shetland plied with dark grey Shetland mule sweater and plain light grey millspun gloves - tweaking my own pattern).

More handpainting yarn - it is just plain fun.

Dyeing in general.

Blending the exotics like alpaca, mohair, and angora with Shetland (I have plenty of all to do that).

For education, present more history to those who are hungry for it. Just found another book showing Shetland photos from 1912 - fine fleece uniform Shetlands that would fit into flocks today.

Have the spinning guild out more often. We've had such fun in the past.

Would love to visit more sheep friends!

For now, that is enough to keep me busy. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Happy New Year!

Bouncing lamb video, for sale listings

2011-12-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

I did something fun today, at least I'm calling it that because it was actually not fun beforehand. The camera was slooooow responding, as in like a 5 second delay before the the picture was taken after depressing the button. Not happy. So, I tried a few movie clips for fun to see if it would work since the little girls were kicking up their heels anyway, running around and around the chicken pen (which I didn't capture).

I mainly wanted to take some pictures to show some of the lambs that we have for sale, but some of the sale lambs are in the barn lot area with the big girls with coats on. The ewe lambs here are the girls whose coats had to be ordered (the majority of the ewe lambs), but the coats came in a bit too big (the coats were resized and changed slightly by the manufacturer so I'm going to have to make modifications on them this week).

Here is the video that turned out. The big ewes are in the background barnlot with the coats on and they are watching the ewe lambs, patiently waiting for their dinner.

As you can see, we have a wide range of diversity in the ewe lambs with black, light and dark moorits, grey, black kats, lightbadgerface kat, moorit kat, and white. Fleeces range from very crimpy to wavy (as per breed standard range) in fine fleeces.

Here are a couple of the for sale ewe lambs today. The moorit directly in front is Tiffany (Anglaise/Torvus AI) and she is for sale as well as the white ewe lamb in the feed trough on the right (still unnamed out of SP Orchid/Cleggan AI - most likely spotted/carrying spots under that white).

There is also a dark grey katmoget, Boucle (Marina/WS 0923) in the video who is for sale (the really dark faced one). Two blacks, Tricot (Radisson/Apache) and Silk (Onyx/Apache - twin sister was Best Fleece on Hoof at the ISF) are in the barn.

Tori had taken some pictures of the for sale ewe lambs back in late October, so here they are.

Tricot

Silk

Orchid's

Tiffany

Tiffany's fleece

Please inquiry, if you are interested. Tori also has some of her ewe lambs for sale as well.

Projects or Welcome to my fiber world . . .

2011-11-11T07:11:00.000-08:00

Just a few of the miscellaneous projects that I've been working on lately.

Shetland Wadmal/Vadmal Blanket

(wadmal/valmal - woven fulled wool cloth).

Mioget/light moorit Shetland blanket - the header/start. Bulky weight handspun yarns. Started weaving in Oct - would have finished quicker but had to spin up a couple more bobbins for the weft.

The random strip pattern.

Almost done weaving. Notice how big the roll is on the front beam. There is probably close to 9 yds here!

Off the loom, folded 3 ways and almost read to pin the markers to sew between the panels. Weight is 7.25 lbs.

Cutting between machine stitched panels. Close up of the weave structure before the fulling process.

Panels handsewn together with hems pinned and ready to hand sew.

Fulled Shetland wool blanket / wadmal. Notice how much smaller than the above picture.

Big and plain but what a feeling of accomplishment. This blanket is thicker than the first one I made so should be even warmer.

Shetland Gansey Stockings

Shetland millspun UTS light grey sportweight yarn, novel pattern based on a few patterns from the wonderful book Country Weekend Socks. Turned cabled kilt hose top, with gansey diamonds done the front and bars down the side. These are so warm!

Cake dyed Shetland white mixed with white mohair.

Batts from above - 2nd pass. Hmmm . . . what to do with this? Probably felt would be good as this particular fleece had some second cuts in it. Or, a bulky spun yarn.

Yum! This is hand flicked, drum carded shaela Shetland neck wool blended with black Angora (which is actually a grey color as shown by the light color) and bay black Alpaca (off black). First pass (did 3 to blend well).

One finished skein of pure softness and warmth of the above blending. Over 500 yds. One more smaller skein to finish spinning. Kelly said "Cowl". Sounds good to me.

Typical fine fleece Shetland - 5" unstretched. Notice the deep crimp for good elasticity.

Flicking the locks.

Flicked. This was then drum carded and pulled off as roving.

One could say I'm never bored . . . on the other hand, one could say that I'm overwhelmed with all that I have to do and the possibilities of what I could do!

Scottish Blackface facts

2011-11-08T06:59:00.000-08:00

Today, I'm going to briefly go over the characteristics of the Scottish Blackface sheep.

The SBF is a hardy breed with medium to coarse double coated, long to very long, straight to slightly wavy wool that is used for matteresses, carpets and tweeds. There are at least 4 strains of SBF, the Perth, Lanark, Galloway (Newton Stewart), and Lewis. They all differ in fleece and meat qualities. The Lanark is the largest and the Perth and Lanark have the heaviest and coarsest fleeces. The Lewis is the smallest and leanest and of more historical importance.

The history of the SBF is somewhat fuzzy, with the breed thought to have originated south of Scotland. The SBF started "taking over" the sheep industry a few hundred years ago, trading positions back and forth with the Cheviot over time as to which breed was the "in" breed, and finally coming out on top as the leading sheep of Scotland. The SBF is a fast growing breed and used to supply the demading meat market.

The above points are noteworthy because the establishment of this breed is responsible for the wiping out several of the indigenous Northern Short-tailed sheep around the Scottish Islands, most notably the Scottish Dun-face. (The Scottish Dun-face was a small, slow growing hardy breed of various colors and finer wool than the SBF. It is thought to be part of the foundation of the Shetland. It was wiped out completely by the SBF.)  If it didn't wipe out a breed, it contributed to the mixing of blood in several of these NEST's.    As the SBF was imported to various Islands around Scotland, including Shetland, the Blackface gradually replaced or was at least extensively crossed into the native flocks. As most of the native flocks had finer wool, this led to a decline in the quality of the wool in that area. But, it increased the size and growth rate of the animal, which was the intended goal.

In striving to understand the difference between the SBF and the Shetland, one must take into account more and more variables which can differentiate the two. One that may not have been looked into before is the wool growth. The growth of the wool, i.e. what time of year the wool grows the fastest, is one aspect that must be taken into consideration. This has been discovered of SBF wool: All three strains (of SBF, the Lanark, Galloway, Lewis) showed a considerable reduction in follicle output during the winter and spring months. (Doney) This means that the SBF wool doesn't grow very much in the winter.

It also means that much of the wool growth in SBF takes place in the summer and fall months.

For my Shetland flock, I've noticed that the most growth of wool DOES occur in the fall and winter months, usually at least half or 2/3rds of the growth occurs from Sept to March. This means that my Shetland flock looks as if it doesn't have much wool in the summer.   This is the same that is seen on Shetland and in the UK photos. Lots of wool in late spring right before shearing and not much at all during the summer to early fall. Of course, not much growth occurs around the time of the break/rise which normally on Shetland would be March through June. This is what I see in my flock as well. It depends on if it is a ram or lamb or lactating ewe. Rams are earlier usually in late March/early April, lambs/yearlings sometimes don't have a break, and ewes vary.

So, my question to the rest of you is this: When do your sheep normally grow the most wool? Spring, summer, fall, winter? And what type of wool does your flock have, single coats or double coats?

References, pictures, history of the SBF:

Doney: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=A2222FE552983AE8B165E19DF5A73AB4.journals?fromPage=online&aid=7365596#

Nordin Farms: http://www.nordinfarms.com/wool.htm

SBF history: http://www.ramshornstudio.com/id145.htm

Wiki picture of Lewis SBF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sheep_on_the_isle_of_Lewis.jpg

Just for kicks, the Island of Lewis, located on the NW side of Scotland, has a yearly temperature range of 44-61 degrees day, and 35-50 degrees night with 54" of precipitation. A cool, moist climate, not cold at all. Scotland's temperature, of course, varies considerably, especially in the mountainous regions.

Shetland has a yearly temperature range from 41-57 degrees day, and 34-50 at night with 39.5" of precipitation. A cool, not as moist climate, slightly cooler than Lewis.

2011 Breeding Groups

2011-10-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

Tori and I have been working on breeding groups the past couple of days. Finally got it figured out who is going to go to whom. Wipe boards come in handy at times like this. Only really made one last minute change/decision. This is going to be our "last hurrah" on the pures, with the large number of pens. She goes to college next fall and I'm not going to be up to managing this many different groups by myself.

The one group that was the easiest was the spotted group. As we purchased a new ram lamb this fall from Corinne, Pegasus was easily destined to get the spotted girls. The rest were . . . well, let's put it this way . . . not easy. We are going to have to get at least another new ram next fall, if we can't produce what we need from these groupings (meaning outcrossed bloodlines from the rest of the flock). There are some possibilities for that but possibilities never seem to line up the way you want. We really need a moorit ram with a certain type of fleece, one that I've found to not be easy to get or find.

We penned all the groups in the barn/barnlot and looked them over, placing their boys in with them or by them and studied to make sure we were doing the right matching. Jeff bought some neat holding pens at Sydell's booth at WSWF that were just right for the job.

They are lined up alphabetically.

This is Broderick's group. Prairie (musket, in frt), Nikko (dark brown), Rahab (F1 Jericho), SP Corina (Tori's lt. badgerface), and S'More Petal (Tori's grey spotted).

Broderick (B. McDreamie/Bombycina). Awt/Ab, b/b. Very fine, very crimpy. Long bodied, great conformation and horns (forgive the cut one, a certain breeder panicked and trimmed it when he was young). Mellow personality. Throws excellent lambs. Just wanting good lambs out of this group. Tori would like a replacement ewe out of Petal before moving her on. She has thrown a ewe for her the first time she lambed, but she sold her. Her crossing lambs have been terrific. Nikko is the only truly double coated ewe that we have on the farm. If only all double coats were like this ewe. She is very dense, has a soft handle, is very fine, and is a deep dark brown color (she was born black). 'Nuff said.

Coburg's group, side 1. Coburg (Dreamie/Cinnibarina) is a modified with a large smirslet and great horns and comformation. Lovely soft, very fine, crimpy fleece that is a bit longer stapled. Aa/Aa, B/b. He is standing tied to the fence.

His girls are Underhill Crystal (mioget), Galeria (mioget), Mullein (mioget), WS0932 (black), and Tori's S'More ewes Spunky (wh), Coppelia (moorit), and Smiley (mioget smirslet). Oops! Forgot Lady Grey (grey kat, krunet). She was tied on the outside of the pen and was lying down (she was so calm when we were running them through the chute that I left her where she was just chewing her cud as her "group" wasn't needed at the time. She was having too much fun watching the show. Anyway, I changed her at the last minute.). There is spotting in the background to a lot of these ewes so should be interesting to see if we get any spotted lambs.

Out of this group we are hoping mainly for modifieds out of the modifieds. Hopefully we'll get some more miogets. Crystal is reserved to be bought next year so I won't have many miogets, my favorite color. Mullein has been to the cross ram for several years so this is her last chance as well. A new mioget ram will be needed next year, if we don't get mioget ewes. Several of these ewes have very fine fleeces as well. Very fine modified lambs would be ok in my book.

Coburg's group again.

Dungaree's group. (Emperor's white "B2"/Dakota). Awt/Aa, probably modified as Dakota is shaela and B2's mother's side goes back to modified. Dungaree is probably B/b. Dungaree took 3rd place at WSWF in the big ram lamb class. Very fine and very crimpy.

His lineup includes Tralee (fawn kat), Ruby (moorit), Ellie (moorit), Morel AI (black), Viva (grey moget), Dale (moorit), and S'More Samba (white). There should be some smashingly fine crimpy fleeces and great bodies out of this pen. All of these girls have top notch fleeces. Tralee has won Best Fleece on Hoof before, and Samba's lamb fleece took Reserve Champion Shetland fleece at WSWF (and won our county) this year alone. Looking forward to these lambs!! Oh, another addition. S'More Arabesque is standing tied outside and she is added to this group as well. Tori couldn't make her mind up on her till the last minute.

Dungaree's pen.

Ah, the spots. Crosswind Pegasus, picture in front with the halter, is out of FirthofFifth Avyt (Champion Ram at WSWF last month) and Sommerang Dolly. He is a shaela, smirslet, sokket and is B/b.

His girls, all spotted in one form or another, include, Catriona (grey), SP Orchid (grey), Cinnerelle (emsket), Clarion (grey), Magnolia (grey), Monaco AI (grey), Ceylon (modified black), Paxina (white), and S'More Toccata (grey kat). Obviously, we'll get spots. Unfortunately, a lot of greys too. Oh well. New bloodline incorportating several different lines so will be interesting to see what we get. Pegasus was ram inspected by Kate Sharp and passed.

Pegasus's group again.

Part of Perse's girls. Perse is by Dreamie and out of Britta. He has a very dense, uniform, very fine and very crimpy fleece. B/? and black (modified).

His girls include Madeline (mioget), Slevina (musket), Bombycina (white), Dakota (shaela), and Fraiche (musket). All fine fleeced. Should be an interesting bunch of lambs.

The rest of Perse's group.

This is Velour's group. Velour (Apache/Viva) is a fawn kat and won Reserve Champion ram at WSWF this year. Very fine and very crimpy fleece (took 3rd for BFOH). Ab/Aa

His group consists of Gem (fawn gul), Onyx (black), Sencha (black), Ice (white), Keemun (fawn kat), Morroco (black), WS0929 (white), and S'More Allemande (black). A mixed bag. Looking for great fleeces and conformations here.

Walden. (Jings/TK Prairie). Ag/Aa, B/b. This will be Walden's first breeding, though he is 2 already. He has a fine crimpy fleece that spins like a dream. I've spun his lamb fleece, flicking the locks then drum carding it. Lovely. Then I forgot about it. I wanted to see how this year's fleece was as I was iffy on using a grey ram, but was nowhere near so nice to it. I just hand teased it and threw it on the carder. Two passes and pulled the roving off. I spun a few yards and thought, "Yup, I'm using him!" Lovely fleece again that spins like butter and has the silky luster to it. No, I don't want to use a grey ram as I already have enough grey in the flock but need his genetics. Walden is your all around great ram - square, tiny flat fluke tail, good fleece. I like his build a lot. He also is one of the more meaty boys (Jings line is) so that will improve carcass qualities (but actually most of his girls don't need improvement there at all).

Walden's group. Many of the girls in this group are Dreamie daughters. His line up includes, Pima (moorit), Marina (grey kat), Radisson AI (grey kat), Shalimar (modified black), Cassandra (moorit), Blackberry Sage (grey kat), Formosa Jade (emsket - probably should have moved her to Coburg's group, oh well), Spice (fawn kat), Lilac (white), Rose (fawn kat), White Monkey "Mirky" (white), S'More Fantasy (moorit), and S'More Cotillion "Coti" (white). Lot of really nice fleeces in this mixed bag group. And lots of color combo possibilities here.

Walden's group again.

WS 0923 "Black" (WS 0705 AI/WS 0721 AI) B/b. Very fine and very crimpy fleece.

Black's group. He has a smaller group but most of these are the "beefs", the big girls who need a lighter frame to match up. Included are Mercure (grey), Chanteloup (grey kat), Shaughnessy (grey kat), Ramada AI (white), Assam (white), and S'More Sonata (white). Three of these girls are repeat breedings so hoping for some more great lambs out of them. I should have put some moorits to him but this will have to do.

Black's group again.

Wow! Yes, this is a lot of groups!! Makes my head spin thinking about it. More than we've ever done. I can't imagine what we'll get next year and frankly, I don't want to right now! There are only a couple of ewes in this whole post that I'm not as happy about their fleece but they were put to great fleeced rams to help compensate and they have another much need quality. The rest of the ewes are what either Tori or I want to focus on for each of our respective flocks (we have slightly different goals). Oh, while I'm on the topic, Blue got 20 girls to keep him happy for crossbred lambs. Next year, I'll probably end up getting a Cheviot (border), to do two sets of crossing. The bigger ewes to Blue and the smaller ones to the Cheviot as I'll be focusing more on the fleece marketing aspect. The purebreeding groups will HAVE to be much smaller and fewer as I won't be wanting to replace a lot of ewes we have right now, other than most of the ones in Blue's group. Some, unfortunately, are in Blue's group as I needed to make his group big enough, otherwise they would be going to one of the pure rams.

No, you saw correctly. Dreamie and Torvus are not among the line up. They probably aren't going to be very happy in a couple of weeks, but I have plenty of Dreamie daughters at the moment. Torvus actually is being doctored as he and Dreamie locked horns several days ago and he got the short end of the stick by having below one of his eyes (his cheek) smashed pretty bad. His eye is fine, but the lump on his cheek got infected. At least he is very docile about treatments. No halter needed. So, just as well neither are being used. They can keep each other "company" as much as the no. 1 and no. 2 ram can, as that is much better than only one being used. Dreamie is top dog, err . . . ram. Cleg also has the year off. I hope to use him again next year.

That's it for this post!

For Sale Listings

2011-10-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

Tori and I went through the flock making agonizing decisions about who to keep and who to sell. Here is the list. There are probably a few more adult ewes that should be added as well as a couple of ewe lambs for her flock.

Yearling Rams:

Gunpowder - white (Broderick/Anglaise), twin. Excellent structure, horns, and very typey. Crimpy fine fleece. Gunpowder passed his Ram Inspection with Kate Sharp at WSWF. He also took 4th place in his class. Wt is 108 lbs.

Ram lambs: Most of these ram lambs will be shipped soon, if there are no buyers.

Cendal - White – (Cleggan/Ellie). Very fine and very crimpy. Twin. Horns are round and wide, one tip is broken off.

Tarlatan – white (Cleggan/Morel), F2 Skeld/F2 Jings. Took 2^nd place at WSWF in the ram lamb class (out of 30), took first place in pair of ram lambs at WSWF with Cendal. Scurred. Crimpy, soft, very breed typey. Twin.

Percale - White - (WS “Black”/Paxina). Scurred, very fine and crimpy. Twin.

Moorit ram lamb – (McDreamie/Windy), very typey head, wide, round horns, soft fleece. Twin.

Dark brown lamb – (Torvus/Clarion), smaller, very fine and crimpy, big wide horns. Tiny tail. Twin, mother got mastitis early on so that is why he is small.

Ewe lambs:

Silk – black (Apache/Onyx), twin. Big, wavy fleece. I'm keeping this one's twin. Very black.

Tiffany – light moorit (Torvus/Anglaise). Twin. Big, wavy fleece. I will not be breeding Anglaise anymore. She has produced two Best Fleece on Hoof offspring as well as many outstanding progeny in her lifetime. This is the only daughter I've ever offered up. I'm keeping her twin.

Tricot – black, (Apache/Radisson). Big, wavy fleece. Very black.

Unnamed – white (Cleggan/SP Orchid). Big, wavy, fleece.

Note: By “big”, I mean a lot of fleece.

Ewes:

These ewes have been good production ewes for me and I have daughters by most. Priced according to UK genetics and/or color. Some of these ewes are destined for market, if not sold.

Here are most of the for sale adult ewes.

As you can see by the rears, these are excellent quality ewes with great conformations and tails.

Mullein (2004), gold mioget, Justalit’l Silas/Glenmore March Madness. Lovely color - I'm making myself a blanket for my bed out of her golden fleece.

Meadow (2004), musket, Underhill Grant/Thistle Keep Prairie Smoke.

Rahab (2005), grey kat, F1 Jericho/Carmel. Have two daughters by her.

Peaches (2005), fawn moget, Sabbath Farm Nureyev/Sabbath Farm Swan

Cookie (2005,) dark grey moget, Sabbath Farm Nureyev/Sabbath Farm Swan. Have a daughter out of her.

Anna (2005), moorit, Justalit’l Silas/TK Aquilegia

Kerry (2005), black iset, Grey Cloud/Anglaise. Excellent show quality breed type ewe. Her grandson, Dungaree, took 3rd place at WSWF.

Windy (2006), moorit, Brandon/TK Prairie.

Clavaria (2007), black gulmoget , SP Gullant/Clary. Big ewe.

Shoshone (2008), black iset, Chapparel Snowshoe Hare/Windy.

Crossbred Mule ewes (BFL x Shetland) - a variety of colors, white, black (English Blue pattern), modified black (EB), and grey (spotted). Below is a picture of most. Left ear tags are the ewes.

Tori also has a few ewes for sale. One of which is her S'More Waltz, whose fleece won Reserve Best in Show at WSWF last year as well as other awards two years running. Black iset. She has several daughters out of her.

2011-09-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a mish mash post today. I'm listing some keepers, some for sale, and fleece pictures.

These are fleece samples from some of the ram lambs that we are keeping. Clipped today, midside. For the blacks, l to r, Crosswinds Pegasus (our new spotted boy from Corinne), Perse, Gabardine, and Coburg.

For the lights, l to r, Velour, Dungaree, and Tarlatan.

Feedback?? What do you think? These are quite diverse in type on the hoof (as you'll see below) but all are fine, soft, and crimpy/wavy.

This is Pegasus . . . and it is about as good as I can get by myself. He is an in your face type so decent pictures have been pretty much unsuccessful. This is the line of the black boys in the fleece samples above. Pegasus, Perse, Gabardine, and Coburg - what do you know, lined up just like the fleeces! (No, I did not plan that at all!)

Perse (Dreamie/Britta)

I really like this ram. Uniformity of fleece even down his britch, dense, soft, fine, good structure. Excellent staple length. A very solid ram.

Perse - midside

Perse - hip

Velour (Apache/Viva)

Velour - midside

Velour - hip

Dungaree (B2/ Dakota)

Dungaree - mid

Didn't get a picture of Gabadine (some of them just didn't want to leave breakfast), but here is his fleece. Yes, he is modified. (Torvus/Galerina). I really like the fineness of this boy's crimp. I'm just uncertain as to what this fleece is going to look like in a year or two. The length, coupled with the fineness and softness, is superb though.

Gab - mid

Gab - hip

Coburg (Dreamie/Cinnibarina). Yes, that is a big smirslet.

Percale (WS "Black"/Paxina) - he is for sale. Very crimpy and very fine. Broke a horn when very young. Long bodied.

This is a moorit out of Windy and by Dreamie. He wouldn't turn around but has excellent horns and a very nice breed typey head. He is peeking behind Coburg above. For sale.

The moorit's fleece.

There are a few other boys that aren't pictured if someone is interested.

Handspun Handwoven blanket

2011-09-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

My biggest handspun/handwoven project yet.

Twin size: 60" x 74" heavily fulled

Weft: light grey BL & black BL

Warp: random stripes of white, light - medium dark grey. Shetland, Romney, BL, Navaho-Churro

I've got several other 'blankets-in-waiting' - i.e. yarn specifically for blankets ready to be woven up. Some will be all Shetland. Some a combination of fibers or other wools. This was my "learning curve" blanket for doing a bigger size as I seamed this up the middle and got a good idea of how much it shrank when off the loom and in the fulling process. I just used a bunch of yarn that has been spun up over the years that I had in my stash. I really do like to weave and producing big pieces just gives such a sense of accomplishment. It just takes a lot of yarn to make one.

Fair Isle Vest

2011-09-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

One of my projects that I've been working on this summer was this Fair Isle vest. It is made with our millspun Shetland or Shetland blend sport weight yarn (total 98% UTS Shetland wool). It is from the Folk Vest book, slightly modified. Size 1 & 3 needles. Took me 2 months to do and it is for Jeff (fits perfect). I have found working fair isle to be much easier than lace as you can immediately spot errors. Yes, the colors are close in shading, but the recipient does not like bold patterning! I might be a bit more adventurous with my next pattern. This was actually kind of fun to do and the soft wool was such a pleasure to knit with. Took a blue at the WSWF Shetland Handmade show.

More on WSWF

2011-09-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

This is going to take awhile. So much happened this past weekend that I'm sure that I'll be in a daze for quite some time. It was just phenomenal. The two UK judges are well versed in Shetland sheep. Kate Sharp has raised purebred registered Shetland sheep for 25 years and is a breeder judge and a Shetland ram/ewe inspector. She has also been to the Shetland Islands, has judged at the Voe show, and is an ex-board member of the SSS. She has the credentials. Alan Hill has been raising sheep and Shetland sheep for much longer than that (he wouldn't say exactly as he didn't want to give his age away!) and is also a breeder judge and a Shetland ram/ewe inspector. He is an ex-Chairman of the SSS board so he definitely has the credentials as well. Shetland breeders at WSWF were very privileged to these two very knowledgeable people judging the MSSBA show.

Rich gave a very good overview of the inspection process but I'll also give my perspective. It was simply wonderful. I put forward two Shetlands for inspection, UTS Gunpowder (yearling ram) and UTS Tralee (2005 ewe). Only sheep with 2 fully erupted teeth (usually around 16+ months) are allowed to be inspected for "real" but Kate and Alan inspected anything put before them at this show. To have the full credentials, there must be a total of 3 inspectors that agree on a passing sheep so that means that no sheep here could be fully inspected and receive full credentials. Kate and Alan split the job and each inspected several sheep individually. Both Gunpowder and Tralee passed the inspection no problem. Not that I was worried with these two as I thought they should have no problems, but that it was confirmed to me that they are well within the 1927 standard.

I was with Kate's group and learned/had confirmed or cleared up several issues, especially the shoulders. Shoulders on Shetland sheep should be good . . . . according to Shetland sheep, not meat sheep. Shetlands should never have flat meat sheep shoulders (or backs for that matter). You should be able to feel the backbone between the shoulder blades or, in other words, they should have withers. Shetlands have to climb seaside cliffs in their native land and flat shoulders are not condusive to that type of terrain. Think of it this way (my take on it): Flat shoulders = flat ground breeds, withers = hill breeds.

Eyes should always be bright and alert - unless you are looking at a dead sheep.

Wool on the poll/forehead/cheeks is important.

Rumps should be rounded, not straight or too steep.

Tails should be checked underneath if there is a question about flukeness. You should see a fluke shape on the underside. Tail set is at a slight angle (see rump). Wool should cover the tail/rump area. Wool should be "tight" and the tail fit in.

There should be some britch for protection as well as the place for the water runoff.

Fleece is graded fine (unless it is a coarse fleece, which is a disqualification), never extra fine, unless there is micron data to back it up. Even then inspectors are hesitant to grade a sheep as extra fine in case it falls off the next year to the fine category.

Crimp is considered either wavy (undulating about 4-6 crimps/") or crimpy (higher crimps/inch). Either is acceptable and gives a range of diversity within the fleeces. It should never be straight.

Denseness means full in the hand. This is the same as well closed. Fleece should never be open because of the wet, cold, windy conditions on Shetland.

Longish means 3-5/6" in full fleece. Fleece should never be longer than 7" because of the wet, cold, windy conditions. Long fleece that blows in the wet wind penetrates to the skin and chills the animals (remember, no part of Shetland is greater than 3 miles from the sea). Long fleece gets mucky from dragging in the peat bogs. This would endanger the health of the animals. It also gets caught in the heath. I guess if you look at it the following way, then it would make more sense. Icelandics, yaks, and musk oxen all have a long outer coat and they all live in a very cold but not necessarily wet climate so a double coat with a fine undercoat is perfect for them. Shetland sheep, on the other hand, DO live in a wet climate, but not anywhere near as cold as those animals (because of the warm Gulf stream), and therefore need a shorter fleece to quickly wick off the constant rain/wetness.

White sheep are pure white. White sheep with a mirkface or pheo on the legs or head is to be shown in the colored class (over there).

Balance and moderation is the overall key.

For the judge's training, Lori put together a packet that including the NASSA judge's manuel, and several drawings that included the head, ram profile, ewe profile, and rear with names of parts. It also included showmanship information and the SSS inspection process and SSS judge's training process. Alan and Kate spent a good deal of time going over the judging process and what it entailed.

The Sunday morning seminar was absolutely great. Alan talked extensively on the SSS and its formation. Many questions were brought up. Fleece was a hot topic, of course. They reiterated what was said in the inspections about fleece length, elaborating on the "springiness" and bounce that is required of good Shetland wool, and hence good crimp. Kate again stressed that Shetland fleece, when extended/stretched should not be over 7" in length. The crimp is essential for good garments.

Education
I just looked up some definitions that need to be brought forth for better understanding of wool properties as there was at least one person who was very confused at the seminar.

Abrasion Resistance - The degree by which a fabric is able to withstand loss of appearance through surface wear, rubbing, chafing, and other frictional actions.

This term, to me, is related to the fineness of the fleece as finer fleeces are softer fleeces. This in turn is related to exactly where a fiber is used in an end product. High resistance is needed for strong outer garments or rugs (which is also is the same as saying a high micron/coarse wool). Lower resistance is for softer garments, next to skin garments and undergarments, of which Shetlands were famous for. Alan and Kate both talked about Shetland wool being used to make the undergarments for the WW1 soldiers. This means that Shetland wool, just prior to the writing of the standard was SOFT with a low CV, otherwise most people can't wear it next to their skins.

Resiliency - The ability of a fabric to spring back to its original shape after being twisted, crushed, wrinkled, or distorted in any way.

Crimp is necessary for resiliency. No crimp, no resiliency. Period. Crimp is considered to be like spring coils. This was brought up in the Sunday talk. A biochemist described the chemical bonds in crimpy wool and how they perform (thank you whoever you are). A former Shetland breeder (who has been to Shetland to take spinning classes from the master Shetland spinners) and who also judges knitwear, described the resilience of wool garments made with crimpy wool. Wool that is not resilient, meaning wool with little to no crimp, is used for draping garments. Long wools are known for this type of usage. Actually, a more correct term for the occasion (which I was trying to think of when all the talk was going on) is resistance to compression. This means that when you feel the wool and compress it in your hand there should be spring back or bounce. This is what Kate was referring to when she said springiness. Shetland wool should feel full in the hand and spring back. Wool that does not spring back is used for worsted yarns and goods - items that are drapable. Not bouncy sweaters.

Here is a good link for a description of crimp, curvature, and microns: http://www.elitealpacabreedingsystems.com/library/curve.pdf

This article is very good.
http://www.elitealpacabreedingsystems.com/library/crimp2.pdf

Here is one of the most important things to remember:
It has been shown in sheep that wools with crimp allow the processor to spin a yarn that is lighter due to its bulking properties.
It is a well known fact that Shetland wool is warm and lightweight. This is due to the crimpiness and fineness of the wool.

On page 4, it describes the micron counts coupled with the crimps/inch and what systems they are used in (worsted, woolen, or both).
On page 6 of that article is a photo of superior Alpaca fleece. My Shetland has been mistaken for good alpaca - soft and lightweight. This is the goal.

On page 7. If it's crimpless with no fiber alignment, it is usually an open fleece.

On page 9. Crimp is the expression of the excellence of breeding.

Wow. I could go on, but you need to read the article in its entirety.

Anyway, here are more results of the show.
Senior rams: None shown.
Yrling rams: Gunpowder was 4th.
Ram lambs:
1st place and Reserve Champion Ram: Velour (Apache/Viva)
2nd place: Tarlatan (white, Cleg/Morel, Tori showed him)
3rd place: Dungaree (white, B2/Dakota)
Ram lamb pair: 1st place
Senior ewe: 3rd place, Tralee
Ewe lamb: 5th place, Sateen
Yrling ewe:
1st place, White Lilac
2nd place, (Tori's ewe) S'More Samba
3rd place, Assam
Best Fleece on Hoof: 3rd place, Velour

I think that is the way it went. I might have a couple confused. (Note: changed the placings after talking with Lori. Fading memories . . . )

Tori also won Reserve Champion Shetland fleece with a white fleece. She also took 2nd place in the white class. I only entered colored fleeces, 6 of them. Of the 6, 5 of them placed in the top 10 with WS Black's fleece coming in 5th behind Karen, Meghan, and Garrett's fleeces.

Kate and Alan judging WS Black's fleece.

Tori also showed a Shetland ewe in the Open show and took Champion Shetland ewe there. She also won the intermediate skillathon in the Junior show. She had to miss Kate and Alan's talk to compete in those.

Wonderful show. Wonderful week-end. Great people and great company. Can't wait for the DVD to come out to see it again.

Wonderful!

2011-09-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

Oh, what a wonderful week-end it was at the Jefferson Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival!! Kate Sharp and Alan Hill flew over the big pond and graced NASSA members with an extremely educational and packed 3 days. Kate and Alan are SSS (Shetland Sheep Society) members, breeder judges, and ram inspectors. A judging seminar, ram/ewe inspections, Shetland fleece judging, judging around 120+ Shetland sheep, another seminar, and skein judging was all on the agenda for them with questions constantly peppered at them from almost every Shetland breeder in attendance.
I'm still a bit shell shocked at how well we did in the show and with all the placings. Here is the best part of it.

This is Velour (UTS Apache/UTS Viva) winning Reserve Champion Ram. The ribbons are from the SSS so I'll explain. The red is for first place in the ram lamb class. The blue in the middle is for Reserve Champion and the yellow is for 3rd place in the Best Fleece on Hoof class.
I think I might have to use this boy this fall!!

Kate and Alan were so informative. I truly appreciate all the time they took to answer all of our questions. It was a wonderful week-end. A good time for everyone! Thanks to everyone who made this happen, especially Lori Stephenson and Kelly Bartels!

BFL/Shetland Mule ewes for sale

2011-08-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of representative mule ewes that we have available. I think there is around 10-12 left. White, English blue (black/dark grey/med grey), and grey. Some of the greys are kind of "spotted". These are lamb and fleece commercial production ewes, able to lamb out as yearlings bred to a Texel ram. $165/each.

Best Fleece on Hoof at ISF

2011-08-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

We showed a few sheep at the Indiana State Fair Shetland Open and Indiana show last night. There were a hundred or more Shetlands at the show. We took a friend of Tori's that owns North Country Cheviots and who is Tori's age along with us. They are both homeschooled so I thought it would be good for both of them to pal around. This left me free to take pictures of the show for most of it, but Tori did tell me to show my own lamb in the best fleece contest.

I don't have a picture of me showing her and winning but I did snap a picture of Tori and Hallie when they were showing in the early spring ewe lamb class.

Hallie and Grenadine on the left, Tori and Surah on the right. Surah was the one that won Best Fleece on Hoof. Surah then went 5th in the class and Grenadine went 6th (for Indiana placings, 2nd and 3rd respectively), out of a big class. Tori was also representing the ISSBA as one of the Shetland Youth ambassadors, hence the tiara and special shirt.

Here is the early spring ewe class minus the first four placings.

Surah is out of UTS Onyx and by UTS Apache, himself a Best Fleece on Hoof winner. Surah has a very crimpy, very fine, dense, soft fleece - breed standard Shetland wool on a fine boned, breed standard Shetland ewe.

Last call for purebred rams

2011-08-11T17:06:00.000-07:00

We are shipping a load to market this Sat morn so if there is anyone that was wanting say, a half poll, very fine fleeced ram, or a full horned, fine fleece, please let me know. Several very good conformation boys are on this load. We are only keeping back around 6-8 ram lambs, of which we'll overwinter probably only half that number. We are also shipping a couple of yearling rams at this time, several nice older ewes, and then I'll be shipping a few adult rams and more of the ewes later this fall.

Our numbers are too high and we still have a severe drought here so we'll be starting to feed hay to the whole flock soon.

Oh, check out the Hjaltland Halo site. Lovely fleece and lamb pictures!

A few keepers, updated sales list, book review

2011-08-03T07:23:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the keepers so far this year. I'm updating the sales page bit by bit so there are a few pictures there as well.

Taffeta

(Cleggan x Morel)

She is possibly my ideal Shetland lamb. F2 Skeld/F2 Jings. Longer, very silky soft dense fleece, good crimp. Deep bodied. Perfect tail. Wide but not over done. Nice fine bone. Nicely shaped head and good poll/forehead/cheek wool. Calm sweet personality. And no, she is not going to WSWF. I hope to repeat this breeding. Tarlatan, her half polled brother, is for sale.

Challis

(B. McDreamie x Morchella)

Dense, fine, soft fleece. Nice big ewe lamb. Morchella duplicated in black.

Speaking of Morchella, I'm knitting socks with yarn spun from Morchella's back end area (not britch as that was separated out) and they are turning out to be ideal. No nylon or other additions needed at all in this wool - excellent bounce! This is the type of yarn that is used in the book Country Weekend Socks (2010), which I just purchased this past weekend. It has several patterns which are long socks or stockings, and I'd like to tackle a pair soon. It even has a pattern for kilt hose and Fair Isle socks. MANY references to Shetland yarns and Shetland knitters in the book, and I nearly jumped out of my seat at Jo-Ann's when I was perusing the book because there is a pattern for Eriskay socks (gansey type)! That is the Island featured in the last blog for the movie clip. I happened to just start knitting Morchella's sock on the way to the store (no, I wasn't driving!) and so was actually knitting in the store and looking at the book. Many of the socks have similar type of yarn to Morchella's so I was definitely pleased. Now to hurry and finish this pair . . .

Morchella's socks - size 2 needles

Boucle

(Apache x Marina)

Very dark kat ewe lamb. Just caught her this morning and checked her fleece. She is finally getting some crimp in.

These are the ram lambs I'm hanging on to and watching for the moment. I'm still unsure of who I'm going to use this fall for tups and Tori needs a yearling to show next summer. There may be a couple more that I'll watch but I don't keep the half polls.

Shantung

(WS 0923 "Black" x Chanteloup)

Very much like his grandsire Dreamie with maybe a more silky, lustrous fleece. Very crimpy and very fine.

Velour

(Apache x Viva)

Growing nicely. Will be a very fine, very crimpy, and very soft fleeced fawn kat.

Coburg - modified black smirslet (probably dark emsket)

(B. Dreamie x Cinnibarina)

This guy is one of two possible modified black smirslet rams that I may use this fall. The other is out of Galerina and by Torvus (Gabardine), who is very similar to this guy (maybe slightly bigger - he is in the show group at the moment as he went to the fair and won champion Shetland ram). Coburg is fine boned, very soft, fine fleeced, and crimpy.

Way Cool! Education and wins.

2011-07-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

First the wins. Tori did very well at our Putnam Co. Fair this year this week. She won Grand Champion Fleece with one of her own Shetland fleeces. She won Grand Champion Other Basic Crafts with her hand dyed, handspun, and handwoven blanket (which is now going to the State Fair). And she also won Champion and Reserve for both the Shetland Ewe and Ram classes. I'd say she did quite well!

This is the Champion drive for Shetland ewes. Tori is the one on the left, holding her Champion Ewe (white yearling). All four of these Shetlands belong to us. She had lots of help!

On to education. Found this short movie clip on this site the other day. http://scotlandonscreen.org.uk/database/record.php?usi=007-000-002-215-C

No, this isn't on Shetland, but it is on an island west of Scotland and is dated 1935. A woman is shearing a Blackface type lamb, then dyeing the wool with lichens. A couple of women are carding and spinning and then some are 'waulking' some wool fabric. Notice no separation of fibers is being done.

The Shetland Heritage

2011-07-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm going to get pretty blunt in this blog. Some things need saying straight out for the betterment of the breed.

Shetlands are a heritage breed of sheep, an old breed with primitive characteristics. There are many colors and patterns displayed by the breed, and combined with a fine soft fleece, are probably one of the most valuable breeds known to man for a handspinner or fiber artist. This is a breed of sheep that needs, as the NASSA bylaws state, preservation and protection as well as promotion. What is it about the breed exactly that needs preservation, protection, and promtion?

Shetlands should be preserved first and foremost for the following:

Breed character traits.

Diverse colors and patterns.

So, what are the strongest breed characteristics of Shetlands?
Small. Fine boned. Fluke tail. Fine, soft fleece. Excellent meat. Defined head. Diverse colors and patterns.

What trait put Shetland sheep on the map and made them famous as well as made them worth preserving in the first place?
Fine, soft fleece.
Ring shawls and excellent sweaters are copied the world over.

So what is the most important aspect about Shetland sheep and should be most preserved and protected?
Fine, soft fleece.

With the preservation of the Shetland wool qualities, one finds two very important old pictures displaying some very pertinant information regarding Shetland wool and what it is supposed to look like. The breed standard says "extra fine, soft texture, longish, wavy, and well closed." As most readers realize, all of these words have been misunderstood, misused, and misaligned in the past and I've done quite a bit of researching on all of them. For anyone to keep misrepresenting such terms is a gross disservice to the breed and the buying public. Among other things.

These two pictures display what Shetland wool should be:

http://books.google.com/books?id=EpEZAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA10&dq=shetland+fine+fleece+1900&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false

This book, from 1900, shows a Shetland fleece (4") along with a Shrop (3.5"), Southdown (4") and a Merino (3"). Notice which breeds the Shetland is grouped with and which it is not.

http://photos.shetland-museum.org.uk/index.php?a=wordsearch&s=item&key=WczoxMToibWVyaW5vIHdvb2wiOw==&pg=7

This is the famous picture by JC Bowie of the Merino lock "with fine waves" dated 1910's.

These two pictures put to bed ANY arguments whatsoever about the definitions of "longish" and "wavy".

Longish means longer than short Merino. It does NOT mean carpet length wool.

Wavy means crimpy, plain and simple.

Extra fine is a no brainer. Coarse is a disqualification.

Well closed is dense.

Long straight coarse fleece that is strongly double coated does NOT a true breed standard Shetland yarn make. There is no documentation found where Shetland women separated two coats (other than a very few mentioning some scadder, which is a whole 'nother contraption indeed). Nor is there any other mention of MAJOR exports, from 1800 onward,of any finished goods other than socks, stockings, shawls, sweaters, underwear spensers, hats, mittens, and gloves. All of these are knitted of bouncy, crimpy yarn. Yarn with "memory" to snap into shape and hug the body, exactly what it was designed for. Otherwise they would not stay put! And Shetland sheep and their wool would not be famous!

Wool with no crimp is not used for finished knitted goods requiring bounce, as all the above goods do. Wool with no crimp is used for weaving, and such was done hundreds of years ago in Shetland to produce wadmal, a fulled woven coarse cloth used for making cloths (skirts, jackets, etc) and blankets. The sheep of Shetland back then were a much varied lot and were not "Shetland sheep" (breed standard) until the concentrated breeding of the finer wooled sheep took place in the 1800's. THIS led to the development of breed standard Shetland sheep as well as the preservation of the fine wooled sheep. Ancient sheep of Shetland though, were known to produce fine soft fleece as far back in the 1200's!

Shetland sheep displaying wool with no crimp are still, by NASSA's caveat, Shetland sheep. Just as a Shetland sheep dog that is oversized or undersized to the standard are still Shetland sheep dogs. They just can't be shown. There are no perfect sheep but some just don't measure up to the standard well enough. These are usually breedable stock though. And some have disqualifiable faults which should not be perpetuated.

By allowing the continued expression of "anything goes" as far as traits - big bones, coarse outer hair, non-fluke tails - breeders are NOT preserving and protecting the Shetland sheep! Shetlands should never be coarse and should never be indistinguishable from a big boned, coarse fleece breed.

Let us keep learning about this breed of sheep and let us keep educating all those we come in contact with to preserve and protect what a Shetland should be - a heritage breed of sheep that is diverse in color and pattern but on a fine boned, fine soft fleeced animal. Let us also strive in the direction of breeding the best possible breed standard Shetland sheep.

And lest anyone think there isn't diverseness within the standard for fleece, here are a few photos of different lamb fleeces that all fall under the breed standard. Several different sires and lines. All of these will be in the 20-30 micron range as adults (what Shetland wool is supposed to be), and be in the range of 3-5/6" for length. They all have tip, which is characteristic of Shetland wool, and they are all soft.

Grey kat - very fine, very crimpy

Moorit - fine, looser crimp but getting crimpier at the base.

Black (going to be modified) - longer staple, silky, crimpy, very fine. (picture taken in a dark shed)

Grey kat - very dense, very fine, crimpy/very crimpy.

Fawn kat - very fine and very crimpy. Bit longer staple than first grey kat.

White - longer staple, silky, crimpy.

Modified black (going to be shaela) - very fine, very crimpy, dense. The softest and finest of the bunch in a black base.

Let us celebrate our diverse heritage breed of Shetland sheep!

The Value of a Ewe - Maternal Lines

2011-07-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

Flock goals change over time or otherwise come more and more into focus as experience is gained. Shetlands offer a variety of goals, mainly color and pattern, but there are also horned ewes, polled rams, and spots to throw in the mix. Fine soft fleece is a given. In focusing on goals, you need to start with a foundation. Good conformation, good breed character, and a fine fleece are the top priorities, with your particular 'bent' such as katmogets or spotting next. But how does one go about that and what is meant by "foundation"?

Foundation simply means what you build upon. In selecting foundation stock, ewes are more valuable than what most shepherds give them credit. "Rams are 50% of the flock" is a quote that is often heard. Yes, this is quite true. Unfortunately, sometimes it isn't understood that most of the sheep that are kept from said ram are his daughters, the ewes. Therefore it stands to reason that, yes, a ram must be good, but you must look at his mother and his sisters, as well as his sire's mother (grandmother) to properly evaluate his worth in your particular flock. Some questions to ask would be: Is his mother/grandmother the kind of ewe that you want to perpetuate in your flock? Is she a good milker - raises growthy lambs? Does she produce as good or better than herself?  Long lived? Soft fine good yielding fleece? Good breed character? Lots of things to think about before rushing out to buy that next ram.

I've been evaluating my foundation ewes, in an excel spreadsheet using the database, over the past couple of days, charting out the lineage of these ewes. I started it a couple of months ago but picked the ball up again so that I can better evaluate the lambs this year as well as the older stock.  I have come up with some startlingly information.  Hindsight is 20/20 they say and it definitely pays off to reflect back on your flock once in awhile. In evaluating, I've come up with the following foundation ewes that make up a majority of the ewe's ancestry in my flock:

TK Prairie Smoke - F2 Jamie
U Crystal Gayle - F2 Jamie
TK Aqua - F2 Jamie
SF Swan - sire SF Cash
SF Silvia - sire SF Cash
SF Rosamund "Cocoa" - SF Cash
G March Madness "Maddy" - F2 Jamie
SP Guin II - SP Koca
SP Cecilia - K Northstar

As you can see, the AI sire Jamie has had a big impact with my foundation ewes. Nice soft fine fleeces on correct bodies. Cash, a domestic ram, also had a major influence. Very strongly correct ewes out of this line with big silky fleeces. The other two ewes, Guin II and Cecilia, actually produced foundational ewes by rams out of Prairie and Aqua (her line). In other words, they produced a single ewe that had an impact, not multiple generations. I do have a couple of other ewe lines that I'm watching but there isn't enough information/lambs yet on those ewes to determine how far to go with them.

Prairie and Crystal are still here. The rest of the foundation ewes, with the exception of Cocoa, have moved onto other farms to make an impact there (Cocoa had to be put down). Some of them actually produced a ewe or ewes that were more of a "foundation" type, than they themselves were, as seen above. The best foundation ewe in my flock is Prairie, the flock leader, who has produced several rams and ewes that have made an impact on our flock (or other's flocks), out to the sixth generation so far. Not bad for a ewe that was bought by seeing a far away, fuzzy lamb picture, then picked out of a show barn of over 100 Shetlands as the one to take home (without knowing it was her!).

Another very interesting fact that I've just noticed about Prairie is that she is strongly bred on the Dailley lines. Her grandsire and great-grandsire on her mother's side is Kolwyck's Rambo, a double Dailley ram (Dailley Eric and Dailley Mavis). Ho-Hum Y403 was bred to her sire Rambo to produce Ho-Hum Y603, Prairie's mother (very close linebreeding or as some would say, inbreeding). Rambo was an early ram, as his birthdate is 1993, 18 years ago.   Her grandmother's birthdate is 1994, 17 years ago.  Prairie's mother's DOB is 1996, so quite old as well. Not many foundation ewes still in production can harken back to that date anymore. On Prairie's sire's side, her grandmother, Rarebriar Daphne (DOB 1996) is composed of direct decendents of Dailley sheep and the orginal imports as well (Rarebriar sheep out of Dailley, Maple Ridge, or Dayspring). Wow! This means that she is 75% "early flock" based genetics. I've never really looked that close at her lineage so I'm truly amazed. About half of my flock is based on Prairie so I can truly say that I'm breeding close to the original Dailley flock importations!!   A good foundation based on fine soft fleece, correct conformation, and good breed character with the added kick of being close to the original imports. THIS is the value of a ewe, a maternal foundation. No wonder I've never sold any of her daughters . . .

Prairie lying in the shade of a shed this afternoon.

Northern Lace & Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook

2011-07-11T06:11:00.000-07:00

I've been browsing the Northern Lace blog for a bit lately. Liz is a wonderful spinner/knitter teacher who now lives on Orkney. This post shows a lovely fine Shetland fleece from Oliver that was used for spinning: http://northernlace.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/last-post-of-the-js-tour/   Love this type of fleece! Crimpy, fine, and softness just ooze out of it.   I think I'll go find some of my own to spin.

On another front, my copy of the new The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook by Robson & Ekarius arrived the other day. Two words. Get it. It will be and now is THE book on animal fibers. It is over 400 pages long and gives some history and interesting characteristics of each breed/species. Lots of pictures of sheep/other animls, locks/tufts of fiber, spun yarns, little knitted squares and tiny woven weave-it squares.   This is a book that will be sitting right here on my desk for easy reference as well as inspiration. Thanks ladies for the exceptional amount of work that you put into the making of this book!

For the Shetland breed, there are 10 pages of material, probably the most of any breed/species other than the Merino types, which have 17 pages. I'd say that is pretty good for our little sheep! It is also interesting to note that of all the fibers tested in the book, only vicuna and a fine Shetland were spun "differently". The vicuna was spun on takli and the Shetland on a high whorl spindle.

The Shetland wool is represented well, the best being pictured on the top left of page 190, a gorgeous white silky soft single coat. This is the fleece that was spun for the lace weight yarn. Next to it, in the middle, is a nice single coat with a bit of tip that has less defined crimp and looks soft and silky too.  Bottom right on page 191 shows a nice single coat grey lock that is a bit bulkier in type than the previous two but spun up to a nice yarn with good twist. That would make a nice sweater. One thing to keep in mind is that the fiber lengths shown are only 2/3 the original size, so a sample that measures around 2.75" in the book is acutally over 4" in length in real life.

Lilies

2011-07-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

I thought I would do a non-sheepie post, like Michelle, and feature some flowers. We went to Jeff's parents over the week-end to visit family. They have been growing daylilies for several years and they have literally thousands of beautiful lily plants. I think his dad said that out of the 300 and some varieties, they have about 200 of them. One of these days I would like to get some and plant them here on the farm. But, even though I'm a fairly good "planter", I'm not much more with a green thumb.

These are just a few of my favorites.

Part of the backyard

I would like to post the project that I'm working on in the knitting department, but that would spoil it. Let's just say that I'm having tons of fun doing it and love my Shetland wool! I just hope I get done in time for Jefferson this fall. I do need to get back to my other project and get the mate finished in time for the fair in 2 weeks! Jeff's brother didn't want to take the first one off this past week-end when I showed him, so I think I know what I'll be doing this fall! Knitting!

Norwegian sheep and Borerays

2011-07-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, I'm a bit of a research detective when it comes to Shetland sheep. They are simply fascinating to try and figure out just where their ancient genetics may have come from. Google is a neat tool and Youtube is great!

Here is a site that has lots of infomation on Norwegian sheep: http://www.sukkertoppen.org/index.html

Quite a few pictures are found on the website. You'll have to hit your translate button to convert to English. There are also some videos on the blog. See especially the video from April 7, 2011. There are greys, blacks, spotteds, and even a katmoget. The similarity to Shetlands is evident. This is the breed that the Vikings brought to the Shetland Islands and they intermingled with the native sheep on the island, probably the Soays or a type of Soay. This was the basis for the Shetland sheep, this intermingled breed. If so, it is easy to see where the continuum from the short Soay to the meduim/long fleece comes into play. Rooing is a part of both of these breeds as well. Crimp is highly developed in Soay (as least some of them) and the Norwegians look wavy/crimpy with some straighter (mostly the rams).

Boreray sheep, on the other hand, are a breed that was crossed with Scottish Blackface. There are several sites that have Borerays, but they are a critically endangered breed and there aren't many of them around. I am linking a site just so that you can see what Shetlands should not look like. Be careful as many of these pictures on the sites are of Soays, not Borerays.

http://www.soaysheep.org/boreray.html

http://www.soayfarms.com/history.html Go more than half way down the page to see a Boreray ram flanked by Soay rams. Note the size difference, especially the bone and width. Yes, Soays are smaller than Shetlands but we need to remember than Shetlands in that habitat would have been very small as well. Don't compare fat US rich pasture or grain fed Shetlands (that have been that way for generations) with these island sheep. Just compare the difference here. Then project differences, for crossing influences here, if you want.

There is a lot to think about when you go researching this breed. Are Shetlands desended only from the Norwegian sheep? I don't think so. Are they only descended from the Soays? I don't think so. Are they a combination of these two breeds? Most likely yes, at least the true Shetland sheep, the native breed to the Islands. Do they have SBF influence? Sadly some do. This is what we don't want to perpetuate. Shetlands have certain criteria that must be met and the first thing that should be critiqued when you look at a Shetland to evaluate is, surprise, not the fleece. It should be the bone structure (and size). If the bones are big, if the sheep is large (over standard size), it probably is heavily genetically related to the SBF, and not what should be perpetuated in the breed. Bone structure on Shetland sheep should be fine and flinty. The second then should be the breed character, then the fleece.

One thing that is intriguing is that I've not found any moorit pictures of the Norwegian sheep. I may have just overlooked that, so if you see one, tell me. If none can be found, then maybe the moorit coloration came from the Soay types. Just a thought.

Oh, another very interesting piece of information is that both the Norwegian sheep and the Soay are highly noted for their felting qualities. You would expect that from a double coated or a Shetland type single coat (with a tip). And since most Shetland wool felts beautifully, this is another piece to the genetic puzzle.

The Soay Influence

2011-07-01T07:43:00.000-07:00

Soays are an ancient breed and a direct ancestor of Shetland sheep. The similarities of the two breeds is striking. Rams can be horned, scurred, or polled. Ewes can be horned, scurred, or hornless. Soays are smaller than Shetlands, but ancient Shetlands were the similar in size to Soays. Soays normally come in the gulmoget patterning but can come in many other colors, including spotted ones. They roo just like Shetlands (some Shetlands anyway). They have variable fleeces because they are unimproved, but they sport fleeces similar to Shetlands. These fleeces look like single coated Shetland fleeces, though Soays have hair in theirs. (By "single coat", I mean with a Shetland single coat with the characteristic tip to the locks, but not excessive tip as in a fleece with a 3" undercoat and 6+" outer coat). The wool on Soays is short and ranges from 2-3".

Shetlands, on the other hand, have been improved for the past few hundred years by breeding out the hairs (called stickel hairs, by Sinclair in the 1790's), especially from the 1850's onward. This was actually 'hair', and not double coating (though tippy wool, which Shetlands have, is considered by most to be a type of double coating). I've always pictured it as something really long, but that is not necessarily the case. This 'hair' could/can even be very short (like an inch or less) and is left on the body of the sheep if you roo. This is probably just a throwback to the ancient breed and Soays (as some Soays have a 'hairy' mane). It is not found on all or even most rooing Shetlands, but some have a tiny bit in places on their bodies, usually around the neck/backline area. It is a different fiber than kemp, which is normally found (if ever and I've only seen it on one or two Shetlands - not my breeding), from the britch area upwards. I've seen kemp in Cheviot fleece and Icelandic fleece. Much different fiber in medullation, type, and character than the 'stickel' hairs. Hmmm . . . I should do a comparison of these under the scope one of these days . . .

Shetlands have also been bred to be a bit larger in body and have a bit longer fleece than Soays. Influence from the Nordic breeds is seen here, along with their color influence (there is a youtube video on Spaelsau sheep that look very similar to some Shetlands that I saw a few weeks ago - lots of patterns and spots). Where did the Shetland katmoget patterning come from? Katmogets and a white mirkface, are considered to be the two oldest pure types of Shetlands and may have come from Spaelsau sheep.

Laura put up a post a few days ago linking a Soay site. Well, I found a few more that substantiate hers listed below. There was also a wonderful article in the latest Spin-Off by Deb Robson. Great article! There was also one on Soays a few years ago in Hobby Farms that was good. The more we learn about this breed, the more we know about the original, ancient, primitive Shetlands as well as what the writers of the Shetland breed standard were wanting to preserve. Writers of the standard wanted to preserve the Shetland sheep that had evolved from the ancient breed to have a fleece without the hairs and made them world famous for their soft, fine wool. They did not want to preserve sheep that were indicative of crossing influence, ones with Scottish Blackface or Cheviot blood. SBF's have coarse, long, wavy/straight, double coat like fleeces, thick bone, and big carcasses. Cheviots have thick bone, big carcasses, and a medium/coarse, crimpy, down type fleece. Neither have what pure, native, Shetland fleece should be. The crossing influence of both breeds is unfortunately easily seen though in this country though, especially the SBF type.

Links:
http://www.soaysheepbreeders.com/breeders.html

http://www.soayfarms.com/meat.html This one is great as it shows a woman rooing a Soay. Notice just how short the wool really is!

http://www.santiamsoay.com/view_sheep.php?sheep_id=15 This link has a Soay ram that could almost pass for a Shetland!

http://www.wildfibres.co.uk/html/sheep_history.html This is great for a very brief history lesson. It shows a rooing Soay ewe.

The wool characteristics, from all the reading of these sites, is extremely similar to Shetland wool. Words like softness, strength, density, resilience, and even fineness are seen describing the fleece. The handle of the Soay staples that Laura sent me are remarkable. I would say that they were from a Shetland fleece, if I didn't know better. And a very nice, typey Shetland fleece to boot - fine, soft, and crimpy. Just a bit on the short side.

Madeline - a mioget Shetland ewe. Yes, you could almost pass for a Soay as you roo, are very alert and agile, and have fine, soft, crimpy fleece. You just don't have the gulmoget pattern and thankfully, no hair!

Updated sales lists

2011-06-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

I've updated the sales list and even have some pictures on there! Please visit the lambs and adult pages, if you are interested. Tori did most of the camera work (thank you daughter!), while I did the computer work.

"Blue" skies have been the order of the day for the past 2 months, it seems.

Yearlings

2011-06-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

Tori and I worked with the sheep yesterday, deworming lambs again (only the second time this year - they are doing very well!). I decided to separate out the yearling ewes by color as I can "see" better when they are like this. We did this to figure out which ones are going to be for sale, evalutating which ones would best influence our flock and which ones would best serve in someone else's flock. It really is not an easy task to do as they all have contributing factors, otherwise they would not still be here. If this were only a white meat sheep breed, this task would be easy! But, there is fleece to evaluate, size, productivity history, conformation, breed character, health, color/pattern, and redundancy in the flock.

Which point should be first? If you don't have conformation, fleece doesn't matter, right? But if you have a great fleece but poor breed character, then what? Or great breed character but smaller size? The perfect Shetland doesn't exist so you have to do the best you can with what you have, basing each ewe strengths/weaknesses against your rams strengths/weaknesses. This is definitely much more involved than what a simple show placement would be. Shows only "see" the outside, the phenotype, on the day of the show. And it is just a judge's opinion, of which there are none that I know of that are breeder judges. What a breeder must "see" is the whole package, the lineage/pedigree, the sheep itself, the data - microns, weights, and fleece yields, and all of the other factors listed above. A daunting task, for a few sheep but wow, what an overwhelming one for the breeder with many sheep!

Whites.

Whites again.

Fawn kats.

"Blacks" - there are a couple of 2 yr olds in here, too. "Black" is in quotes because some are shaela, off black, or very dark brown. Can you spot the double coated one?

"Blacks" again. The patch on the one in the rear is a moon spot.

Grey kats.

No moorits!

Yes, a few of these are for sale, along with quite a few of the older ewes - whom these yearlings will be replacing. I'll be getting our sales list up soon.

2011 lambs pics

2011-05-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

Tori and I did a lot of sheep work yesterday. She banded the cross wethers and I dewormed the lambs. We like separating out the purebreds from the crosses as it is SO much easier to think when you only "see" the purebreds. We further separated out the rams from the ewes to make our job easier. This gave us a preliminary glance at each group so that we get a better idea of overall quality. We are extremely pleased with the quality and hope that if you are searching for some really good Shetlands, to consider what we have to offer.

Here are the purebred Shetland ram lambs separated out with just a few individual shots. There are 45 ram lambs and the crop is exceptional this year. Fleeces are wonderful, conformations spectacular. Some half poll/scurred ram lambs are in the bunch as well for you poll breeders.

Ram lambs - moorits, whites, blacks, kats. Even a couple of greys and muskets.

Ram lambs. Yes, that is a spotted flecket (Ag) on the right (out of Magnolia & Torvus)

Ram lambs. The grey kat in front is NFS at the moment.

Black ram lamb out of Slevina, by WS black. Triplet. Very soft. Several black rams are available.

Fawn kat ram lamb, Velour, out of Viva & Apache. Very nice. There are a few more katmogets available.

White ram lamb out of Dakota and B2. Last born. Twin. Plush soft. Will be evaluating all the white ram lambs later this year to see which are for sale. A couple are scurred/half polled.

Mioget ram lamb out of Madeline & Torvus. His brother is a bit lighter in color. Silky soft.

Tarlatan. Out of Morel & Cleggan. Scurred. Twin. Plush soft.

The grey moget behind him is a knockout. Out of Monaco (F1 Minder) and Dreamie. Single.

These are the ewe lambs separated out. No, I'm not going to point out specifics at the moment 'cause I'll just point my keepers out! Many of the ewe lambs are for sale but several we'll be hanging on to till later this fall to make decisions. There are around 40 ewe lambs and I'm only planning on keeping around 16, so lots to choose from. There are a few pet quality ewes available and the rest will be breedstock/show quality. Fleeces are wonderful. Lots of Shetland breed character and great conformations. Blacks, whites, moorits, and kats.

Rooing a Shetland video

2011-05-23T18:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I've broken into the YouTube world and created a clip on rooing. Here is a bit more background to it. We rooed 3 ewes today (actually, Tori did most of the rooing as my hand strength is not what it used to be and this girl is fast!). So, we decided to go ahead and see if we could video a bit of it and it worked.

May seems to be the time when the ewes that roo are the easiest to do. We should get a full fleece next year off of these ewes, instead of having to go back and trim them up because of shearing in Feb or March and having a roo break in May. It is such a waste of fleece to trim an inch or two off of them every year.

Something else we noticed. Some of the rooing ewes have quite a bit of lanolin flakes that when you roo the lanolin stays behind on the new fleece. Intriguing. So, that got me to thinking. If the lanolin stays behind when you roo, it must protect the new fleece's tips from drying out in the hot summer sun. Otherwise, if you clip the fleece, the lanolin is normally in the old fleece, if you clip below the "line". This would leave the tips unprotected and they will dry out and get very brittle. It's a thought.

Here is the video:

Oh, the ewe is UTS Slevina, a lustrous, silky single coated ewe. She is a seasonal fading musket. She had triplet ram lambs by Whistlestop Black this year and is in great condition. She has about 1/2 - 3/4" of soft new fleece in the rooed picture. You can see that she has a dark dorsal stripe down her back.

Neck is starting to roo off (I pulled it a bit to test it). She was coated which is why her wool is a bit flattened.

Slevina rooed.

References to breed differences compared to Shetlands

2011-05-21T04:47:00.000-07:00

I shared most of this with the NASSA Education committee today and thought it would be a good idea to capture it here for the general public as well. None of this is classified information and if, as a NASSA member, you are concerned about it, please share it with the Board.

When you compare Shetland sheep to other primitive Northern Short-tails and commercial breeds of sheep, there are several differences that must be taken into consideration. Tail length and shape is the most obvious but you must also considered bone structure and fleece.

Below are sources to consider when the Shetland size issue is addressed. Along with the size issue, you must look at the whole structure of the animal (frame) as well as the accompanying fleece on that animal to determine the full extent of the differences of the breeds and any impact on crossbreeding influence.

1. 2010 NASSA Education Report.

In the report, there are several references to the size issue in many of the documents. This includes Dr. M. L. Ryder’s decades of work on European Sheep breeds. Ryder presents data in regards to ancient bone structures of sheep on Shetland (as well as wool references) in comparison to Scottish Blackface or Cheviot bone structure.

2. Here is a brief summary of several breeds related to Shetlands as well as a couple used for crossing in Shetland. If bone or carcass size is not indicated, I only put the wool description. I did this to point out that the 1927 Shetland wool description does not match the description for these breeds (Wool: extra fine, soft texture, longish, wavy, well closed. Bad wool, coarse and open is a disqualification. Very coarse britch wool is a disqualification.).

Primitive Northern Short-tailed breeds and crossing breeds shoulder/meat/bone/wool descriptions

Shetland – size: 70-100 lbs ewes, 90-125 lbs rams. Shoulders – Well set, top level with back (App A - Needs considerable clarification. REASON: A sheep must have withers to enable it to move freely. 'Well set' means not too narrow, but set properly between neck and back, showing a promontory (slight hump) thus defining the neck which would otherwise be lost in the back. It also means that the shoulder blades should slope from the front towards the back, not straight up) Back - Level, with as much width as possible. (App A - Clear as written, but could be annoted that 'level' means parallel with the ground, and that the width of the pin bones determines the width of the sheep.) Legs of Mutton - Light, but very fine in quality. (App A - This term has nothing to do with the legs from the hock down, but is clear in the context of the quality of the 'leg of lamb' in modern terms. As far as the lower legs are concerned, in general terms they should be light boned and free from wool below the hock in the adult sheep. Viewed from behind, the rear legs should be perpendicular from the hock to the pastern, and should be wider apart than the fore legs. The pastern should have a medium slope, and show no signs of weakness. Feet should be well shaped and small in proportion to the size of the sheep. Reference to early photographs illustrate this latter point clearly.) NASSA News, 1927 Shetland breed standard, Appendix A

Foula – Size – Small. Shoulders: Scapular with relative long neck, giving an agile erect carriage. Legs: relatively long metapodial length/width ratio giving strong but very slender, comparatively long legs. Fleece: Very soft with good handle, a good bloom and very easy to spin. Variable in type from very fine to coarse, dense and soft near the skin, most tending to be longish, wavy and very tippy to run the water off. Finer and crimpier round [the] neck. Can be rooed at appropriate season. Some rams may have a beard and mane which remanin behind on the animal when the wool is rooed. Lower legs not wooly in adults. NASSA News April 2011. http://shetlopedia.com/Foula_Sheep . Sheila Gear, 1995 Foula wool samples.

Finn - SIZE: Mature rams should weigh between 170-240 lbs. Mature ewes should weigh between 130-180 lbs. The fleece is lightweight (5-6 lb.) has a long staple (3-6"), and a wool spinning count in the 50's (24 to 31 microns). Solid color of medium length. Uniformity and free of coarse britch and mattings. White is the most common color, but other colored animals are acceptable if noted at the time of registration. http://www.finnsheep.org/breed.standard.htm

Soay - Soay are small, averaging 55-65 pounds. Fine-boned and late maturing, with prominent withers. The tail is short and thin. The texture of their wool can vary, from soft fine wool to more coarse hairy fibres (or "kemps"), and mixtures in-between. The fleece is normally shed naturally. http://www.soaysheep.org/soay.html http://bluemountainfarm.net/iSoayinfo.htm http://www.soaysheep.com/about-soay-sheep.shtml

Orkney/North Ronaldsay - are small and fine boned. They belong to the Northern Short-tailed type. They have little wool on the face or legs. Rams are horned and have a fringe of coarse hair on the underside of the neck. The wool is usually gray or white but occasionally it will be black or brown. The staple length of the wool is 4 to 8 cm with a spinning count of 50's to 56's. The average fleece weight is between 1.5 and 2.5 kg. http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/orkney/

Spaelsau - Adult ewes reach a live weight of 60 kg (130 lb) to 70 kg (150 lb). It gives milk and meat of good quality. The wool is characterised through having two layers: An outer longhaired, glossy undulating layer of wool protecting the underlying layer against wind and rain, and an underlying layer which keeps the sheep warm. The long, protective wool which is used for weaving is traditionally spun into two-strand, tightly-spun yarn, instead of the usual three-strand type, resulting in a beautiful lustre. This spelsau yarn was used in the Norwegian old tapestries from the renaissance and baroque times. The Viking ship sails were made from spelsau yarn. The wool was also in the old days used in clothing because it was light, stable and absorbed little moisture. The wool is always clearly divided into a soft undercoat and long glossy guard hairs. All colors seen - also colored animals. Often undercoat and guard hair different colors. http://www.lystbaekgaard.dk/faar.htm http://www.sheep-isle.dk/artikler/sheep_from_the_past.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A6lsau_(sheep)

Icelandic - A medium sized sheep. Fine boned with an open face and legs. Mature body weights, Rams 90-100 kgs., Ewes 60-65 kgs. Neck - Short, round and broading at shoulders so that where neck and shoulders meet is not noticeable. Shoulders - Broad, blending smoothly into body. Back, Loin, and Rump - Long, thick back muscle with firm flesh. Loin is broad, roundish, strong. Rump is broad well muscled, fairly long but can taper back a bit. Feet and Legs - Legs are well muscled and thick, muscle reaching far down towards the hock. Fleece - There should be a lot of wool. Fleece comes in wide range of natural colours. Wool is dual coated; fine. wavy undercoat called thel and long, coarse corkscrewy outercoat called tog. Kemp in wool is undesirable. http://www.isbona.com/breedstandards.html (Note: There are two ram stations in Iceland dedicated to the improvement of the breed, with a very heavy emphasis on meat/carcass quality. Thousands of ewes are AIed every year at these stations.)

Scottish Blackface - Blackface Sheep are a medium sized to large framed, white wooled breed of sheep. Horns - To start flat away from the crown with skin and hair between the roots, to be of medium thickness, should not turn too quickly, but sweep back, down and out leaving a good space between horns and jaw. To be free from blueness or any edge. Neck - Medium length slightly crested, strong and muscular. Shoulders - Slightly above the level of the back, not too broad at the top, with downward and outward sweep. Thighs - Should be very well developed and carried down, portraying great strength and power, and it should be kept in mind the "leg of mutton" is the most important selling part of the carcass. Legs - Medium length and size of bone, free from flesh below the thigh, giving the appearance of muscle and sinew, with a tight form skin, the bone to be flat and strongly jointed, legs set well apart with good clean hocks, slightly wider than the feet, with no tendency to looseness, giving the sheep a first-class carriage to enable it to travel long distances in search of food. The hind legs to come out well behind, never underneath, ensuring a long step and power to travel through rough ground and snow. Below knee and hock to be clear of wool and covered with good short hair. Pasterns to be springy to assist in climbing but not too long, with a sound, open, moderately sized foot. Fleece - Must give protection without hindering movement, should be thick with medium staple, straight wool, a coarse outer coat and softer, shorter inner coat. There should be no hair, or blue or black fibers in the fleece. http://www.sbbu.org/BreedPoints.htm SID Sheep Production Handbook. http://www.scottish-blackface.co.uk/

North Country Cheviot – SIZE: Mature rams should weigh 225 lbs. and up. Mature ewes should weigh 175 lbs. and up. Neck - N.C.C. have strong necks of medium length that taper smoothly to the shoulders. The white fleece is light shrinking, not hard, but has a spongy feel. It is free from curl, hair, and kemp. Wool grades of 1/4 to 3/8 blood, 50 to 56 count. Back - The back should be as straight as possible, (except shoulders are often high), the rest should be strong, wide and well fleshed. The rump is level, well out to the dock. Legs - The legs are covered with short white hair below the wool line. The hooves are black. N.C.C. is known for its heavy muscled rear legs. The legs have strong pasterns and are medium long in proportion to size. The thighs are full to the shank, firm and meaty on the inner face, with obvious muscularity on the outer, or stifle region. Fleece - The white fleece is light shrinking, not hard, but has a spongy feel. It is free from curl, hair, and kemp. Wool grades of 1/4 to 3/8 blood, 50 to 56 count. http://www.northcountrycheviot.com/standard.htm

3. There are several You Tube videos that are available on some of these breeds in their native habitat. I have been perusing a few of these just in the past few days (we’ve only had high speed around 2 months and haven’t explored everything), but haven’t written any links down. Just type in the breeds and many will pop up.

4. Judith MacKenzie is interviewed on the BSG 2010 NASSA AGM video. She states that Shetland wool has “evolved” over the past 20 years in the US Northwest region so that instead of being mostly a heavy outer coat as it was in the beginning, it is now more towards an 85% outer coat/15% inner coat ratio. As the Dailley flock was not comprised of sheep that sported mostly a heavy outer coat (as observed in 2005), one must take into consideration what the foundation flock out west was 20 years ago. One must understand whatever the foundation flock is (be that 6-8+", or 2-3", or 4-6"; single or dual coated; fine or medium bone/size) this is how the breed with go. The Dailley flock is diverse but not extreme. If, over the past 20 years, stock in certain areas of the country (or CA) concentrated on a certain "look", then that look would predominate. This is what has happened to the Shetland breed in this country. The best sources of "pure" breed type are the flockbook Shetlands in the Shetland Islands, the UK SSS flock, and the Dailley flock.

5. The SSBG handbook states that there was crossbreeding in Shetland. The 2010 NASSA Ed report also has references to this happening from Bowie’s articles in the early 1980’s as well as an article from Benji Hunter himself.

There is much to consider when evaluating Shetland sheep. It must be done in the context that this breed isn’t just “another commercial breed”. It isn’t, plain and simple. It is a primitive, “finest of the British breeds” Northern Short-tailed breed of sheep. Shetland breeders must understand not only if they are following the breed standard, but also the consequences of not following it.

Foula wool samples

2011-05-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

Here are a few representative samples of the Foula wool samples from Sheila Gear's flock on Foula (1995). Greys/musket, moorit, and black. As per the Foula standard, variability is present, long "hairs" (measuring 40-60 microns under the scope), shorter denser wool undercoat, and some roo/break lines. Some of the fleeces can be considered 1927 Shetland breed type, but most are not because the tip is "very tippy", as the Foula standard says. This is also called over here "hairy". Compare these Foula samples to the past two days postings of 1927 Shetland breed standard fleeces. (Please keep in mind that these are from SMALL sheep, not like some of the huge Shetlands that are here in the US).

Another wool lesson

2011-05-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

I guess this can be called day 2 of the lesson. Plucked some samples last night from some willing participants - i.e. those that came close enough to grab or were tame enough to be underfoot. These are all aged ewes with fleeces that are good quality breed standard/Appendix A type. They all have lambs afoot, no non-producers here. All twinned except the musket, who has triplets.

Samples left to right (pulled/rooed yesterday or this morning):

Moorit - indistinguishable type crimp but probably around 10 cpi. Just now starting to roo off of an 8 yr old ewe. Very dense fleece, more matte. Makes a woolen yarn. More blah compartively in fleece, but produces spectacular lambs and is top conformation with lots of breed character.

Fawn moget - rooing now. Lightweight fleece, 7 year old ewe. Lustrous, deep bold crimp, silky soft. Around 6 cpi. Good production ewe with good conformation. Nice character.

Musket - rooing now. This fleece spins like butter (have spun two of these fleeces off this ewe, flicked and drumcarded). 5 yr old ewe with good fleece weight. Approximately 7/8 cpi. Lustrous, deep bold crimp, silky and soft. Good breed character, top conformation.

Seasonal fading dark grey - almost rooing now. Not my ewe but Tori's. Lustrous, deep bold crimp, silky soft. 6 years old. Good conformation and somewhat extreme breed character (ancient style, very angular).

Moorit - Not quite ready to roo. Around 8 cpi. 4 year old ewe (again, Tori's). Probably the finest of the bunch micron wise. Very soft, silky. Very typey in breed character and excellent conformation.

This is just some more data to keep you thinking. Or at least it keeps me thinking.

One thing that has really spurned me to do this is that the Foula breed standard has been in the NASSA News twice now, for no apparent reason. WHY? The North American Shetland sheep have a standard already - it is the 1927 standard.

The Foula standard for fleece reads:

Very soft with good handle, a good bloom and very easy to spin. Variable in type from very fine to coarse, dense and soft near the skin, most tending to be longish, wavy and very tippy to run the water off. Finer and crimpier round [the] neck. Can be rooed at appropriate season. Some rams may have a beard and mane which remanin behind on the animal when the wool is rooed. Lower legs not wooly in adults.

Ok, let's pick this apart a bit and compare it to the 1927 standard (extra fine, soft texture, longish, wavy, and well closed).

1927 std - extra fine
Foula - Very fine to coarse, may have beard and mane

1927 std - soft texture
Foula - very soft with good handle, coarse, dense and soft near skin

1927 std - longish
Foula - most tending to be longish (FYI - over 300 Foula samples from Sheila Gear, dated mid-1990's, prove the average Foula fleeces to be around 3-5" with a strong double coat in many, some single coated. There were only a handful of samples over 6/7".).

1927 std - wavy
Foula - most tending to be . . . wavy

1927 std - well closed
Foula - variable . . . dense

Ok. What are some words the 1927 standard do NOT use to describe Shetland fleece?
Variable in type
Coarse
Very tippy

Yes, there are many more words but let's just focus on these phrases as they are not as subjective as "soft". The 1927 standard calls ALL breed type sheep to be extra fine, soft texture, longish, wavy, and well closed. It does NOT allow fleece to be coarse (that is a disqualification in the 1927 std), nor does it mention variable in type nor tippy. If the writers wanted to include strong dual coats in the 1927 standard, there would have been made mention of this fact. They were quite aware of different fleece types in that day. What the writers wanted to PRESERVE were the sheep that displayed fleece that was wavy to the tips. This ensured that the fleece would be of high quality - meaning that there would not be coarse "hairs" that would make the yarn spun from the wool to be prickly or hard to spin or grade out in a higher and coarser grade.

This is about preservation of a certain type. I'm not saying that sheep with dual coats did not exist. I'm just trying to point out the fact that we need to be aware of what was on the Island at the time of the standard (crossbreds) and what was being preserved - native type sheep that had been around for centuries and were bred more for high wool quality than anything else. Wool that was mainly used for lace, sweaters, fine stockings, and socks.

What this boils down to is that the Foula sheep are not the same as the 1927 breed standard Shetland sheep. We can point out the very close similarites of the two, in fact it is good for us to do so. But the biggest dissimilar trait is the wool. And we need to be aware of that. The Shetlanders focused on fine quality wool for 50-100 years prior to the standard as their economy was so heavily based on it. This should also be what the breeders of the 1927 standard should do - focus on the fine quality of the wool.

Wool quality

2011-05-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a quote pulled from: The House of Commons papers, Vol 2 pg 39, quoted from John Bruce of Sumburgh (Shetland), 1895.

The moment you do away with the quality of the wool you do away with the inducement to keep sheep of the Shetland breed.

The above statement was written 32 years before the standard was written. The "Shetland" breed of sheep (as opposed to the imported breeds and crossbreds) were well known for their quality of wool. Once the quality deteriorated (became coarser) there was no incentive to keep a small, light boned, slow growing breed of sheep when you can fetch better prices for a greater quantity of wool and more meat on a faster growing crossbred or imported breeds of sheep.

Breed standard Shetland fleece is extra fine, soft texture, longish, wavy, well closed.

Extra fine: 20-30 micron range. Extra fine meaning two things - fine micron and fine quality for spinning. A 30 micron fleece falls within this range for Shetland wool. A 20 micron fleece fits in this range for Shetland wool. We are dealing with SHETLAND fleece, not any other breed. Shetland sheep are a Northern Short-tailed primitive breed, not a long tailed Roman breed. Comparing the two is like comparing a dairy goat (dairy milk breeds) to a Boer goat (meat breed) or an Angora goat (mohair breed). You can't and don't compare these animals together. Ever.

Soft: soft hand/feel, garment quality wool.

Longish: 2-6” (too long of wool catches in the heather which grows/grew on the scatthold)

Wavy: old terminology for crimpy, should ideally have 8-10 crimps/inch

Well closed: medium dense fleece, not open

This picture is a comparison of a range of Shetland fleece of what I consider that meets the 1927 Shetland breed standard AND Appendix A. There are 3 individual locks of white, dark brown and moorit katmoget that, on the left, have been "stretched", and then there are the same three fleece samples on the right, several locks each in "bunches" (all samples are washed). All are lamb fleeces.

The samples look differently on the sheep, have different crimp, different histograms, and will spin and perform differently in yarn/garments. All are silky soft. All are "Shetland" type wool.

The "stretched" locks are similar in length (my helper wasn't with me). The white and moorit kat stretch to 6-6.5", the dark brown to 6.5-7.5".

Dark brown - 4 crimps/inch. More tip, very silky but very fine hairy feel. Deep bold crimp. Micron data: AFD 29.1, SD 8.4, CV 28.7, SF 30.5. What most call "wavy".   Looks dual/double coated on the sheep. Currently spinning this fleece worsted in laceweight at 150 yds/oz from flicked, drum carded pulled roving. Can be spun thicker. Very little/no bounce. Excellent for a weaving yarn or drapey knitted garment. Cannot be used for anything required elasticity.

White - 6 crimps/inch. Very lustrous and silky, more open on the sheep.   Deep bold crimp. Micron data unknown but probably around 26-27 microns with a CV around 5. An all around medium bouncy knitting yarn. Could be spun worsted or woolen.

Moorit Kat - 12 crimps/inch. Silky, butter soft. Can barely feel it. Deep bold crimp.   Micron data:   AFD 23.7, SD 3.8, CV 16.1, SF 22.2. This is going to have lots of bounce to the yarn and is baby fine for scarves & shawls or any next to skin garment. Can be spun as cobweb lace or fingering/sport for best. I'll spin it next after flicking and drum carding. This fleece can be easily spun worsted.

Ok. None fit the criteria in Appendix A for the ideal of 8-10 crimps/inch. All have only one thing in common - deep, bold crimp. Actually, two - silkiness. The silkiness is "different" for each. But all fall into the range for the fleece length as well as the other criteria, according to the standard. The white and the moorit kat will have the characteristic "loft" or "airiness" because of their structure and crimp, the dark brown lofts somewhat, because it is a Shetland characteristic, but not to the extent of the other two. Does that make it less valuable? Depends on the end usage.

I'm only showing these samples to get you to think. What are YOU defining Shetland fleece to be? Does it fall within this range?   Other samples not included would be even more extreme and be shorter and crimpier. Does that make them less Shetland? Your call. Shetland fleece changes over the years and most fleeces get looser in crimp because it gets higher in micron. This would be a good thing as this would actually lengthen the fleece (this is a proven point).

Rooing and thoughts . . .

2011-05-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

This is the ribcage area on Thistle Keep Prairie Smoke, our foundation ewe, rooing at 9 years of age. We've had this ewe since she was only a few months of age. I've not really rooed her as she has always been sheared early. Then I've had to go back over her and clean her up because she had her break in May, partly rooing/pulling off the old and snipping the rest making her look like a botched hair job. Well, since it has been so wet and rainy this spring (it is 52 degrees at the moment and a typical blowing, rainy Shetland Island day), hand shearing has been delayed. I get one, two, maybe even up to four a day done (Tori helps sometimes or does one of hers). Lots of ewes to left to shear (maybe 25-30) but more than half of the rams are done. Still need to do 4 more, including two that have already had their wool breaks early in March (both are F1s). I've heard several people have the same phenomenom. One that we sheared last week had a wool break and I partially rooed him too (also an F1). As Lenice says, "Just shear on the dotted line!"

Rooing Prairie. She is a seasonal fading musket showing new dark wool growth which turns lighter in the winter. We rooed most of her, but I think it was still a week or so early and had to snip parts of her.

The more I have delved into the history of this remarkable breed the more questions keep popping up. One of them especially makes me wonder. If a Shetland does not roo, does that make it a non-pure Shetland? Could this be the key to the answer of what makes a good breed standard Shetland, or at least a good clue?

The rooed wool is interesting. It definitely has a different feel because of the lack of the cut ends, which in turn, will spin differently. It is softer and sort of just melts into itself, like a cloud. Shetland wool was historically rooed for CENTURIES. Ok, if that is so, then after the introduction of the "Roman" breeds, ie, Scottish Blackface, North Country Cheviot, etc. the quality of the wool deteriorated (as history repeatedly points out and the reason the breed standard was made) and the wool had to be clipped off. Hmmm . . .

So, should Shetland breeders PRESERVE this characteristic (rooing)? That is a question I'll let you ponder.

Another ewe that we (Tori and I) rooed yesterday was Prairie's granddaughter, Tralee (moorit katmoget). She was rooed totally except for a little spot on the top of her withers. She was obviously "in bloom". She has a single coated feathery tipped fleece (and won best fleece on hoof at the ISSBA show when she was a lamb several years ago). Hmmm . . . I do have a black kat great grandson of hers (5th generation from Prairie!) that is looking extremely nice . . . maybe I should breed him back to his great grandma and see what I get?

I think this fall's breeding program is going to be interesting. I'm putting off doing some things that are screaming for my attention, but not giving any returns, and getting back to researching my own stock. This is something I've put on the back burner for too long. I just did Prairie yesterday, researching her lambing history and making an excel spreadsheet on her. She has had 17 offspring! Wow! I've mapped most of her daughters (as I've kept them all so far), granddaughters, etc, but not her sons, grandsons, etc yet. Let's just say it is going to be over 100 for her lineage count.

This brings up a very important topic that ties into rooing. If we, as stewards of the breed who are supposed to be preserving and protecting the Shetland breed (and the characteristics that define and make up the Shetland breed), are using foundation animals that lack important traits that define the breed, then exactly what are we preserving? Think very carefully what animals you are using for your foundation. Are they fine fleeced? Are they fine and FLINTY boned (not round boned - a Cheviot trait)? Is the structure more primitive in nature and not "Romanish" (good conformation and square but nimble, not ponderous)? Do they roo (especially as adults, many lambs don't roo)? Are they feathery tipped in fleece? How about the head? Is it "dished" (concave hollows in the cheeks)? Poll & cheek wool present? And the tail, is it fluke shaped and proper in that it is 2/3 wool and 1/3 hair tip? In essence, do they qualify as 1927 breed standard Shetland sheep?

I'm not saying that a Shetland sheep has to be perfect to be a breed standard sheep. All sheep have faults. What I am saying is this, if a sheep flunks in a most of the areas, it isn't a breed standard SHETLAND sheep. So, be careful what you base your stock, and your future stock, on as well. Make especially sure that your rams are as close to the standard as possible.

Finally, some pictures!

2011-05-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

I got some pictures taken!! Woohoo!! It only sprinkled early this morning so was able to get some pictures this evening with the sun partially out/partially behind the clouds. Bear with me as some of them are keeper lambs, some are sale lambs, and a couple of cross lambs. I'm just happy to get some pictures taken!

Torvus/Anglaise moorit ewe lambs - Tiffany & Tussah

These two are both staying as I'm probably retiring Anglaise. This is the same breeding that produced Apache so I'm really excited about these two elegant girls.

Pima is in the upper left corner. Pima's two ewe lambs by Cleggan are on the right. Her white ewe is for sale. I'm going to wait on the moorit krunet.

Dakota's two by B2. Longer, crimpy, even fleece, the kind that is around 5 to 6" in full fleece. This is the "ultimate" in Shetland fleece!

Blue-face leicester/Shetland mule ewe. She was posing so had to snap the picture.

Ok, the grey ram on the left and the musket krunet are two of Slevina's by Black (she has triplet rams). The mioget ram with the big horns is one of Madeline's by Torvus. All are for sale pending horns. The musket is a supercrimp down to the tip of his tail, the smallest of the three but doing well.

Rahab and her twins by Black. Grey kat ewe is Chenille and the moorit ram is Cordovan. Both are staying for now. Both supercrimps.

Cinnerelle and her white ewe by Cleggan. Very silky soft and for sale. Carries spots.

Two black ewe lambs. I don't know who but they are a couple of the tame ones. I'll have to ask Tori as one has her tag ripped out and I didn't check the other one. She'll know who they are. Love the fleeces and the dished faces with the poll and forehead wool!

Same two girls.

Katmoget BFL/Shetland mule ram. Very nice body and fleece. Just had to get a picture of him in. The musket ram and grey ewe purebreds in the upper right are Romie's by Black.

Shaughnessy posing. Level topline. Great body.

Shaughnessy again. Deep bodied.

Another black ewe lamb. I think I know who this one is but will have to check with Tori (she is different than the ones above).

Romie and her musket ram. Dense single coat on this boy. Horns looking good. Romie gives a huge fleece and I expect both her lambs will do the same.

Morel and her twins by Cleggan. This is her ram, Tarlatan. I should have put Morel to Cleggan before as I really like her lambs (this is a Jings/Skeld breeding). Very soft! His horns are slow growing, tiny chips but have a big horn base.

And this is Morel's ewe, Taffeta. Wow, I really like this ewe! I'm with Laura, I do like white Shetlands!

The black krunet ewe is Chiffon, out of Opal and by Black. Spoiled rotten. The ram is Perse, out of Britta and by Black. Wonderfully soft, even single coat.

This is UTS Ciara. She is for sale. Shaela color with a lustrous intermediate fleece. She was posing so snapped her picture.

Bomby and her twins by Apache. Solid square lambs. Ewe is in front (Madras) and Makinaw, her ram, is behind her. Wonderfully soft, very fine, scrumpious fleeces.

Blue-face leicester/Shetland cross ewe lamb, "Kissy face" - the only named cross lamb . . . for obvious reasons.

Out to milk!

2011 Lamb list

2011-05-01T19:17:00.000-07:00

I think the word busy means life . . . or maybe life means busy. In any case, lambing has been complete for a couple of weeks now. The last one was Dakota with a beautiful moorit kat ewe and a bold white ram by B2, both with the longer, very crimpy, even fleeces that speak of a gorgeous adult fleece. Darjeeling had that same type of fleece last year and she has one of the best yearling fleeces (Dakota x Broderick).

I'm very pleased by the lamb crop . . . but no lamb pics at moment as the word is MUD! The never ending rain (isn't that called a monsoon?) is pushing the state to record amounts this past month. The pastures have mini tiny ponds, even though we are on high ground. Clay soil does that.

The purebreds simply ooze Shetland breed character with soft, fine fleeces, fluke tails, and beautiful Shetland heads. Some are so soft that I'm calling them plush toys! Conformations are wonderful. No "shiny new made up breed" here! No coarse, overly long, hair fleeces, nor bone fit for Cheviot, no long wooly tails, and no sizes to surpass an Icelandic. Just the ultimate in what a Shetland is supposed to be according to the breed standard.
The BFL/Shetland cross lambs are very nice too, with soft fleeces and great bodies. Several are katmoget or gulmoget, but unfortunately all are rams (gorgeous fleeces!). I think we'll keep those, butcher them this fall and have their hides tanned.

Here is the list of the purebred lambs for 2011. (FS) means for sale. Tori's ewes are not included in this list. Of the ram and ewe lambs that are not for sale at this time, I will be making evaluations later this summer on them as they grow and some will be for sale then. There are several outstanding rams that I will be evaluating that are absolutely smashing in fleece fineness/softness and conformation. Other lambs that are listed for sale are top notch as well, but are dependent on horn growth for rams as well as 3 month conformation.
Fleeces on lambs are either crimpy fine single coats or a bit intermediate (more wavy). All would fit Appendix A/breed standard qualifications. Several lambs have white splashes on the head that may not be noted.

Please note for clarification, sire names are listed below in bold, while dam names are listed under each sire. What color lamb/s from the outcome of each breeding is listed to the right of the ewe name.

UnderTheSon Cleggan AI (Skeld) -
Morel AI (Jings) - wht ewe, wht ram
Ellie - wht ewe/wht ram
Pima - wht ewe (FS)/ moorit ewe
Cinnerella - wht ewe (FS)/ spotted "ghost kat" modified ram (FS)
SP Orchid - wht ewe (FS)/ black krunet ewe (FS)

UnderTheSon Torvus AI (Orion) -
Galerina - black/emsket ewe (FS)/ black/emsket ram
Madeline - 2 mioget rams (FS)
Shasta - black/modified ram (FS)
Magnolia - grey wild spotted (flecket/smirslet) ram (FS)
Clarion - grey spotted ears ram (FS)/ black ram (FS)
Anglaise - 2 moorit ewes

Bramble McDreamie AI (Orion) -
Cinnibarina - black ewe (FS)/ black ram w/face splashes (FS)
Morchella AI (Jings) - 2 black ewes
Britta - black/emsket ram
Fraiche - 2 moorit kat rams (FS)
Monaco AI (Minder) - grey (Ag) spotted moget ram (FS)
Windy - moorit katmoget ram (FS)/ moorit ram (FS)

UnderTheSon Apache -
Onyx - 2 black ewes (1 FS)
Viva - moorit kat ram (FS), moorit kat ewe
WS 0932 - black ewe
Marina - 2 very dark moorit kat ewes
Ruby - moorit ewe, moorit ram (FS)
Radisson - black ewe
Bomby - wht ewe, wht ram

UnderTheSon Emperor's White (nickname B2) -
Dale - 2 wht rams
Dakota - moorit kat ewe, wht ram

Whistlestop 0923 (nickname Black) -
Mercure - 2 black ewes
Galeria - modified black ram
Gemmata - moorit ram (FS)
Chalet - black ram (FS)
WS 0929 - white ram
Paxina - wht ewe, wht ram
Shaughnessy - moorit kat ewe
Prairie - black ewe, grey ewe
Romie - grey ewe, musket ram (FS)
Rahab AI (Jericho) - black kat ewe, moorit ram
Marriott AI (Minder) - black ram (FS)
Chanteloup - black katmoget ram
Opal - black krunet ewe
Allison - black ewe, black ram (FS)
Tralee - moorit kat ram (FS)
Slevina - 2 black krunet rams (FS), musket krunet ram (FS)

I'll post names/descriptors when I post pictures. The rain has to end or I'm going to post pics of mud!

Yrling Micron Counts

2011-04-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

I received my micron data back this week on most of the yearlings. You can compare to the post on 3/2 with the yearling fleece sample pictures. I do like the fact that my SD's and CEM's are low resulting in lower SF's. Shetland fleece should feel finer and spin finer than the actual micron count. That is one of the beauties of Shetland wool.

Name        AFD SD CV CEM SF

Darjeeling    22 /3.7 /16.9 /6.9 /20.8
Ice               22.4 /6 /27 / 11.2 / 23
BB Sage      23   /4.1 /17.8  /7.8  /21.8
Assam          23.4 /4.7 /20.1 /8.9 /22.7
Spice           23.7 /3.8 /16.1 /6.8 /22.2
Mirky          23.7 /4.8 /20.4 /8.8 /23
Yuunan        23.9 /4.5 /18.6 /8.5 /22.8
White Lilac  24.1 /4.5 /18.5 /7.9 /23
Souchong    24.6 /5 /20.1 /9.3 /23.8
Jasmine       24.7 /5 /20.1 /9.2 /23.9
Red Rose    25.4 /5.5 /21.6 /9.9 /24.8
Keemun      25.5 /3.9 /15.2 /6.3 /23.7
Red Zinger 25.5 /6.4 /24.9 /11.1 /25.7
China Pearl 25.8 /6.2 /24 /12 /25.8
Lady Grey 26.4 /4.7 /17.9 /8.8 /25.1

2 more to go!

2011-04-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

That's right, just two more ewes to lamb, both to the purebreds. Up to 132 lambs . . . that is a lot of lambs!

I'll try to start blogging more and feature different lambs every time, some keepers, some for sale. Today, all I have time for is one, and yes, she is a keeper. This is a fawn katmoget ewe out of Shaughnessy/WS Black. This lamb has the "package" - excellent conformation with a fabulous fleece. She also has that elusive kicker, presence. And she is friendly. We'll see how she comes along but she may be going to Jefferson, that is if I can convince myself to let her be shown.

This year's lamb name theme is fabrics. I think I named her Sateen. But the records are in the barn at the moment.

Website finally updated!

2011-03-31T18:37:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I finally have our website updated!! Please give it a peek and see what you think. It is just a bare bones site at the moment, but I plan on adding much more later this spring after lambing and the Fiber Event in a couple of weeks. Since we got high speed internet a couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time to revamp the site.

Here is the link: http://www.undertheson.net/

Up to 99 lambs!

Lamb Update 3/29/2011

2011-03-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

A few lamb photos.

Ellie's out of Cleggan. Ram is standing and ewe is lying down. Very crimpy and soft. (Awt/Aa)

Dale's ram out of B2. Her ewe is white and very crimpy as well. (Awt/Aa)

Fraiche's twin dark moorit kat rams by Dreamie. Can't wait to see these boys out of the pen. (Ab/Aa)

Marina's very dark black katmoget ewes by Apache. Lots of pheo. (Ab/Aa, B/b)

One of Marina's ewes. The other ewe has a very black face.

Morchella's black ewe lambs by WS Black.

One of Morchella's. Crimp well down the britch.

Morel's twins by Cleggan, ewe on left, ram on right. Cleggan type heads.

Prairie's black ewe out of WS Black.

Prairie's grey ewe.

Shaughnessy's moorit kat ewe by WS Black.

Up to 87 lambs so far, 28 mules and 59 purebreds.

There are still 18 ewes left to lamb for pures and 8 more to the BFL. A least the big hump is past. There will be lots of lambs available later this summer! We will have lots of older ewes that will be for sale at weaning and a few yearling ewes too.

Spotted mules

2011-03-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, you spotaholics. Here are a couple of mule ewes out of Catriona born this afternoon. Since I don't believe the BFL carries spotting, this is only from Catriona, who is a spotted grey. Compare their spotting patterns, which really is pretty cool, to the ram out of Cinnerella below.

Way cute.

Dark tail tip. The other one's black "breeches" come up higher.

Cinnerella's ram.

Cinnerella's ram's rear - compare to the kat lamb of Tori's by the fence (who is out of Aster, the horned spotted ewe in the picture, and Dreamie).

Enough of the spots! I'll be posting on my "other" lambs in my next post.

New spotted pattern!!!

2011-03-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

She who does not breed specifically for spots just got a rare spotting pattern! And YES, I saw him being born! UTS Cinnerelle bred to UTS Cleggan AI, produced a white ewe lamb followed by what I guess I need to call his spotting pattern, is a "ghost" katmoget. Cinnerelle is a spotted emsket (Aa/Aa B/b s/s and modified) and Cleggan is white carrying spots (Awt/Aa B/b S/s and may carry modified).

So, this ram lamb must be Aa/Aa b/b s/s and modified to some degree. As you can see by the pictures, he has the dark stripe on his chest, dark belly, not "true" kat facial markings with a light chin, and a white purse! His tail tip is also dark.

Nice conformation to boot!

Dishy face and little Cleggan ears.

For the rest of the lambing update, several very nice black ewe lambs (Oooo, can you imagine spinning black lamb combed top!)! Will have to get thier pictures in the sun and not in a dark barn. Both of the new ewes from the Whistlestop farm lambed, the black girl had a black ewe by Apache, and the white girl had a white ram lamb out of WS Black.

Back to the barn!

Update 3/25/2011

2011-03-25T08:10:00.000-07:00

Another brief update. Lambing is trickling at the moment - I LIKE it that way. It makes life easy! We are up to 32 at the moment with over 50 more ewes to lamb.

This is one of Madeline's/Torvus twin mioget rams. Both will be golden mioget, as you can see by the mouth area. Light colored, very crimpy purses on both and both are very silky. As you can see by the above ram lamb, very wide in the front end as well. Horns will be huge on at least one of them.

I really like this ram lamb (Britta/Dreamie). Gorgeous fleece and very nice conformation. Great personality. Britta's ram lambs last year were extremely friendly, so much so that they would "melt" at your touch. This one doesn't melt, thank goodness, but just stands there - even though Tori keeps reminding me "don't touch him!" as she wants the boys to be as unhandled as possible for show purposes. I'm not fully in agreement as I think the personality is what it is and this one's personality may have a little more "presence" than his half brothers from last year. We shall see. As you can see by his blue nose, his future coloration is pretty easy to tell.

Paxina/WS Black twins. The ewe is in the front. Love her dishy face. Paxy has a gorgeous feminine head and this one will as well. The ram is softness personified. Wow. I don't think we've had another lamb this soft before - he is even softer than Broderick was at this age. I think I may have to dub him "King Kindly". The ewe's fleece is a bit longer than the ram's but, as you can see, she is very crimpy all the way down her britch, as is the ram's. Looking forward to what these lambs will look like in a few months.

Pima/Cleggan - spotted light moorit ewe lamb. Elegant with a crimpy soft fleece. First moorit ewe lamb in a couple of years. Her twin sister is white with a crimpy/curly very silky soft longer fleece. She is elegant too. The white one will be for sale.

For grins. This is Morroco's fleece (yearling ewe, Morel/Dreamie, F2 Jings/F2 Orion). Love it. Very fine, so soft, dense, crimpy. Color is black, the flash washed it out a bit . As you can see, this is the "ultimate" in Shetland fleece, as described in the RBST's, "The ARK" magazine, 30 years ago in accordance with the proper preservation of the Shetland breed. It is also our breeding goal - to get in as many colors and patterns as possible and so preserve the diversity of the Shetland colors with the correct fleece as described by the breed standard.

Here is Morroco's length - 5 1/2". Just perfect. Color is better here.

Lamb update 3/19/11

2011-03-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

Here are a few lambs that were born the past few days.

Dreamie/Britta - ram lamb, probably emsket, with a krunet. Britta had two outstanding ram lambs last year out of Broderick (both went to a flock as a breeding ram). Expecting this one will be a knockout as well.

WS 0923 (Black)/Galeria - ram lamb, probably emsket too as you can tell by the "flatness" of his black coloration. Has some white flashing under his throat. Supercrimp all the way so expecting a very fine and very soft fleece on this boy. Galeria's fleece is golden mioget and silky soft.

Apache/Viva - twin moorit kats, ram and ewe (on the left). Strikingly dark katmoget pattern on both of these lambs. This is one of my top lines with very milky and attentive moms. Both are crimpy and dense. As Viva is one of the finest two year olds, I'm expecting great things out of these two lambs, especially since Viva is a knockout in conformation too.

Viva's twins again.

Education - The black side

2011-03-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

I have thought about doing this black color study for months but was finally spurred to doing it today. Below is a picture of skeins spun from various "black" Shetlands. At least they all started out that way . . .

From left to right, all handspun skeins of Shetland wool from our flock, with most of them being hand processed at home:

Dark brown (Born black, then turns brown. This is NOT moorit).

True black

True dark shaela

Black iset (born black then gradually develops age greying fibers)

Next four are a lighter shaela with varying shades of sunbleached brown tips, of which is the 2010 WSWF Shetland champion skein

Next (9th from the left), is an emsket skein with the brown tips still in.

The last three on the right are various shades of emsket as well (most of the brown tips flicked off before carding).

The bottow two skeins, both millspun Shetland from our sheep, are a light grey and a medium dark grey.

This picture certainly shows the great variety there is in Shetland sheep, and these colors are just from various "black" ones! No two sheep are exactly alike in this breed and we certainly don't have "cookie cutter" sheep here! Most of these skeins are from very fine to fine wooled Shetlands and spun around a fingering to sport weight. Only the black iset is from a coarser fleece, which is spun thicker. I hope this clears up any misinformation out there on the various "black" yarns. One of these days, I'll also do a brown color study. Hmmm . . . maybe I should do a Shetland color wheel . . .

For another "black" moment, two black ewes, both with a tiny touch of white on the crown, were born yesterday. Out of Onyx and by Apache, these are the first "grandbabies" of Dreamie. Nice little ewes!

First Lambs of 2011!

2011-03-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Gotta love Shetland ewes.

There was a ruckus in the ewe barn this morning when we went out to feed. Two "black" lambs were being claimed by about a half a dozen ewes. Since my shearer had a cold on Sunday and couldn't come, no one has been sheared yet. Hmmm . . . ok, take a minute and figure out who of those ewes that are "claiming" the lambs as theirs (without checking rears first) could be the mom. Ok, got that figured out, it is the one with the hollow sides, of course! Which was a bit trickier with the coats on.

So, without further ado, here are UTS Galerina's lambs by UTS Torvus AI:

No, they aren't "black" either, they are both emsket like their mom! Yes, and very soft, dense, and fine fleeced too (this line has more of a "dog" coat that turns into that splendidly fine, silky soft long single coat!). The ram lamb is on the left, with the splashes of white on his face (yes, that is a spotted emsket boy), and the ewe is on the right. She only has a tiny dot of white in the middle of her forehead. The ram lamb has a crimpier coat and will no doubt be more like his wonderful sire and his fleece. Wow, finally might be able to reproduce him! In emsket to boot! As both of Galerina's previous lambs out of Torvus have proven to be wonderful ewe additions, in conformation, fleece, and temperment, I'll be watching these two lambs very closely.

Ah, first lambs, like first children, get lots of attention.

Yearling fleece samples

2011-03-02T13:06:00.000-08:00

Here are most of the yearling ewe fleeces. Yesterday, I posted most of the dark, coated fleeces that I didn't snip samples from. These are the ones I took samples from, except for Tori's. As almost all of these are from uncoated fleeces, they kind of show it, so please excuse the 'yearling brats' their general untidiness and bad table manners, as evidenced by dirt and hay. Oh, my "editor" cleaned up my ramblings and put a bit of her twist to the story . . . while I went out this afternoon and took a good look at these girls away from the big ewes since they are now in a pasture with the chickens.

Whites - White Monkey (Mirky), China Pearl, #19, Iced Wine (Ice)

Mirky (Dreamie/Bombycina)
She is coated and has such a fine and soft fleece, coupled with a tighter coat, that hers is kind of smashed and folded back on itself. Love it, and her mother's, and her brothers (Broderick and B2, who is now known in the database as Emperor's White). A little mite of a sheep but as solidly built as they come. She has a dark brown mirkface.

Pearl (Broderick/Morchella)
This girl is like her mother. Long staple, dense, soft, and a large-framed, well-built body.

#19 (Broderick/Pima)
Prettty little girl with a soft, silky, fairly dense fleece, and good conformation. Yeah, need to name her.

Ice (Broderick/Morchella)
Ice is a little ewe at the moment, perhaps a bit stunted in mid summer from the drought, or just slow growing . Knows her name and is as friendly as can be. Probably is the softest of the lot, and I mean truly soft. We shall see how she turns out this summer before I make a decision on her future.

Whites - White Lilac, Souchong

Lilac (Broderick/Pima) - FOR SALE

Soft fleece. Long bodied, pretty head.

Souchong (Broderick/Hopi) - FOR SALE

Long bodied, good conformation, horned ewe. Broderick really improved here.

Fawn kats - Ruby's, Darjeeling, Keemun, Jasmine

Ruby's (Dreamie/Ruby)

Love her dark color and her fleece! She is a gold standard for fleece and has an excellent frame on her as well.

Darjeeling (Broderick/Dakota)

A real sweetheart of a ewe. Love her expression. She is truly a pretty ewe. Soft, soft fleece. She'll be medium large, with a long body.

Keemun (Dreamie/Cookie)

Do NOT let her staple length fool you! This ewe's fleece stretches double its length! Very cushy and soft. Great conformation ,wide in the loin and legs, long body. Dreamie has really improved body style!

Jasmine (Dreamie/Taos)

Big girl with a nice silky fleece. Very nice.

Fawn kats - #10, Red Zinger, Red Rose

#10 (Broderick/Chloella) - possibly for sale
I sold Chloella, a very fine grey kat, last year, so that is why I'm debating about her daughter here. Silky soft fleece.

Red Zinger (Dreamie/Rahab) - FOR SALE
This ewe is 87% UK. As I'm keeping Rose, Zinger is on the sale list.

Red Rose (Dreamie/Rahab)
Rose is also 87% UK, like her sister. This one we will hang on to for awhile.

Grey Kats - Blackberry Sage, Lady Grey

Blackberry Sage (Dreamie/Chanterelle)

Sage is probably finer than her sister, Chanteloup (a year older and bred to Black), but may concede a bit of length, and a touch of density to her, and isn't quite as dark. I put Chanterelle with Blue this year, so will keep both of her daughters. Chanteloup is a splendid ewe and I expect Sage will grow up to be about the same. Love the grey kats!

Lady Grey (Broderick/Shoshone)

Shoshone has a very black fleece (but is going iset now) and is top notch in conformation (a lot of them are, but she's striking top notch - it is a "presence" that I really like in an animal no matter what the species). Lady Grey probably won't be quite as fine as some of the others but she is going to be a lot like her mother in body type. She is very pretty, and rather mischievous. She might possibly be Tori's showmanship ewe this year at the Fair.

Here are a few pictures of the actual sheep, the ones who were obliging enough to stand somewhat properly against the fence, rather than mob the gate or me (Tori) for no reason. Bratz.

Sencha

Formosa Jade

Almost the spitting image of her mother but with an even finer shaela/emsket fleece. Her coat always comes up on one side somehow, but at least it gives you a better look at her fleece. The fawn kat rear is of Rose.

Ice

Red Rose

Mirky & #20

A couple of yearling ewe fleece shots

2011-03-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

We separated the yearling ewes this afternoon and snipped fleece samples. I'm kicking myself for not ordering more coats, but oh well. Those that weren't coated are going to go for combed Shetland top at Z wool later this spring, white and fawn kats. That will be sublime as it will be all lamb fleece mixed with neck wool. A few of the yearlings that are coated are the blacks, modified blacks and a few of the white ones.

This is Ruby's girl by Dreamie. Yeah, nice. Very dense, very soft, very fine and long stapled. Low 20's for micron with a low CV. No, she wasn't coated and yes, I need to name her! I'll have to look at the tea list to see what names are available. I don't know why I haven't named her yet. Probably one of the darkest fawn kats I've seen.

This is Sencha, out of Shasta by Dreamie. Almost a spitting image of her mother but with horns like her grandmother. I'm going to have to compare the two, mother and daughter, as I'll probably want to sell one. She was coated so I didn't take a sample of her. Very dense, soft, fine and black (the sun makes it look modified). Long stapled, probably close to 6".

This is Ceylon out of Cinnerella by Dreamie. Very fine, very soft, dense and long stapled, probably close to 6" as well. No, you can't really see the crimp in these dark fleeces, especially in the sun, but it is tiny. This is the type I like but get it mainly in the modifieds (off black, dark brown, shaela, emsket, and miogets). The silkiness sets it apart from most fleeces. This isn't to stay there aren't silky fleeces in the other colors, but it is to say that I don't think I've had very many modifieds that weren't silky soft. She is coated as well and I didn't get a sample taken. I'm going to see what the coated fleeces look like when they are sheared before I take samples from these girls as I may want to show the fleeces.

The other one that I forgot to get a picture of is Jade, a shaela/emsket with a staple similar to Ceylon's, but may even be finer and softer yet. I'll have to look and refresh my memory.

I also didn't get Morroco, a black out of Morel and Dreamie. I had to put her on the back burner and not look at her till about now as she is developing like her mother did - awkwardly. Her fleece is finer and longer than her mother's is - but it is coal black like hers is too.

The rest of the girls are white and fawn kats. I'll be taking pictures of the fleece samples and may or may not be putting them up on the blog. Then I'll be shipping them out to Texas along with the 2 year olds ewes that we did a week or so ago. As our yearling flock is probably bigger than most breeders total flock (we carried over 28 ewe lambs!), I don't want to bore you all with the same colors!

Several of the yearling ewes are available (none of the above though!). Mainly white and fawn kats. All have nice fleeces and have show quality to very good conformations.

New Roving

2011-02-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

Tori and I went to Wooly Knob Thursday and spent the day carding our Shetland wool. It was fun and a bit tiring. We got over 50 lbs done and left about 30 more to be done. I learned a few things to make a better carded roving (wash VERY well) and will no doubt go back soon. No, not everything shown below was done there, just some of it. I can pack a lot of wool per shelf!

In the shelves are black Shetland, off black (Shetland black), black Shetland/alpaca, dark brown, some greys, dyed swirl roving, and some home carded roving. Above are moorit Shetland queen size quilt batts and white Cheviot queen size quilt comfortor batts.

In the shelves are white, white Shetland/Cheviot, muskets, light, meduim and dark moorit, moorit iset, light greys, dark greys, and a dark grey BFL/Shetland. Above are lap and twin size moorit Shetland quilt batts. Yeah, there are some "holes" that could be filled. I'm sending some neck wool and a few fine fleeces out for top soon, shaela and light grey, and possibly dark grey. Those will be spectacular.

These two bags are BFL/Shetland lamb. The left is a medium dark grey and the right is more silver grey. Lots of heathery tones. These need to be balled up and put on the shelves.

If you are interested in some roving, just drop me a line at undertheson at ccrtc.com (remove the spaces and replace the at with the sign)

We are preparing for lambing, which will be starting soon. I felt a few udders this morning, small yet so probably the end of March will be the big rush, as usual. Next Sunday afternoon will be the first batch of adult ewes to get sheared and the next batch the following week. I'll be hand shearing most of the really fine ones and the lambs by hand again as that seems to do the trick very well - getting the fleeces off in one or two pieces without a lot of second cuts. The neck wool is preserved - long staple lengths that, even though is usually full of VM, it is still great for combed top (or I can save some as it is excellent for me to flick and card at home; what a dream that is to spin! Smooth, silky, and soft!).

Icecapades

2011-02-03T08:24:00.000-08:00

I braved the cold with the camera this morning so here are a few pictures. It was only 10 degrees out. Not nearly as bad as most of you to the north. But definitely not warm by any stretch of the imagination.

The infamous "lightening" tree heavy with ice.

Part of the driveway in the front. There is a dog house/pen on the right. It will be a massive clean up once all of this melts, picking up all the downed branches. You can see the beautiful but deadly shimmer of ice. The rocks are completely covered. At least walking here isn't so bad as there are lots of little branches that broke off that you can walk on.

Here is what the fence looks like. That is a clip that is totally encased in ice.

The Black with a mouthful. He actually is keeping his neck quite pristine. Maybe because he grabs a bite and backs up to chew. Purly locks on the right is Blue. B2 is in front. Nice long and very fine locks on that boy. I'll have some white lamb top made at Z wool this year along with fawn katmoget ewe lamb top out of these uncovered but gorgeous fleeces.

Torvus. This is about as close as I can get to him in the pasture. Love this boy's fleece as it is golden, fine, silky, and wavy/crimpy.

Part of the girls looking down from the stairway to my wool room.

The other part of the girls. Bonnie, the dog, is walking behind them. As you can see, most are coated. Next year I'll have to order more coats to coat the rest.

Level 1 Emergency or Snap, Crackle, POP!

2011-02-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

Putnam county is under a level one emergency today. We had freezing rain/sleet start Monday evening up to today. Now we are getting a tiny bit of snow. There is about an 1" of ice coating everything, plus sleet and snow mixed on the ground. No traffic on the road, at least there isn't supposed to be as a level 1 emergency means only emergency vehicles allowed out. Tori and I skated to the barn to feed, dodging the fallen limbs and hurrying as we were going under the trees to the barn. The tree free area that is a shorter way to the barn (and how I normally go) is a sloped area that goes straight to the pond. I figured I would chance a limb falling rather than slipping and sliding to the middle of the pond or something.

Below are a few pictures of the farm. No, I didn't take my camera to the barn this morning to get a shot of the ice on the fence. Maybe tonight at feeding time, but I'm not much for shooting pictures in the winter, if you've noticed! These are taken just hanging out the front or back door!

Part of the front lawn showing the shed, garden area, and our closest neighbors across the road. Yeehaw, what carnage. And there is more on the rest of the lawn. Lots of downed limbs, especially since the wind picked up last night.

Here is the wood pile showing the ice build up. Jeff has to bring logs in to dry out before he can put them in the fire.

The barn with icicles hanging down.

On other fronts, I've been busy working with wool. I had two hand paint dye classes last month, which were a big hit as well as a ton of fun. No, I didn't capture any pictures myself, but Christine took some with her camera and posted them to her blog a few days ago. I think it will be a 4th Thursday of the month get together from now on, in the fiber cave of the basement (except for March, of course, when we'll be lambing!).

Here's what I've been spining on the electric spinner, the butterfly. On the left is about 1.5 lbs left of 5 lbs of a couple of pooled Shetland fleeces. This is a dark grey/black iset color and is from a couple of ewes that are of the typical NA look, a more dual coated type with coarser outer wool and finer inner. I've been spinning it thick (as this type should be) to make a large woven piece of wadmal. This wool definitely fits the category for the project as it is probably around 30-32 AFD with an SD of probably 8-9.

Here is what I cast on last night, hoping that we wouldn't lose power. Thankfully, we did not. It will be another pair of mitts out of some of the handpainted yarn that I've done.

This is one of the things I worked on and finished last month - a pair of fair isle patterned mitts. It is the Endpaper pattern from Ravelry. I learned a new technique, the tubular cast on, and worked on my fair isle knitting. I did try the tubular cast off technique as well but ripped it out as it didn't work out quite right. Next time. They would have been done a lot sooner if I hadn't fiddled with the tubular cast off.

I had FUN making these! The yarn is out of my millspun Shetland fingering weight grey yarn that was done a couple of years ago and the white is the millspun BFL/Shetland fingering weight. Oh, these are nice! Fine fleece Shetland wool just CRAVES to be worked up on these size needles. A rhythm is easily obtained (this pattern was quite easy to follow) and the wool just slips from needle to needle. The work goes much quicker than you think and your mind is engaged enough to make it fun but not tedious.

The Mini Raglan

I finally succumbed to knitting up the little sweater that Michelle and others have done. Fun,cute, and quick fits pretty well. And yes, these could be addicting to make but I much prefer knitting the mitts.

Shetland Museum photos, Vadmel, and a couple of rams

2011-01-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

I've been researching Shetland rugs and Shetland wadmal (vadmel) and found some interesting photos in the Shetland Museum. The link is located on the right under websites.

#00851 - Taated rug
Floor rug. Probably made out of heavy coarse wool/britch wool - very thick yarn. Perfect solution for britch wool.

#K00319 - Taatit rug
This one is from the 1950's. A fine wall specimen. Type in taatit for several other rugs. Some look like locker hooked rugs, others like latch hook.

#00198 - woven skirts, stockings, socks.
Interesting combination of wearing finer stockings with heavy socks. Note the heavy 'wadmal' skirts.

#A00304 - woven blanket, knitted shawl
Plain weave blanket (thick yarn).

#00037JF - new woven cloth being washed

The point of all these photos is to verify the fact that wool on Shetland was used weavinng for clothing and rugs. Weaving was done in Shetland and surrounding islands/countries for many centuries prior to 1850, and this cloth that was traded and used for currency was called wadmal (or vadmel in Norwegian). As I said in the previous posting, wadmal is a coarse, woven wool cloth. It was measured in 'ells'.

The bulk of the clothing worn, meaning trousers, skirts, shirts, and jackets, was made out of wadmal cloth. As Shetland progressed, summer wear leaned towards imported goods from England, like calicos. A quote I read went something like this, "Shetlanders were known for their vanity and those on Orkney were known for their frugalty". This means that the Shetlanders didn't want to make known that they were poor and therefore bought cloth. (Why is it that "homespun or handmade means 'poor'? To me, that means that you are smart enough to make your own whatever, clothes, food, etc.)

Since the bulk of the clothing worn by the Shetlanders "from the 12th century onwards" was woven cloth, I am embarking on a small research project involving the making of Shetland wadmal from fleeces that are more of the longer coarser outer wooled ones. These are the ones whose fleece closely resemble that of the sheep typical of those used now in making vadmel (the Norwegian Spaelsau sheep). As I focus on the 1927 breed standard type Shetland sheep, the soft, fine, crimpy wool typical of a knitting yarn, this will mean that I need to scour my flock for the few remaining sheep that most resemble that type used in a making woven items (coarser outer, more wavy/straight fleece). This means the fleece will tend to be more like the Spaelsau breed - the coarser outer wavy/straight coated type (and the inner coat I've found in my research doesn't always mean a fine inner coat for the Spaelsau, just finer than the outer). The cloth is more like a tweed (English) or loden (Germany), neither of these being particularly fine, although they can be (maybe?). But most fine wools are and were used for knitting yarns.

So, last week I warped up the loom with some Shetland yarn from a ewe known to NOT felt (and was 100% domestic lines, btw) and used some thick 2 ply BL yarn as weft. Yeah, yeah, not Shetland, but what I had on hand and I've used it before for woven items so knew the feltablity of the wool. It's a practice piece and I'll do several more pieces this year anyway. But, just to play with, I wove it up and fulled it. Shrank widthwise but not lengthwise! No surprise, considering I used a wool for the warp that didn't felt. And this is not outside the bounds of what was found on websites describing results from classes in Norway to make wadmal/vadmel the old-fashioned way.

Anyway, the resulting cloth is thick, snuggly, very warm, and quite drapable considering the thickness. I used it as a shawl the other morning and was truly amazing at the warmth of the fabric - instant! Plain brown so nothing exciting but perfect material for a warm vest or jacket that can be embellished (or not). Oh, the coats/jackets/clothing are lined in the classes.

Wadmal cloth off the loom but not fulled yet. Done in plain weave.

Fulled wadmal cloth. Notice the drapability. I'm anxious to start on the next piece! Different lighting accounts for color differences (natural light for the fulled piece and flourescent for the unfulled).

On a different topic, Tori and I snapped a few pictures of the boys the other day. Here are some that turned out.

Apache, the poster boy. Hoping for some nice fine and crimpy moorit ewes out of this boy.

Black's fleece. So even!

Black's parted fleece. Very black, very crimpy, very fine, and very soft!!! Oh, can't wait to see the lamb fleeces out of this boy!

Wadmal, a bit of history

2010-12-28T09:01:00.000-08:00

Ok, when I should be doing something else, I recently looked up/researched the word wadmal and its Shetland connotation. Wadmal is "coarse, dense, usually undyed wool fabric" woven in some of the northern European countries, including Shetland and Orkney. It was worn by the common folk and used as blankets. So, if Shetland was trading and selling their knitted goods, what were they doing with the rest of the wool? Especially from the Middle Ages, prior to the reign of the knitted goods? Shetlanders were weaving with it and using it as currency. Oh, it was a dense fabric because it was heavily fulled. That is why there is 'waulking' songs, songs sung when fulling woven cloth.

Hmmm . . . now we are getting to the reason that I looked the word up in the first place - weaving, clothing, blankets. I have lots of handspun - tubs and tubs of it. I started spinning because I wove (and because I was given an antique spinning wheel) and wanted to use my handspun in my weaving. Well, I have woven several things with my handspun, especially lots of tri-loom weaving, but not nearly in the degree that I have wanted to (I love to crank out big projects fast - its that sense of accomplishment). And, I'll never have enough time to knit all my handspun up. Knitting is one stitch at a time, weaving is one row at a time. So, to back up what I knew, I looked up the word wadmal. According to several sources, Shetland wool was used a lot for weaving (not too many accounts of it as who wants to talk about a purely functional coarse wool blanket?) But here are a couple of sites that have a bit of info:

http://books.google.com/books?id=snsXlPgW7JYC&pg=PA461&lpg=PA461&dq=wadmal+shetland+clothing&source=bl&ots=U7N-UJx-n5&sig=YgizDGCCQ5Nf0yjnsb-LCY-SsmI&hl=en&ei=I48HTdmUC5KbnwfC9ui8Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

It is from the book: The Northern Isles: Orkney and Shetland By Alexander Fenton

Quoting Fenton: "Wadmal, dyed blue, black, or red, constituted the bulk of the daily wear of men and women." This was in Unst at the time of the their famously soft knitted stockings and gloves. Different districts wore different clothing at different times, depending on the amount of interaction with outsiders, but wadmal was still used in all or most districts for both clothing and blankets. The page that this is from describes the different uses of wadmal as well as other pages. This book even has pictures of warp and weaving.

Also, this one:
http://books.google.com/books?id=JvNr3lmmmHgC&pg=PA202&lpg=PA202&dq=shetland+wadmal&source=bl&ots=z6bTto3p1Z&sig=tlbO67UWPCnAQUBERWSBXpweqkk&hl=en&ei=Ef8ZTY-VIODsnQeQzZmpDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=shetland%20wadmal&f=false

The Biggings, Papa Stour, Shetland:the history and excavation of a royal . . .

By Barbara E. Crawford, Beverley Ballin Smith, Norske videnskaps-akademi, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

To quote from Barbara's book: " . . . the bulk of the clothing, from the 12th century onwards, seems to have been solid home-made Shetland wadmal."   Haven't read much of this book, but it proves very interesting.

Hmmm . . . ok, I have bags and bags of britch wool as well as pounds of it already spun up. Most of it is fairly soft, for britch wool.  The coarser stuff is best used for rugs (the topic of another blog). So, what I think I'll do is make a blanket or two (twill weave was usually done, though plain weave was also common). I've wanted to make one for my bed for ages. I've also wanted to make clothing/outerwear with it, that's why I've been felting and making cloth.  Jordan even just asked about making a woven jacket. It seems a girl he knows was talking about it with her mother and wondered if I could make one . . .

Weaving is the perfect solution for dual coated fleeces as those were the main types of fleece that was found in the northern islands where wadmal was made in the Middle Ages to the present. Wool with little to no crimp is best used in weaving as it does not change as severely as an elastic wool, which is best used in knitted goods. The longer outer coat gives the strength that is needed in a warp thread. Also, the dual-coated fleeces, with a soft undercoat, fulls very nicely in a woven cloth, giving it that wind and water resistant characteristic so needed in a cold wet climate. Later, when Shetlands were more differentiated in type as in the late 1700's onward, the finer crimpier fleece type was used for knitting garments which made Shetland famous.

But . . . yeah there is always one of those, I hate the waste generated by weaving. You know, those things called "thrums", especially handspun thrums. This is the unwoven warp threads that are left after you cut the fabric off the loom (off the floor loom, very little to no waste with the tri-loom). This is THE biggest drawback for me to hesitate weaving with handspun very much. Well, I found this inspiring site that may solve that (as well as what to do with those socks with holes that I've been saving): http://wovenfibers.com/tips01.html    There are LOTS of tips on this site!

Now I just need to go down to the basement, fire up the gas heater, and warp the loom! At least I get a good workout on the floor loom. The perfect exercise program.

TECHknitting site

2010-12-27T13:28:00.000-08:00

Was looking for tubular cast off directions and found this site:

http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2008/01/tubular-cast-off-its-pretty.html

She also has tubular cast on directions or you can go here for it at knitty.com: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/FEATfall05TT.html

I'm looking over different directions and would like to learn how to do these techniques as they look more professional than the standard cast on and off.

The TECH site is full of tips so will be pursuing it for awhile . . . so much wool/yarn . . . so little time . . . .

Knitting Pattern Central site

2010-12-22T13:08:00.000-08:00

Yeah, most of you knitters probably already know about this site but I thought I would put it up anyway for the newbie knitters.

http://knittingpatterncentral.com/directory.php

This site has links to thousands of free patterns. And, since I'm momentarily looking for a pattern, I decided to put the link up. I'm having a lot of fun knitting up several things lately (note to self - take pictures!). On little needles to boot (size 2's mainly). Never thought I would say knitting on little needles would be fun . . . but then again, knitting with soft Shetland wool is SUCH a pleasure . . . (and the right needles helps a lot!). Oh, a plug here. Knitpicks have the best needles that I've knitted with. Sharp long points that are perfect for Shetland wool. The wood ones are great and the ones I prefer. I've also got a couple of sizes of the metal ones and they are super slick, so watch for dropped stitches . . . but super fast as well. So, if you are looking for some great needles, check out Knitpicks.

Fair Isle Knitting tips site

2010-12-16T18:29:00.000-08:00

To all you knitters out there, here is a site I just found that is full of info:

http://fairisleknitting.blogspot.com/2007/02/tips-and-tricks-pass-it-on.html

Hebrideans and Soay site

2010-12-10T01:53:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting link for a couple of breeds that are northern short-tails and cousins of the Shetland. Take the time to read the research paper as well as the wool page. How the breeds are different from Shetlands and what the wool is used for sometimes is fascinating.

http://www.scothebs.co.uk/index.html

The blues yarn

2010-12-03T07:41:00.000-08:00

Handpainted UTS Shetland/mohair sock yarn and UTS Shetland sportweight yarn

Handpainted mitts & yarn

2010-12-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

I've been a bit busy over the holiday. I played around with more handpainting yarn, both making some more then knitting some up. It is so fun! It is kinda of like playing with felt when I get creative there, except I don't get an upper body workout! I'm keeping the pair on the left. I like the colors and the length. It is a bit long for most people, almost like a mitten. It is a perfect driving mitt for me. I met a lady from Scotland awhile back and she said that the cashier girls in Wales wore very long mitts while ringing up sales.

The one on the right is made with the yarn below, second from the right. Right now, I'm just playing with the colors, being somewhat bold in my color combinations. I'm definitely not that way normally but I figured I would play here as I'll never venture out of my "safe" zone if I only stick with colors that are my personal favorites. As it is, Tori even likes with how these colors are knitting up. Now I'll have to get serious and make several skeins that are the same colors for sale as well as play around with more color combinations. I'll also have to handpaint a skein of sock yarn and make a pair of socks with it. That yarn is so soft but at the same time very strong because of the kid mohair (I tried to break it by hand - doesn't work!).

Mitts made with handpainted Under The Son Shetland millspun yarn

Under The Son Shetland handpainted yarns

I also made 3 more knit hats and a felted scarf during the holiday. Need to order some more of my favorite needles as I seem to knit so much faster with the better ones.

NEWS FLASH: Tori made the front cover of Black Sheep Newsletter with her fleece that won Reserve Grand Champion at WSWF!!

What a blast!

2010-11-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

Ok, blame it on Kelly. Her blog today was inspiring. I knew the day would come. I've been preparing for it. Reading lots and doing batches and batches of fleece using kool-aid, cake dyes (fave), and Jaquard dyes for years. Even overdyeing grey and musket and moorit. What I hadn't done is handpaint skeins. I tried it today . . . can you say, addicting? fun? cool? neat? Well, maybe not neat!

So, between washing a fleece, washing some Suri, and dyeing some BFL britch in a pot, I tried a couple of handpainted skeins, with the leftover purple dye for a small skein. I'll wait till these are dry and try the purple/teal/bit of yellow skein in a pair of mitts and maybe a hat with the blue/green/yellow. I deliberately left a bit of white or grey peeking through these skeins. I've got a sock yarn that has that and it is cool.

Handpainted Shetland and BFL/Shetland yarn

More New Shetland Yarns!

2010-11-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

Last week, the yarn shipment from Lonesome Stone came. I quickly . . . amidst all what else was going on . . . whipped up a pair of mitts from a skein of the white sportweight. Lovely! This is the best 'Shetland' yarn for the perfect sweater! The behavior and feel of the yarn just absolutely begs to be made into an Aran or Fair Isle type of sweater for an heirloom. Bouncy and soft, yet with a bit of silkiness. Perfect for dyeing! This is the kind of yarn I have always envisioned coming from the Shetland Islands.

The BFL/Shetland is lustrous and silky with the fingering being just perfect for a lace shawl. The sport weight is just lovely for a sweater or shawl as well.

The sock weight - with the added mohair - was made specifically for socks and put up in 400 yard skeins (plenty for a pair of socks). This yarn would be stunning in handpainted. I think I'll have to start playing with dyeing . . .

Left to right: All pure Shetland, except where noted

white sportweight - 250 yds/skein

white worsted - 200 yds/skein

light grey sport - 250 yds/skein

light grey worsted- 200 yds/skein

white BFL/Shetland fingering - 250 yds/skein

white BFL/Shetland sport - 250 yds/skein

white Shetland 85%/white kid mohair 15%, sock weight - 400 yds/skein

All available for sale.

Mitts out of the white sportwieght. These fit like the proverbial glove with excellent memory and they are WARM!

New yarns and small projects

2010-11-04T09:50:00.000-07:00

Here are the yarns that came a few weeks ago that I had millspun at Tapetes. I've just been so swamped with other stuff that I haven't had time to get them up. The dark moorit is pure Shetland from top that consisted of fine neck wool and some fine fleeces (before coating days). The top was done at Z wool - who does a fabulous job in getting rid of VM in superfine fleeces. The mioget is around 78% mioget Shetland, 15% fawn alpaca, and 7% red mohair. Shetland blends so well with exotics that I just love to mix some in sometimes. It definitely makes an "over the top" yarn. Both are in a sport weight, in 200 yard skeins. There is about 10 lbs of the dark moorit and around 20 lbs of the mioget available.

Here is a pair of mitts out of the mioget millspun. Cushy soft and very warm. I'll have to make myself a pair - but I like the finger part to be very long. Most people like them this length.

Whipped up a wristie last night/this morning in fair isle (actually it's a Shetland pattern). The moorit is handspun and the mioget is from the above millspun. I've done a wristie before in fair isle but wanted to see how these two particular yarns looked as well as to get some practice in. I would like to make a sweater someday incorporating some fair isle but certainly not the whole thing! It would take too long for my slow knitting to get done.

My tension is pretty good in the stranding but I used the same size needle for the ribbing. Will obviously have to change that in "real" knitting. This is a very warm wristie (I wear them in bed to keep my hands warm at night - works great!) so will have to be careful how I knit a sweater as I can foresee a very warm sweater. This is most likely why fair isle Shetland sweaters were knit with very fine yarns and small sized needles. Good fit and not too hot.

The pattern is from a very interesting book that I picked up in a bookstore in Steamboat Springs, CO, while on vacation. It is called "The Complete Book of Traditional Knitting" by Rae Compton. It has all kinds of traditional knitting, starting off, of course, with Shetland knitting. It has Fair Isle, Aran, Norway, Greece, Turkey, and other countries as well. Lots of charts and some patterns from selected countries. Neat history too.

More Shetland wool terms

2010-10-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more terms that I have taken a stab at. I will add to most of them when I have time to reread some of the literature, which will probably take awhile. These terms will no doubt lead to some discussion, which I encourage.

I posted the first set on the page Shetland Breed Information, and added a bit more clarification to some of the terms - again.

***

Flockbook - this is a term that is used to describe native sheep of Shetland that fit the Shetland breed standard according to those who are in the Shetland Flock Book Trust (formerly the Shetland Flock Book Society). This group put together the Shetland breed standard in 1927 and today many of the crofters that are involved with it have had Shetland sheep in their families for many generations, even before the time of the standard.
Flockbook sheep, at least the rams, must pass inspection to be included within the recorded flockbook. The sheep are examined by breeder owners and the sheep must fit the breed standard criteria. Flockbook sheep have been improved upon over many generations so that they epitomize, to the Shetland crofter, what a true Shetland sheep should be according to the breed standard. The crofters emphasize good meat to bone ratio in their sheep with a fine soft fleece with improved uniformity. According to Oliver Henry's wool classing standards, the flockbook Shetland sheep wool generally falls in the superfine, fine, and good categories. The term single coat is generally used of these Shetlands.

Non-Flockbook - is a term that is used to describe native sheep of Shetland that are not registered in the flockbook. These sheep are generally crossbred somewhere in their history as Shetland is well known for crossbred sheep.

Modern - is a term that was used/coined by George Benedict several years ago to describe Shetland sheep of Shetland that fit a defined set of parameters that included a highly uniform fleece and a slightly meatier carcass than Shetlands that are termed "classic". These sheep fit the breed standard very well with fine bone and good breed character and epitomize what can be done with the Shetland breed in terms of preserving sheep specifically set out to be bred for the standard. These are also called Flockbook Shetlands.

Classic - is also a term used by George Benedict to describe Shetland sheep that also fit the breed standard but can be slightly finer boned than the modern Shetland. The wool can be slightly less uniform with a bit more tip to the wool but also still epitomizing a good Shetland sheep. These sheep are more in line with what the Shetland Sheep Society (former the Shetland Sheep Breeders Group) of the United Kingdom have a vision of. These sheep are inspected voluntarily against the breed standard, along with in-depth ram and ewe assessment sheets that expand upon the breed standard. These inspections are done by Shetland breeder judges.

It must be understood that both the modern and classic Shetland are at once very similar but slightly different in look. They would both be understood to be the same breed of sheep.

A classic Shetland would be best described as being as single coated and is according to the breed standard as clarified by Appendix A. According to the terms used here, intermediates may also be included within this definition, as long as they are not exaggerated in tip length or fleece length. True double coats, with an outer hair coat, do not fit this description.

Appendix A - a document that was put together by a committee of the SSS in 1999 in conjunction with the SFBT members, and original documentation, in order to clarify the 1927 Shetland breed standard because of the outdated language that is found within the standard. Appendix A spells out in greater detail what a breed standard Shetland is.

American - is a new term that is used to describe Shetland sheep in America that do not fall under any of the following terms: Flockbook, Modern, Classic, Single coat. The definition is, at this point, very vague and without any parameters. It is used, so far, to describe NASSA registered Shetlands with double coats.

Dailley - The term Dailley is in reference to the original importation of the 28 ewes and 4 rams flockbook inspected Shetlands in 1980 by Colonel Dailley in Ontario Canada. These sheep were in quarantine their entire lives and only progeny from them could leave the farm, after the first 5 years. All domestic Shetlands, other than the Flett flock, are descended from the Dailley flock.

Flett - The term Flett is in reference to a small flock of moorit Shetland sheep that were imported to Canada in 1948. This flock was a closed flock for many decades before it was dispersed. Flett genetics can be found today in several flocks.

UK - stands for United Kingdom, i.e. England and Scotland. The term is used to describe genetics that have been imported to the US and Canada since the 1990's from England and Scotland to improve the genetic base of the North American flock. It is also used to describe a "type" of sheep, generally what is referred to as the term classic.

Foula - are sheep on the island of Foula that consist of a Shetland type of sheep. They are a landrace breed, and very little is done in the way of selective breeding. This breed now has its own breed description, similar to but different than the Shetland Standard.