Thursday, September 30, 2010

I need a few of these!

The other day somewhere between washing the pigs, hopping into the pen to poop scoop and greasing them up before the show (of course I'm serious! Just when I thought I'd seen it all after what some might call 'pimping the cows' I find out what extent it can be done to the pigs! Oi!) I spotted a market lamb in a pen that caught my eye. I have a soft spot for lambs as it was a little white lamb with a blue halter in a pen at a fair that was the reason I joined 4-H as a child. I still don't have one, yet. Anyway, the reason this particular lamb caught my eye was because he was slickshorn and he looked like a pearl. I kid you not his fleece other than being white as snow was as lustrous as a pearl and I made it a point to keep an eye on that pen to pounce (I mean politely ask "WHAT IS THAT LAMB??????") on the owner and inquire about the breed. Finally I was able to get some answers from a super polite and very knowledgeable 4-Her. She told me that he was a Cotswold. (According to the ALBC it's a threatened breed, which just intrigued me more.)
We chatted for a bit, I asked her about the breed and the fiber, she took me over to the pens where the rest of her sheep were and I was smitten, one of her ram's fleece was unlike anything I'd ever seen and it too was as white as snow and pearl like. In a word, exquisite. We chatted some more, [read I probed her with questions and she answered politely] and I learned quite a bit about this wonderful breed. She offered me a sample of fiber to try spinning to see if I liked it, and I cannot wait to try it. Once I'm done with the truckload of tomatoes, pears and apples I'll try for sure! I hope to someday in the near future be introducing you to a new cast member or two, because if the fiber spins as beautifully as it look on the sheep...... I'll NEED to have some!

3 comments:

  1. LOVE the look of that wool! I bet it's super soft and will spin out beautifully!!

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  2. I hope so! I know you're partial to your finn's, but I really like this.

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  3. I'll never be getting a 4-wheeler!

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So what's the view from your world about that? I'd enjoy hearing it.