Shetland Sheep: Rich in History, Rich in Textiles

Shetland Sheep: Rich in History, Rich in Textiles! Our farm mission is to enjoy and promote the wonderful diversity of the Shetland breed by fully utilizing to the best of our ability all they have to offer historically. We believe the best preservation and management of this breed includes it's full spectrum of history. We encourage old and new shepherds alike to join in the fun by engaging in fiber arts, especially spinning and knitting, as this breed is so intimately linked with those aspects of the arts.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

B-U-S-Y!

How do you spell spring? BUSY! There is always so much to do in spring, so I'm feeling blissful that the weather has been so wonderful! The animals are not stressed this year, although some of them don't always get to go out due to mud. For the most part, all of our animals have been out much, much earlier than usual, and I'm getting real used to that!

Our lambing starts this month. The babies we have on the ground are all doing fabulous, and the 4-H projects are a blast. The grass is growing on our pastures, and must be grazed lightly already, or it will get out of control in this warm weather. Our pastures are from another time...a time when protein was viewed differently. We are lucky to have the pastures that we have. With the right management, we should be able to keep them going well. I know if our pastures were more modern, it would be way too early to start grazing. Old-fashioned pastures go great with heritage Shetland sheep!

Speaking of sheep, I've been very busy with the wool of late. I've dyed a bunch, and am spinning and working with the wool everyday. We've also had some road trips and fun stuff in between. I've worked with a lot of medium grade wool lately, but am done with that now. As nice as that wool is, how nice it is to get back to my soft Shetlands!!

The rams seem to have settled down from their spring sillies again. Whew! That's all I can say! Wooly Bear was literally floating above the ground despite his impressive horns! It's just not right for such a handsome fellow to be floating with such silliness! I'm glad he's happy out there. He was so silly, running and playing with the other boys. They weren't hitting on each other, just running and boinging around!

We are very excited about the upcoming sales season! We have new things coming that customers have been asking for, so stay tuned. Last year was a great year for us as we got to meet so many new knitters and see how their projects turned out! So many new people discovered our yarns and other products! More will be coming on that as we get closer to sales season.

Hope everyone is getting a chance to enjoy this awesome weather!

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