Wheely Wooly Farm: February 2017

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.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

A Little Bit of Honey

This is my dear Honey. Yes, she is a dear! Today I had a most pleasant surprise email from a customer. It was very moving for me, for this wonderful customer, Liz, had purchased some Wheely Wooly Farm yarn on two separate occasions and with her amazing talent, made a very special shawl, then wrote to tell us about it, and show us lovely pictures! It made my day! The shawl is absolutely gorgeous!

Beautiful Honey

Purebred Shetland Ewe

Honey is as sweet as honey, and in fact was given that name by my DH, who adored her. Honey loves people, and will come to you asking for chin scratches and sweet nothings any time you might be available! She's the color of honey on the tips of her wool, with this lovely creaminess to light brown mid-lock. Her fiber is a dream to spin and she gave us a lamb, whom we named Hap. Haps are the historic names of everyday working shawls in the Shetland Islands, shawls you really live with, that you wear all day, that have to survive all that Shetland women did in a typical day 100 years ago.

Hap (left) and Honey, who'd been sheared.

Notice her creamy white wool when sheared?

Wheely Wooly Farm sheep often change color when sheared...total fun!

A shawl I made with Honey's yarn, with more mistakes than I care to admit.

Tip of the day...don't knit lace a) with no markers cause you can't wait til you get home, b) children around that want you to watch a new thing they're doing and c) on a day you feel so invincible that you think a life line is completely unnecessary!! lol

Baby Misty! Taken when she was a wee lamb.

Today, Misty towers over nearly everyone else.

And watch out you don't trip over her...she's VERY friendly!

Misty is not a Shetland, but rather a crossbred of guessable breeding (purchased off farm). In fact, I have her latest fleece on the wheel now, being spun. We'll be bringing more of Pink Poodle, Glacier, and other popular colors to market soon! I also just spun through Violet and Minty (and Penny! Watch for lovely Penny's yarn, new!). Minty is Scrambler's mother. There are a few skeins of Scrambler left to purchase as well.

Honey's natural colored fleece. Makes a spinner's hands just want to get spinning!

Liz's shawl has Honey's yarn for the main part, then trimmed with Misty's lovely Pink Poodle yarn. The two colors are gorgeous together, for Shetland sheep natural colors have an unusual quality about them in that they pair exceptionally well with dyed colors. Liz's talent really shines in the making of this shawl in how she paired the colors, and I hope she wears it at the market some day for all to see! I'm guessing it will be a show stopper and she'll get a lot of compliments!

You can see more of Liz's work, her review of Wheely Wooly Farm yarn, and read more of her ambitions by clicking on the link at the right side of our blog. Look for her Swatch Stories to read more of small farm yarn and the local movement!

Thank you Liz, and to all of our customers who've brought your projects back for us to see! We appreciate you all and cannot wait for summer and the fun market brings in sharing projects and ideas!

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Don't forget Valentine's Day!

Sweetie

Yep! It's coming in less than a week! Here on the farm, we feel a little of Valentine's Day everyday. Sheep are really very sweet individuals, but this particular sheep is the sweetest living being I've ever met in my life. Her name is Sweetie and on May 4th of this year, she'll be 10 years old already!! We positively adore this girl! She's a Shetland ewe who's given us many beautiful babies, such as Lil' Pumpkin, Twilight, Pansy, and that beautiful ram, Starlight. Last spring, she gave us Nasturtium, the little ewe with socks. Twilight was especially memorable in that he went to school with us to meet the kids and show them what woolly sheep are like. Starlight's wool sold too fast, and there wasn't enough to go around! It is amazing how time flies, so we decided not to breed Sweetie this year, even though she is in top health and still has all her teeth. (Funny, the things shepherds get excited about! lol)

So are you ready for Valentine's Day? This year, how 'bout remembering some of the Valentine's of years past. What special memories come to mind? When those things happened then, could you have imagined, looking back from today, how much they came to mean? The day we bought Sweetie was very memorable, but who could have ever known what she would grow to mean to us today? We are so thankful to have her and care for her! She has changed our lives in countless ways, and her yarns have brought connections to humans all over the world. Do you have any memories that have grown in importance through the years to something so much more today than when they were created?

Here's to a happy Valentine's Day to you all...and happy reminiscing!

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What is Shetland Fiber?

Wheely Wooly Farm strives to breed for wool as described on the historic 1927 Breed Standard, which was created and written in the Shetland Islands. Our breeding stock exhibits fleece just as the Standard demands of us: extra fine, soft texture, longish, wavy, and well closed. Our fleeces will have short, crimpy neck wool, longish and wavy midside wool, with little or no crimp in the even longer britch wool. This historic fleece type gives you a wide range of textile capabilities, of which is well documented, photographed, and archived in the Shetland Island Museum (see link below).

Shetland fiber does not carry much "grease", making it easy to wash. Because of it's soft texture and fineness, it does not felt easily, making it great for socks! Stockings (socks, sometimes covering up over the knee) in fact, were one of the primary famed textiles produced. Stockings were just one of many types of textiles that were subjected to inspections, receiving a stamp of approval before they could be sold. Shetland fleeces are desired by hand spinners for long, easy to spin, tiny fibers. The longish, wavy midside wool easily drafts out of your hand in a way you won't forget!

We do not breed for the modern milling goals which claim wavy means crimpy, or that longish means short, as written by an organization outside of the Shetland Islands in modern times. Read why in our June 30, 2011 blog entry.

We also do not micron test our fleeces. Micron testing has been a useful tool in most other sheep breeds, but most other breeds produce wool for carpet, industrial flame-proof clean up cloths, lining for firefighter gear, or insulation for highly flammable vehicles such as trains and airplanes. We feel mircon testing takes the emphasis off the handle of the fleece, which goes against making good selections for breeding in one of the world's premier hand spinning/hand knitting/garment breeds.

We are confident our careful breeding program, adherance to the historic 1927 Breed Standard guidelines, and our textile skills will provide you with the utmost quality of fine fleeces and yarns, so you can enjoy a truly Shetland experience!

"...your wool has made a great diaper cover for our 3 month old son. It's nice to know he is wearing a truly natural product! Big smile and Thank you!" Michelle

"I made mittens with Wheely Wooly Yarn, then put them in a silent auction. They sold for $250! Thanks for making such beautiful yarn!" Lisa

Angela wrote us:

"I could not stop myself enjoying your yarn and already finished my first project which will go to my friend...thank you"!

Bill stopped at our booth and said:

"My wife made the hat I wanted from your natural colors and I love it! Makes winter seem not so bad!

Our Farm

Our family farm is located on a hill in the lush prairie lands of east, central Wisconsin, where we enjoy four distinct seasons and a seemingly endless supply of summer grasses, except in drought! We are surrounded by old oak forests, bountiful spring woodland flowers, quiet roads, and clean quiet lakes with a popular river nearby for fishing. We started a flock of sheep several years ago, deciding to breed up our own lambs for flock growth. Heritage hens grace our chicken coop, providing us with fresh eggs and garden companionship. A raspberry patch planted near the coop gives us plentiful berries for the winter. The hens are superb weeders under the canes, which we much appreciate. Two horses graze down the extra grass ahead of the sheep, one being a very cute black and white pony. We also keep two dairy does for fresh milk and yogurt. Behind our historic 1800's white farmhouse we've planted a vegetable garden. Each year, we can't imagine winter without our tomatoes, peas, peppers, potatoes, onions, soup beans, pumpkins, zucchini, sunflowers, and cucumbers. Two geese have now been employed as weeders there, Pomander the Gander and Hyssop the Goose. A separate garden does it's best to contain exuberant mounds of herbs. Lavender also grows there. To the west are two standard apple trees, to the north a treasured pear tree and an even more treasured peach tree to the south! The barns are patrolled by two feline guards, who sleuth around corners and stake out holes. We treasure them! Each morning, we rise to the crows of our robust roosters. We'll never tire of that! Our work days are long here, with challenges popping up all the time, but it can all be solved in a hurry with a tall cold glass of water in the shade of our old-fashioned front porch!

How we manage our flock

Our flock of purebred Shetland sheep, one dairy ewe, and one wether who thinks he's a pet dog do not leave our farm except for educational purposes with youth groups in non-agricultural settings. Most of the flock has been carefully selected from small, private, non-traveling flocks over a period of years. We no longer take sheep to shows due to disease pressure, nor do we allow in transit sheep, loan out our animal transport vehicles, haul livestock, or allow animals to hold over at our farm. As a result, our flock has become soundly biosecure, with dramatically less exposure and risk for disease. All incoming additions are extensively quarantined and checked for disease. This assures our future lamb buyers of sound, healthy stock. I shear nearly all of our flock myself (another component to biosecurity) with hand blades when the rise is right (usually late May to early June), unless I'm excited for a particular fleece (which means re-shearing mid-summer). Neck wool is typically rooed, continuing throughout the fleece as the sheep is ready. Each sheep is named, halter trained, and tamed. Our rams are very personable, friendly, verbally interactive, respectful, and not afraid. We do not believe a terrified ram is healthy on any farm!! We never touch them on the top of their horns/heads, nor do we EVER use their horns as handlebars unless it's an absolute dire emergency. We keep extensive wool and health records. Fleeces on hoof are checked frequently so that we may keep a watchful eye on the health of our sheep, and what we're producing. The sheep are rotationally grazed April through October, then penned for winter. Each night, they are run into our large pole building for predator security. They also stay penned in the shed during wicked winter storms, or if the pastures are too wet in spring, never in mud. It's all a lot of work, but it's done so that we can assure our customers with the utmost biosecurity and quality in your purchases!

International Show Your Shawl Day
Show the world how beautiful your shawls
are by wearing them for the day! Have you knit

a beautiful shawl, but it's in storage somewhere

'cause you're afraid to wear it?

Has someone gifted a special shawl to you

for a special reason, but you're afraid to wear

it? Well girls! It's time to take them out, show

them off, talk about them, share them,

and put them to use!

Mark your calendars for the next date!

Coming October 14, 2017!!

We changed the date from September to October to coincide with our sale on beautiful Wheely Wooly Farm Wraps! We'll need them, for it'll be cold!