From the Pastures: Overwhelming interest

Happy to see an improvement in the weather this past month. Farmers around us in northern Illinois have almost finished all their planting. The pasture has turned a lush green and the sheep are enjoying fresh grass.

It has been a busy month for the sheep. All were sheared at the end of April. Happily, we were able to catch the rams without issue. Now I have some really nice fleeces to work with in the mill. The two rams we have are black. Their fleeces have just a little graying due to the sun, but will card to a nice natural black color.

Two of the ewes sheared had beautiful gray fleeces. The underside of each fleece was a deep gray, a little darker than I remember last year. These will make wonderful yarn. Recently, I spun a light gray fleece to yarn and there has been a lot of positive comments on the yarn. Excited to see this darker gray spun to yarn.

Lambs have finally started to be born. To date, three ram lambs and only one ewe. One of the mothers had twin rams. One was black and the other is white. It is interesting how the color genetics work in Shetlands. This ewe has had some trouble with her milk supply. Thus, the little twins are bottle lambs for now. Hoping with the help of a vet her milk will start flowing soon.

Still have four ewes to lamb and I am hoping for some more ewes. Would also be nice to have a dark-brown color or a deep gray. I will have to wait a few days to find out. My grandkids are excited about the lambs and eager to help out.

The mill has also been busy. We have received a lot of new fiber orders and working through the ones already had. Some fiber is giving us issues in running and requiring a lot of wash steps. Unfortunately, this slows us down, but we want to be sure the roving or yarn turns out good.

I participated in another online sale and the interest in the Shetland wool was a little overwhelming. I had four different colors plus some I dyed with indigo. Several people ordered each color. I am thrilled that they want to try working with Shetland fiber. It makes great yarn and I love to get more people familiar with it.

Looking forward to May and more nice weather. Happy spring!