All about my fiber animals

All about my fiber animals
These are the "critters" I have raised over the years

Of the fiber bearing animals pictured here, I owned and raised all types, except for the Alpacas. I had a varying sized flock of mostly Natural Colored Crossbred Sheep for over ten years. I had as many as 32-head during one year, of which perhaps 2/3rds of that number were lambs. We sold butcher lambs on the side. The last year I actually raised sheep was in 1987, but I still have fleeces that I am working on that were shorn in the last two years of that time period.

Flock of natural colored sheep

English Angora rabbits

For those of you interested in learning more about Alpacas or Icelandic Sheep, please go to my Favorite Links Page to find Web Sites on these fiber animals.

Group of young Alpacas
flock of alpacas

I raised English Angora Rabbits for about 4 or 5 years in the Mid 1980’s, not many, but enough to realize they required a lot more work than I had time for then. Had a few Mohair Goats about the same time, but didn’t really like working with them, or their fleece, as well as I did the sheep and their fleeces. I have even spun up some of the fiber I combed out of my little Pomeranian, just for the fun of it.

Young Mohair goat

I saw my first Alpaca in 1998 and simply fell in love with their beautiful fiber. I had considered Alpaca ownership, but found they were simply too expensive (for me) to buy, so I am content to just purchase raw fleece or roving to work with for now.

I Have tried spinning the fleece from Icelandic sheep – considered a Primitive Breed – which produce colors not commonly found in modern sheep breeds. They are a double-coated breed, having a long coarse outer coat, and a softer inner coat. Modern sheep are single coated, and tend to produce fleeces in white, shades of gray from very pale to black, and the occasional dark browns. Icelandic sheep produce reddish browns (Moorit), golden, nutmeg, and cinnamon shades, as well as almost blue and lavender shades in addition to the more common fleece colors.

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