5/22/2017
Last weekend my mom came up to see me with the promise of fleece. We were heading to the McHenry county spring fiber fling. Basically it’s sheep shearing season so there were vendors and demonstrations at the fairgrounds. Let me just say, I have never been to a fiber fair, I had never bought a fleece before and I had never been to McHenry county either. So it was a weekend of firsts. Mom does not spin but she appreciates and usually gets about half of anything I spin so she was game for getting some fiber for me to spin for her.
So Saturday morning we wake up early and get coffee at my favorite coffee shop. One banana walnut muffin and mocha later I’m ready for a nice drive. The weather is awful but we are on a mission: Get Sarah her first fleece. We arrive and run as fast as possible from the car to the first barn. We see lots of felt, yarn and finished fiber vendors but no fleeces. I’m starting to worry so on to the next barn. Aha! Found them! Sheep! Looking at me indifferently. The demonstrators start the shearing, explaining the process as they go.
All of my friends have asked, do they sedate the sheep or tie them up? And I’m pretty sure the answer is often no. Although there are options for sedation, it’s often not used. I did a little googling so you don’t have to. Apparently “tipping” a sheep provides a natural sort of sedation, this article explains more of the science-y stuff. The sheep don’t mind and are usually pretty happy to be rid of the hot fleece.
There were a couple fleeces in that barn but most of the fiber was alpaca. Really expensive alpaca. In last barn I spot clear garbage bags and I know we’ve hit paydirt not a lot but enough to accomplish my mission. The first farm’s table that we came to had beautiful Merino fleeces. They were $16/lb which was a little more than I wanted to spend. The lady at this table also had llama and a little bit of angora. I had my heart set on a ramboulliet fleece, so off we went. We passed a few more farms’ displays, and finally at the very end we found: 6 ramboulliet/bfl (blue-faced leicester) crossed fleeces. I picked a 6 lb white 2nd year ¾ ramboulliet, ¼ bfl fleece that was very well skirted and had great crimp. I dragged my purchase over to a fiber mill booth and I should be seeing it in the next month.
Mission accomplished and now for the fun. Kettle corn, funny signs, a little yarn. Mom and I had a ball and made it home with the promise of beautiful fiber to come.