Saturday, March 17, 2007

Combing Fiber and New Herd Sire



The weather is miserable today so I played around with combing mohair. I used a dog comb and a washer as my diz. I want to be able to comb my mohair in order to preserve the lustrous sheen of it. It seems a shame to card it. I think I am doing this right, what comes out of the diz are nicely aligned fibers but I get tangles on the other side of the comb and I'm not sure what to do. I think I am probably doing something wrong and will have to bring my high tech setup to the next meeting and ask for help.

We did venture out to a friend's whose sheep lambed recently and one of those lambs will be my herd sire! I am excited as this is a slightly different direction for me in my breeding program. I was looking for a mellower ram ( we do get tired of running away from them) and of course the fleece has to be what I am looking for. The fleece from Finns has a lot less grease so it doesn't trap as much dirt and it washes much more easily. It is also super soft, and this ram will be white so I will get my wish for more white fleeces for dyeing. I can't wait to see what next year's crop of lambs will bring already. Tom named the ram, Albert, because of Albert Finny the actor...Finn ram...........get it? Here is a pic of him.