Thursday, September 13, 2007

Brimble, My Very First Sheep



Having introduced you already to my goats, it is fitting to start off my sheep flock introductions with one of the first sheep to come to Windyridge. Her name is Brimble and I think we called her that because she came with Bramble, who was a black sheep and is now recently deceased. Brimble was one year old when we got her and she had been a bottle fed lamb and was very tame and friendly.



She is a Corriedale, and has what is known as a medium fleece. Medium refers to the size of the fibers and this size is measured with a micrometer in microns. I never had the need to get that involved but you can tell a fine fleece from a medium fleece by look and feel. She has a fantastic fleece which always did very well at the county fair and the state fair. Corriedale fleeces are excellent for novice and advanced spinners alike. This fleece takes up natural and chemical dyes readily. Brimble, herself, has been shown in 4H and open classes at the county level, always doing well in both. She is now 12 years old and we hope she sticks around a good awhile longer. Pictured below is a hat I knit entirely from her wool. The brown color was derived from a bucket of local walnuts. This was the result of my first adventure with natural dyeing and preparing walnuts. if you want to know more about preparing dyeing with walnuts just drop me a line or comment and I will blog about it.






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