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Post by zed on Mar 25, 2016 13:31:19 GMT
Hej! :-) Glad to see that you have introduced yourself on this forum tvatrastickan! And nice to see the photos of your sheep! Tvatrastickan and I actually met recently, when I bought some gorgeous fleece from her sheep. We also get our sheep sheared by the same sheep shearer, so that explains why you recognized the equipment Viltmaaraan, although shearing stools are quite commonly used in Sweden. It does look like terribly hard work, I still think your shearer could do with a British assistant, especially one with excellent tea making skills
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Post by viltmaaraan on Mar 25, 2016 13:50:57 GMT
I want you both to leave them a whole year and get some really long locks. If we left them unsheared for a year I think the locks would be so felted and full of hay etc. that they would be quite useless for anything. ;-) Shearing twice a year is recommended in Sweden for sheep health reasons. It probably also has to do with our climate and the sheep spending a lot of the winter in barns with straw and hay. But believe me, the fleece I bought from tvatrastickan still had a very nice length. These are long haired sheep, even if you shear them 2 or 3 times per year. :-) I suggest that sheep, lama's and alpaca's are required to be vacuumed before shearing. Isn't that possible?
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Post by Shepherdess on Mar 25, 2016 18:42:16 GMT
Llama and Alpaca are often blown out. People use a leaf blower. sometimes they have a blower and or a tumbler for the fleece to get some of the vegetable matter out.
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Post by MTRuth on Mar 25, 2016 19:11:43 GMT
Ann - that sounds like you're tumbling the llamas and alpacas
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Post by viltmaaraan on Mar 25, 2016 19:46:49 GMT
Ann - that sounds like you're tumbling the llamas and alpacas Sounds like : Clothes dryer.. all the American is not the same , I suppose? I really didn't know that about the blower. Good idea.
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Post by Shepherdess on Mar 25, 2016 23:01:15 GMT
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Post by MTRuth on Mar 26, 2016 1:35:24 GMT
I knew what you meant Ann, it just sounded funny.
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Post by jwugg on Mar 26, 2016 5:56:04 GMT
Welcome. What very beautiful sheep & what very very beautiful locks.
There is a growing demand for these high quality, wonderful, natural fleeces, for felters & people preferring natural & ecological things. perhaps you could look at opening a little online shop, maybe together with Zara!
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Post by viltmaaraan on Mar 26, 2016 7:52:30 GMT
Hahaha... That is what it is..... I didn't know Ann, thanks, learn a lot here.(again). It will certainly help.
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Post by zara on Apr 2, 2016 0:18:05 GMT
Aha! I think I need to build a tumbler! Although it may work better for fluffy and lanolin-free alpaca than sheep wool.
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Post by luvswool and dyestuff on Apr 2, 2016 1:14:00 GMT
Welcome to the Forum! So good to have another Swede with us. And thanks for sharing the photos of your beautiful sheep.
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Post by zed on Apr 2, 2016 10:26:56 GMT
Zara, it'd never rust, but it might get clogged up pretty quickly!
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Post by Shepherdess on Apr 2, 2016 15:01:28 GMT
They used to do wool fleece's but the ones I have seen pictures of were bigger but they where doing more than one fleece at a time. It was an old black and white pic somewhere. At the pioneer village near us they have a picker for before the fleeces are washed and another for after they are dry.
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