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Post by Shepherdess on Mar 17, 2014 17:25:04 GMT
You are closer to them than me. are your sheep double coated like Icelandics and Shetlands? They look small. Are they traditionally for fiber meat or milk? Can you tell I have sheep? we have a mixed flock of meat sheep.
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Post by zara on Mar 17, 2014 22:47:09 GMT
Ann - nice to be able to share information about both sheep and felting! :-)
These traditional breeds have been for both meat and wool. Compared to the meat breeds they are smaller, more slender built, with slower growing lambs. Gotland is the most common breed in Sweden. They have a grey, curly fleece and black heads and legs. Rya have a fleece with long, wavy and strong fibers (should be at least 15 cm when the lambs are 120 days old). There is a white and a black type. Finull means "fine wool" in Swedish. They have the finest and softest fleece of the Swedish breeds and are apparently good milk producers too. They are white, black or brown. Åsen are a small, hardy breed (able to survive on poor quality food in the forest). Their fleece is quite variable and they come in all combinations of colours.
I am not sure what "double coated" means? But if you mean the fleece being of two types of fiber (what we call "under wool" and "cover wool"), then this more more pronounced in Rya and Åsen, and less so in Finull and Gotland.
I bought my 3 ewes (one white, one grey and one black) from a friend that is interested in felting and spinning wool. She has focused her breeding on fleece quality, decent meat production and mother instincts in the ewes. The ram I bought is more of a gamble - I have not tried felting his wool yet. But he is a really sweet and social creature (called Teddy). :-)
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Post by Pandagirl on Mar 17, 2014 23:43:14 GMT
Thanks for sharing that info Zara. I am learning so much here about sheep. I had no idea how many breeds there were and what they are used for and about the fleece.
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Post by luvswool and dyestuff on Mar 18, 2014 1:09:04 GMT
Zara, It is so interesting to me to learn about the various breeds of sheep in Sweden. When I toured Scotland a few years ago, I saw so many varieties of sheep, from Ronaldsay to Hebridean sheep, and they all look so different! We saw Finn Wool for sale in the Orkney Islands! It would be fun to learn the history of the sheep breeds in Europe and also how they made their way to the Americas.
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Post by zed on Mar 18, 2014 8:29:10 GMT
I love Gotland I have some Finn wool tops too, very soft and a a nice warm brown colour.
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Post by Shepherdess on Mar 18, 2014 16:46:10 GMT
Think you for the information Yes double coated means under wool and outer wool. do they shed it once of year? the Shetlands and the Icelandic's shed once a year and you can pull it off them without cutting. It sounds like you will have the tight wool for many different projects.
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Post by zara on Mar 18, 2014 21:30:50 GMT
Think you for the information Yes double coated means under wool and outer wool. do they shed it once of year? the Shetlands and the Icelandic's shed once a year and you can pull it off them without cutting. It sounds like you will have the tight wool for many different projects. No, they don't shed their wool. The wool is cut twice a year (spring and autumn). I am right now trying to figure out if I should cut them early (at least 4 weeks before lambing, i.e. early april) or late (after lambing in May). It all depends on how early/late spring will be this year... If it is cold the lanolin is stiff, making the cutting more difficult and less pleasant for the sheep. But most people cut the wool before lambing (you don't want wool in the way if you run into complications). When do you cut your sheep? I'll take some photos of my sheep and stash of wool and post here (when I get a chance). That will probably provide a better description of the different wool types in these breeds. :-)
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Post by Shepherdess on Mar 19, 2014 1:09:36 GMT
we shear in summer. when we have lambs we crutch the sheep that need it. that means we trim around the udder to make sure the lambs have good access. They do not grow that much wool in a year to make it hard at lambing time.
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Post by zara on Mar 19, 2014 21:16:41 GMT
Another reason for shearing our sheep twice a year is wool quality. The wool produced during summer (when the sheep have spent time on green pastures) is of much better quality than the winter wool (when they have spent a lot of time in the barn). So we shear them in spring to get rid of the messy winter wool that is often full of hay and straw, and then again in the autumn before they are taken in from the pastures. My ram looks like he consists of 50% straw/hay by now. :-) It will be really interesting to see what he looks like after shearing and after a summer in the pasture.
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Post by zara on Mar 23, 2014 16:59:49 GMT
Here are photos of some the locks/wool I have to "play around with", from my own sheep and from a friends sheep (from whom I bought my sheep). Swedish cross-breeds, including Gotland, Rya and Finull. by -TuulikkiR-
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Post by zara on Mar 23, 2014 17:06:25 GMT
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Post by Pandagirl on Mar 23, 2014 17:31:35 GMT
Beautiful! I can wait to see what you do with all those yummy locks! Have fun!
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Post by MTRuth on Mar 23, 2014 21:29:29 GMT
What gorgeous colors!
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Post by felicity on Mar 23, 2014 22:02:02 GMT
How beautiful! Colours are fantastic!
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Post by Shepherdess on Mar 23, 2014 22:42:13 GMT
beautiful. I am sure you could sell locks like that without any problem. even without cleaning them. I don't know what shipping to North America would be like but I bet you could sell them in Europe. there is etsy and there are facebook pages for selling wool too.
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