I've been doing some dyeing over the last few days - and cleaning fleece. So the house has that faint smell of wet sheep and goat... nice. I nearly got a whole fleece clean and dry ready for spinning and it started to rain. Grrrr. This fleece is from my herdwicks. They are great sheep and are the breed that was kept by Beatrix Potter. Their fleece is coarse - no good for crocheting fine underwear - however great for bags and accessories. Herdies are the most friendliest of sheep - read more about them here. They are born black and later turn grey. Because they are indigenous to the Lake District and spend their life on the fells they have short stocky legs. They also 'heft' to an area and can walk miles back to their original farm. We were for ever going to get some of ours back as they set off on the 20 mile walk back to their home farm. Eventually they 'hefted' with us which was nice.
Here in Spain it is just coming to the end of lambing time. The farmers pick a lamb and train it with a bell and the other sheep will follow this when they later go roaming in the 'campo'. This little lamb is destined to be a great leader!
I've written about dyeing wool with Easter Egg dye at Suite101 - the article can be found here.
No comments:
Post a Comment