Thursday, August 11, 2011

Wonderful Wisconsin Wool!

While on a family trip to Wisconsin, we went to the County Fair to see our niece, Olyvia's blue ribbon winning 4H cow, Loosy Moosy.


After seeing her beautiful dairy cow, we headed toward the sheep. I met a lovely sheep shearer named Dan, who offered to give me 200 POUNDS of wool. He needed the space, and wanted it to go a happy home. WHAT!!!???
We called him the next day and took a quick field trip to his farm.


This was the only actual sheep he had onsite. She was too old to breed, and he saved her life by giving her a retirement plan. We got a giant bag of her wool in addition to a few bags from sheep of different breeds.

While we were taking pics, my amazing Mother-in-law spun up some of the wool in the car.


Here's some of the Leicester wool straight out of the bag.

Dan told us, we could gently unravel the wool and it would stay together in one piece. Then, we could easily remove the dirtier pieces. he was totally right!


Here's some wool from a Jacob sheep. I am so excited about these colors. 


After we picked out the really dirty chunks, we used my in-laws mini vacuum to suck out the air so the bags would fit on the plane. 


Such a fun adventure! I'm so glad we were able to thank the little Dorset for her wool. She gave a very loud "You're Welcome"





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