Sheep Thrills

It's not that I need any more fleece in my fiber stash. (I'm a spinner - yarn variety, just to clarify). But today, at my Spindrifters group, I came across the most lovely fleeces from a local shepherd. Lorelei brought four fleeces from her sheep. "Poppy" is a Border Leicester/Romney cross, with lustrous white ringlets which proved to be irresistable. Poppy, Lorelei tells me, is the smartest of her sheep, responsive & friendly, not that it makes any difference to the quality of the fiber, but it's nice to know. The other fleece comes from a gray Jacob whose name escapes me at the moment. I'm thinking "Ellie" or "Lizzie", neither of which I think is quite right. In any case, the gray fleece is soft & luscious, and since I'm a true sucker for natural gray fleeces I bought it. Shortly thereafter, a couple of other Spindrifters decided they'd love to have a bit of it, too, so (as you already know, I'm a sucker for natural gray fleece & already have at least one in my stash) I parted with half of it, which Joy and Joanne shared. "Ellie", "Lizzie" or whatever her name is. . . which will come to me later. . . likes to jump, from what Lorelei says. She's a slender sheep, not as round of body as was Poppy, but an active & busy girl. Lorelei takes very good care of her sheep, and the fleeces are truly pristine, lacking the usual bits of chaff & nasty pieces that nearly always need to be removed before washing. At the moment, part of Poppy is in the washing machine. No skirting necessary. Thank you, Lorelei! Oh, and before I forget, Lorelei generously donated a truly gorgeous fleece to Spindrifters for our upcoming Sheep-to-Shawl demonstration at the Highland Games in Mount Vernon, WA, July 9-10, 2005.