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Wool Items

We've gotten back some of the 2009 yarn.

2009 yarns from left to right: Midnight 4 oz, Darky 2 oz, Tweed made from Spot and white lamb 2 oz, Amber 2 oz & natural white 2 oz. All are Worsted Weight-about 800-900 yards per lb.

On January 9th, Lynn Snell of Spinderella's Creations was gracious enough to teach me 3 methods of dying our natural while wool. I hope you will like the results. We made 5 skeins of overdyed blue/teal wool. We made about 16 skeins of space dyed (yellow to purple). And we made 8-10 skeins of pot dyed pink and purple yarns.

From left to right these 2008 yarns are from: Darky, Vicki, Spot, Amber/Jenna, white ewe, Shooter, white ewe,
(or at least we think they are as the identifying tags were lost during processing).

We were excited to see the beautiful yarn that was made from our 7 or our sheep's fleeces. This year’s yarn (2008) is a tiny bit thicker than last year, making it worsted weight yarn. We currently have a couple of shades of brown and grey, and quite a bit of natural (white). All of the colors we have are natural (its just the way the ewe grew it). The wool has also been naturally processed using only dish soap to remove the lanolin and dirt. Lynn and Jim Snell of Spinderella’s Creations in SLC did a great job for us. We are selling all of these colors of yarn for $4.50 per ounce.

We have a number of raw fleeces still available. These are all naturally white fleeces, some are from Columbia ewes, and several are from yearling Columbia x Suffock ewes. We would be happy to bring samples from these fleeces to one of the farmer's market we attend, or we could mail samples if necessary.

2007 was our first year of offering our sheep's wool directly to our customers. This photo shows some of those skeins.

We plan on having raw wool available for sale after we shear our ewes in late March/early April 2009. We will also be having more roving and yarn made after the ewes are shorn. We will utilize all of the colored fleeces and some of our white fleeces for this purpose. We hope to have a new batch of naturally colored yarn as early as October 2009!

Our "moms" spend about 24 hrs in a "jug" with their new lambs to help ensure they are well bonded and the lambs are nursing before being turned out into a larger pen with other new families. After 2 to 7 days they are turned out with the main flock.

The majority of our ewes are naturally white Columbia's. Columbia sheep are a medium-wool breed developed in the United States using Lincoln and Rambouillet sheep crosses. The breed was developed primarily for the Western ranges but is also used successfully in farm flocks. Columbias are white-faced, hornless, and relatively large in size and are prolific breeders. The average fleece weight of the ewes ranges from 10 to 16 pounds (4.5 - 7.3 kg) with a yield of 45 to 55%. The staple length of the wool ranges from 3.5 to 5 inches (9-13 cm). The wool is classified as medium wool with a numeric count of 50's -60's. The wool varies from 31.0 to 24.0 microns. For more information look below for information about the development and characteristics of the Columbia.

We do have a few naturally occuring colored sheep as well. These are our children's sheep and they have named them "Shooter", "Darky" and "Spot". Spot is Darky's daughter. We have been thrilled with the yarn that we have gotten from these ladies fleeces.

We also have a couple of ewes of unknown breed which we "acquired" from a friend. Jenna is Amber's daughter. They were the source of the beautiful tan yarn we sold in the summer of 2007. We look forward to seeing the beautiful yarns they will make this spring.

Several years ago we entered some of our fleeces in the local county fair and our state fair. We were excited to receive blue ribbons at both fairs in the mid-grade wool category.

Columbia History

Columbia sheep were developed by the United States Department of Agriculture as a true breeding type to replace cross breeding on the range.
In 1912, rams of the long wool breeds were crossed with high quality Rambouillet ewes to produce large ewes yielding more pounds of wool and more pounds of lamb. The first cross Lincoln-Rambouillet line was the most promising of all crosses. The Bureau of Animal Industry maintained this line and by intensive breeding and selection produced a true breeding strain with characteristics of the superior crossbred line. The original cross was made at Laramie, Wyoming, and the Foundation of the Government Columbia flock was moved to the Sheep Experiment Station at Dubois, Idaho, in 1918.

The outstanding record made by Columbia's on the western ranges has created an interest among sheep people of other areas. While they were originally developed for range conditions, they have proved admirably adaptable to the lush grasses and farm flock management of the middle west, east, north and south.

The mature Columbia rams weigh between 225 and 300 pounds (100-135 kg) and the females weigh 150 to 225 pounds (68 - 102 kg). The average fleece weight of the ewes ranges from 10 to 16 pounds (4.5 - 7.3 kg) with a yield of 45 to 55%. The staple length of the wool ranges from 3.5 to 5 inches (9-13 cm). The wool is classified as medium wool with a numeric count of 50's - 60's. The wool varies from 31.0 to 24.0 microns.