WOOL - we love it! Nothing warms like wool or wears like wool. Even in the summer, wool breathes and keeps you cooler than a synthetic material. Wool is a natural fiber and a renewable resource.

       Wool is a sheep's "overcoat". Different breeds of sheep grow varying types of wool. Some is very long in length (called the "staple" length) and these sheep will have a fleece that is very nice for handspinning. Our East Frieslands have wool like this. Other breeds, such as our Est a Laine Merinos, have wool which is very fine and makes a tight fleece on the animal. The coarser the wool, the coarser the fabric. For instance, carpets are made of the very coarsest wool, while fine woolen sweaters are made from the very finest fleeces, such as Merino. When people refer to the "grade" of wool, the lower numbers reflect coarser wool and the higher numbers mean the wool is very fine. For example, wool from Frieslands will range in the 54's, while the Est a Laines will be in the high 70's to 80's. A simple way of looking at raw wool is to look at the distance between the crimps in the fiber. If the squiggles are really close together, the wool is "fine", if they are farther apart, the wool is coarser.

White East Friesland at 6 mo

       As clothes make the man, so does the fleece make the ram. Once the sheep's overcoat comes off, they need to re-recognize one another. It's really interesting to see them re-establish their flock status. It's important to have the fleece off the ewes as they get closer to lambing, in order to see how close they are to delivering their lambs. Just like a human's hair, once it's cut, the sheep immediately begin to regrow their wool, so by the time winter comes again, they are fully clothed and ready to face the elements.

llama fiber

To learn more about wool a good website to visit is Yocom-McColl Wool Testing Labs. We also shear our llamas. Some llamas regrow their fiber faster than others, and can be shorn every year, while others take longer to grow out and might be shorn every 2 years. We were pretty tickled to send a llama fleece from our "Babs" to England with a devoted hand-spinner. Babs will have another fleece for us in the Spring, she's quite the girl! We have several different "types" of fiber on our llamas and the colors range from pure white to black. There are many shades of brown and also silver to charcoal greys. With these lovely colors, who needs dyes? Many of my friends and I find spinning a very relaxing activity. All of the tension within me goes into the twist of the yarn.

       Spinning is an art that has been part of human-kinds' existance forever. This is nothing new. Hand spinning is fun!

        In our Wool Room we have raw fleeces from our sheep and llamas. We're particularly fond of the black East Friesland yarn, which my sister has been knitting with for the last couple years. She made my favorite sweater and it's very light and extremely warm. I'm also quite attached to the Est a Laine Merino fine wool fleeces. One of my friends who has worked with this wool said it's so soft that you could make a lady's most intimate undergarment from it. Perhaps we should talk to Playtex?

        The most economical way to buy our wool is as a raw fleece... this is nice if you're a spinner, but not everyone is. So we're able to provide our wool in commercially spun yarn form as well, ready to knit. We're dabbling with colors and llama/sheep fiber blends.

        Thanks so much for visiting our Wool Room. We hope that you'll enjoy your adventures with this wonderful fiber as much as we do! If you're interested in purchasing fleeces and/or yarn, please contact us for pricing and availability.

Groveland Farm Mare & Rusty Jarvis 2862 South Peterson Road Poplar, WI     54864 Email grovelandfarm@supwi.com www.all-animals.com/groveland/wool.html