Thursday 29 May 2014

Border Leicester Fleeces continued.

A few weeks ago you may recall that I had eventually managed to track down a lady - Ellie Stokeld - who was willing to sell me a fleece or two. Recently I made the trip up to North Yorkshire to visit Ellie, meet her sheep and collect some fleece.

 
As you can see they are absolutely gorgeous sheep! I love those long ears!
 
 
This is one of Ellie's Champion Rams - I think his name was Benny.
 
 
Soon it was time to meet the sheep out in the field which was a mixture of ewes and lambs with "special needs". This gave me the chance to help bottle feed some of the lambs who need extra rations.
 
 
 
I had a lovely time talking about sheepy things with Ellie and I came home with three beautiful fleeces. The weather managed to stay warm and sunny for a couple of days and I was able to sort and wash two of the fleeces so that I could spin samples for Ellie to take to shows over the summer months.
 
 
The first batch of washed fleece drying in the garden.
 
 
For more information on the Border Leicester breed please check out Ellie's website.

5 comments:

  1. What interesting looking sheep! Is the wool "next to the skin" soft when spun?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The 2 fleeces I have spun so far are slightly different. One is very much like a Romney - shiny locks of a similar staple length. The other one was a shearling and a bit longer and softer, more like a Polwarth fleece I have in store. I haven't knitted the samples yet but I wouldn't have a problem wearing in next to the skin as I don't have itchy issues!

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Yes they are......and I want one!!!!! Not as cute as Baxter Black tho'.

      Delete
  3. I always think it's lovely to actually meet the sheep your fleece comes from. I have balls of yarn here spun for me by a friend, some labelled Aries and some Ariadne, the sheep's names.

    ReplyDelete