Monday, April 14, 2008

Spring and Baby Dolls

Not baby doll toys, but Baby Doll Southdown fleece!

This past Saturday was our fiber group meeting. We just had a free-for-all day, bringing our latest projects and having fun. One of members, friend Maple, is now raising Baby Doll Southdown sheep (along with the lovely alpacas) They just had their first shearing at their farm, and Maple brought along a fleece from Maddie to show us. She had already washed the fleece and brought some hand cards, too, so we could play.

What a delightful fleece! I have spun Baby Doll Southdown fleece before....seems like people are always sending me some to try. I will admit to being less than impressed in the past. I have to wonder if some of it is in the processing, because I know it can be difficult to work with down fleeces. Having the chance to card and then spin a bit first hand, I got a lovely little springy yarn...just loaded with character! This fleece was very, very dark as you can see how black it looks next to the charcoal grey that was on my bobbin (it is there in the middle of the bobbin):

southdown

This would make such a comfy pair of socks! Maple is going to be experimenting with some blends of the Southdown and her alpaca...can you imagine?!? Won't that be lovely? If you would like to try some really, really nice Southdown be sure to visit North Star Alpacas. If, like me, you have tried Southdown before and been disappointed, give Maple's fleece a try ~ you might become a convert! I believe they might already be sold out this year, but you could get on the waiting list for next year (grin)

Now, I also mentioned spring in the title of this post. Although the air temperature doesn't say so, there is no denying the change of color to the pastures. Just look!

GreenPasture

Can you see it? Yes, there is some greening going on there and it won't belong until ewes and lambs are out on new grass! Yippee!!

2 comments:

Carissa said...

That is a dark fleece! The pasture looks lush and green!

Alpaca Granny said...

Carrie, thanks for the kind words about our BD fleeces. I can't wait to do some blends with our alpaca. I appreciate your taking the time to play with it and value your sheep/fleece knowledge - as well as our friendship.