Crazy For Corriedale

We love our Corriedale sheep - any of you that knows me, knows this to be a fact.  I was  asked one time to give a presentation about them and then asked if I could find enough to say to fill a forty five minute time slot...to which I replied "Only forty five minutes?!?"  Once I get started talking about them, its rather hard to shut me up I'm afraid ;)


I like to think my sheep appreciate me, too, although its probably just the treats I share with them or the chin scratches ~

"Pleaaaase give me more cookies!"

I love everything about this breed of sheep, and have since my Mom brought home that first Corriedale bottle lamb and made him a little pen in my room (that was about 42 years ago, by the way).  Now I have a flock of my own, around twenty of them!

I love the wool ~

I love the yarn (hand spun and all from our flock) ~

I love the lambs (and their mamas) ~

I love seeing others discover the joys of everything Corriedale.  I love hearing from spinning and knitting icons that Corriedale is their "go-to" fleece and yarn.  Imagine my excitement to learn of a well-loved, well respected knitter/spinner/pattern writer/teacher who has also fallen under the spell of Corriedale (at least the yarn part of them) and launch a line of 100% Corriedale yarn!  One of my favorites, Anne Hanson of Knitspot fame debuted a yarn she's called Confection - a deliciously appropriate name!  You can read about it here.  Doesn't she say lovely things about my favorite breed?  Thank you Anne, for bringing more interest to this often overlooked breed!  ETA:  Oops, just wanted to clarify that the Corriedale wool for Anne's yarn did NOT come from my small flock!   I'm just excited to see her highlighting the breed ;)

There are so many Knitspot patterns that will be terrific for Corriedale yarn.  Here's a swatch I did for Anne's Whitfield Jacket a while back, millspun on the left and handspun on the right.  I never did make the sweater but it would have been lovely if I had!

Another exciting thing is seeing others begin their journey with Corriedale...in the past few weeks we have sent three small starter flocks to new farms and look forward to watching them be developed.  And if I haven't rambled on about them long enough and you want to read more about why we raise them, you can do so here.