Sheep Of Color

The shearers are back in town this week and Bill called the other day to say he had some wool for me.  You see, colored wool is very undesirable in the commercial wool market.  In fact, if you get some black wool mixed into a bale of white wool, it downgrades the entire bale.  

Used to be these pretty black, brown or gray fleeces would hit the garbage or ended up tossed into a junk bale to be made into industrial felt.  Now, if Bill thinks they might be of interest to a crazy sheep lady (who already has more wool than she really needs ;-), he bags it up and sends it my way.

Well, what do we have here?  Some really pretty Jacob fleeces!  Some people rescue dogs or cats.  I rescue wool, especially Jacob wool.  Well, and dogs and cats...and occasionally even a fleece still on a sheep ;-). 

I definitely have some work ahead of me sorting out good from bad, but for the couple that aren't super great, there are a couple that really are.  This one is exceptionally nice.  Great color and very soft.

This is an interesting color.  Jacobs are technically supposed to have very distinct black and white patches, like the previous fleece.  This one isn't so much freckled (a common "fault") as the black looks almost frosted.  Solidly frosted.  I've not seen that patterning before.  The beauty of colored sheep.

Look at the length!

Another very distinctly black and white fleece.  And here's where things get interesting.  It (finally) dawned on me that the black I was seeing was just that, black.  Usually the tips of a black fleece sun bleach to brown...  I went back through, turning them over and sure enough, these are the blackest Jacob fleeces I've even seen.

Since the producer had no interest in the wool, I can't imagine they coated these sheep.  The fleeces are pretty free of VM (vegetable matter) so I can't imagine they've been locked in a barn all winter.  Things that make you go "Hmmmm...."  

I bet there's a washer full in the morning ;-).