Frequently asked questions:
| Why do the sheep wear coats | We put lightweight coats on the sheep to keep vegetation out of the largest part of their fleece. Because of the fineness of the fleece, hay and weed seed easily stick to the fleece. Another benefit of coats is the sun doesn’t bleach the wool. These coats are changed as they wool grows. Each adult sheep needs 3-4 changes a year. A few of our sheep do not wear coats while on pasture as they don’t have as much lanolin.
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| How often do we shear the sheep? | Most of the sheep are sheared annually. However, a few of the Shetlands are sheared twice a year if their fleece grows rapidly. Since most of the sheep only produce one fleece a year,and you want one, it is a good idea to get it early. When we run out of the type of fleece you want, we have to wait until the next shearing which is in the spring.
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| What is skirting? | We lay the fleece on a slatted table and remove belly and neck wool as well as most of the parts that are not under the coat. In some cases where the sheep did not wear a coat, we go through the fleece quite thoroughly to save you the insanity of picking out shavings, sticks, and most other contaminants. We also look for weak spots in the fleece as well as tippy ends.This is called “skirting”. On occasion, we have a fleece that is not as clean and we discount that.
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| How fast is the service? | We use PayPal for most of our transactions and we try to ship within two business days of receiving your payment.
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| Where is the yarn processed? | It has been very difficult to find a processor who knows how to handle our fleeces because they are so fine and next to skin soft. We are very fortunate that Olympic Yarn and Fiber has recently set up business within driving distance which also means less shipping which helps the environment.
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| What is roving? | Roving is a fleece that is washed and carded at the mill. This is ready to spin
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| Dyed wool | We are now offering dyed fiber as well as the natural.
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| Visitation | By appointment only. Please contact us by text or phone. Although we do have a feeding schedule, everything else on this farm is whatever is most important at that moment. Animals need care as do the gardens and machinery and not always by the timetable we would like. And oh, yes, people need sleep. As soon as I set a schedule that I like, we have emergencies.
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We use PayPal for most of our transactions and we try to ship within two business days of receiving your payment.
Where is the yarn processed? ance which means it It has been very difficult to find a processor who knows how to handle our fleeces because they are so fine. We are very fortunate that Olympic Yarn and Fiber has recently set up business within driving disthelps the environment.
What is roving? Roving is a from a fleece that is washed and carded at the mill. This is ready to spin.
Dyed wool We do our own dyeing. If you are trying to match something, let us know. If you order custom dyeing, it will take an extra week.