Still counting??

One of the most interesting aspects of sheep is their wool.  When we lived in Iowa, I became very interested in spinning wool.  We lived in the heart of an agricultural belt that was dominated by beef cows, and row after row of corn and soybeans.  There was a growing group of people, mainly women, who were raising herds of sheep for their wool.

Ram sketch #1 - 6B pencil, white China marker and watercolor.  (Sorry, I did not stop to snap a picture at the beginning of the process of sketching this one.)

I began meeting occasionally with their group and learned about carding the fibers, spinning and the special language of wool enthusiasts, such as,"...in the grease."

addition of black India ink and more white China marker.

One of the very dedicated members of the group had grown up in Australia.  She did extensive research of the bloodlines of the sheep that produced the wool she found the most desirable and brought several of those sheep to her Iowa farm each year.  When I first met her, she was just ordering four sheep from a ranch in Australia (go figure) because the fibers from their fleece was the right color, length, and crimp. 

More India ink added as well as some warmer background color.  I don't think this one is looking too "fleecy," however.

As the group continued to meet, I realized that all of the clothing that she wore was made from fabric either woven or spun at her home.  Her blouses were a fine, thin, delicate fabric with fabulous drape and color.  I had no idea that hand spun yarn could be such a fine fiber.  Her spinning techniques had been handed down from grandmother to mother to her.  Her natural plant dies were beautiful and I learned that she grew specific plants and weeds for the color they produced at varying times of the year.  

I began to card small samples of fibers from different kinds of sheep.  Members of the group were very knowledgeable about types of wool and the best places to get them.  I slowly tried to learn how to spin varying "weights" of yarn.  

"What if...." is an interesting thing to think about.  What wool interest and skills would I have IF we would have stayed in Iowa?  Within a year of my wool discovery, we were on the move to Minnesota.  I found only one place to get wool once we moved, which proved to be highly inferior to the beautiful samples I had experimented with in Iowa.  Minnesota provided a completely different array of interests to explore, and eventually I left carding and spinning behind.  The final "goodbye" came when my spinning wheel was damaged.    

See tomorrow's entry for the final ram in this series - I cannot get the site to work correctly to add it for Friday.  Thanks!