FINNSHEEP Raw Fleece, Grey, Matilda 2022, 4 pounds 0.1 ounces, free shipping

This is Matilda’s 2022 Raw Fleece. Matilda is a purebred finnsheep ewe that was coated/ jacketed much of the year. Very low on VM (vegetable matter- hay, straw, grass from the pasture). I skirted this myself. I’m a hand spinner as well as a shepherd. I dislike VM as much as the next spinner…in fact, maybe more so. I get a little ruthless about skirting and removing all wool that has VM in it so you are only getting nice wool with Point of View Farm fleeces. This is a show award winning quality fleece.

It weighs 4 pounds 0.1 ounces. She is not coated all year long so you will find some VM in there but, not very much, I promise. I spent a good amount of time on the skirting table picking out any stray hay bits I found making sure that this fleece is as nice a spinning experience as possible.  My skirting notes are that this fleece is clean, almost no vm, silky and FULL of luster.   It is soft, silky and I’m basically pretty excited about it. Check out that crimp and lock definition.  Nice nice stuff.

Matilda was born at Point of View Farm in 2018.  She has some rare genes not only for her dark agouti blue coloring (color and a pattern actually)  but, also because she is an RR sheep.  If you don’t already know, that means she is genetically resistant to scrapie disease.  That is a super great thing because it means every single one of her lambs is also resistant.  There are not at lot of RR finnsheep out there so her combination of good mothering, beautiful wool and all the other things that make her an amazing addition to our flock make her lambs pretty desirable.  Thank you Matilda.  We really think you are all that.

Raw fleece means it has not been washed yet so it will smell like a sheep and need washing either before or after spinning (if you like to spin in the grease- this fleece would be a candidate for that). Violet’s fleece was carefully and professionally shorn New Zealand style (in a single piece) by a shearer who takes pride in his work, is careful, gentle and knows what he is doing. It is not easy work but, a good shearer makes it look easy. Our shearer has shorn all our award winning fleeces at Rhinebeck and Maryland Fleece show and sales for many years. He has been shearing sheep for decades and he helped mentor us when we were new shepherds. In kind, we do the same for shepherds as well. We very much appreciate his quality shearing and sheep handling skills. He is good at what he does. He’s fun and always has a joke and good story to tell.  I’ll never hear the end of this if he reads that.  Anyway, chances are he won’t because he has his own sheep and probably is not shopping for wool.