Windrush Farms

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of going up to Windrush Farms for their Fiber event. The day was rather warm, but the drive up to Petaluma was pleasant in the early morning.

There, I got to meet Mimi who (at the time) was giving a small lecture/workshop about fleeces. Mimi has two flocks of sheep (Corriedale mix and Shetland) with their guardian llamas. She also has a few alpacas.

I fell in love with her Shetland. I never realized how TINY they were (and how very friendly)t, in comparison to he size of the Corriedale mixes.

 

Shetland Sheep

There were various workshops on felting, natural dye'ing, weaving etc.

Marigolds for Natural Dye'ing.

I picked up some of their beautiful Indigo-dyed yarn. I've never seen such a deep cobalt blue!

Spinner's Study: Shetland

As a mini-break from the Japanese Maple spinning, I opted to start spinning the lovely brown Shetland I had gotten from Spunky Eclectic



I had always thought that Shetland was a somewhat scratchy yarn with a high micron count, and I was expecting it to be about the same as the Icelandic wool that I had spun up, but OMG, this stuff is so much softer than Icelandic...almost as soft as merino....not quite, but it's a LOT softer than I was expecting.

I took a quick look online, and according to the Wild Fibres Website

Icelandic's micron count: 22-28 for the inner coat 55-65 outer.
Merino's micron count: 18-24
Shetland's micron count: 20-33

So, Shetland *can* be as soft as a decent merino. And the stuff I have is definitely falls in that range. (The merino I am comparing it too is definitely 'softer', but it's pretty darn close.)



As I am still in the "Spinner Study" phase, I have no idea what this will make as of yet. I'm wondering if I should ply it with the merino or lighter brown alpaca that I have. So many decisions!