Lumi's Big Day

Yesterday was sheep shearing at Liz Cowdery's farm. Liz calls it "an event", and I have to admit that it is quite an amazing process! All of us small fiber people who only have a couple of sheep bring our animals over to Liz's to have them sheared too.

Here is Lumi before shearing. She's quite shaggy and I'm sure it's very hot to be wearing a wool coat when it's 70 degrees and sunny.

Here's Doug starting out. He sits the sheep back on their butt and they can't go anywhere!

He's doing her tummy first. That wool is really dirty and matted and we throw that away.

Now he's working on her legs. That wool isn't good either and we discard it.

He's working up her hips and along her back.

He's shearing along her back and sides. This is the wool we want to keep.

Doug is almost done....only about 5 minutes have elapsed! Look at that gorgeous fleece laying there! When Doug is finished, he rolls it up into one big piece and we put it in a bag. Lumi has a fine wool with a nice crimp (lots of little waves in the fiber). OK, maybe I'm nuts but I love looking at a raw fleece!

Here's Lumi after shearing. She's soaking up the sunshine and I think she's happy that she gave up her wool. She's a good girl!