Haha oh my gawd I can’t believe they send it to landfill, that’s terrible.
We spent our childhoods helping with the shearing, I was what you call a roustabout when I was small, cleaning up all the “dags”, keeping the shearing floor clean all day, as I got older I’d also be picking up the fleece and throwing it onto the sorting table, it was quite a skill to pick it up neatly and then throw it in one go like a bed spread. These were merinos, the wool was like gold, in fact I remember when an Australian farm sold the first million dollar bale of wool to a Japanese company that made men’s suits.
Once or twice a day there’d be a yell from one of the shearers and everything would stop, he’d gotten a sheep with a little bit of black wool and we had to very carefully clean it away to make sure it didn’t contaminate the white wool. Other wise when they dye the wool it will stick out like a sore thumb
My Mum used to card (hard wire brush) the wool and then spin it on her spinning wheel and then knit us jumpers (cardigans?? Pullover?). We were the uncoolest kids ever. Gawd we hated those jumpers but damn,… imagine how much someone would pay for a handspun, hand knitted, home grown and raised sheeps wool cardigan these days
Oh my!!! For a city/ ocean girl, this piece was very ewe opening!! Pulled the wool over my eyes!! On vacation saw sheep bring raised in Australia and being sheered…NO idea of the follow-up!! Love your play on words and your brilliant stories…and you, baby girl. 😉♥️😉😉 🐑🐏🐑🐑🐏🙄
Sarah, I loved this piece! I, too, had skied for one fleece and was blown away by 1! Terrific learning experience for all of us who had NO idea what we had asked. Looking back, I just wish I had learned about wool, fleece, spinning, and weaving long before I turned 40! Thank you for the happy memory!
Haha oh my gawd I can’t believe they send it to landfill, that’s terrible.
We spent our childhoods helping with the shearing, I was what you call a roustabout when I was small, cleaning up all the “dags”, keeping the shearing floor clean all day, as I got older I’d also be picking up the fleece and throwing it onto the sorting table, it was quite a skill to pick it up neatly and then throw it in one go like a bed spread. These were merinos, the wool was like gold, in fact I remember when an Australian farm sold the first million dollar bale of wool to a Japanese company that made men’s suits.
Once or twice a day there’d be a yell from one of the shearers and everything would stop, he’d gotten a sheep with a little bit of black wool and we had to very carefully clean it away to make sure it didn’t contaminate the white wool. Other wise when they dye the wool it will stick out like a sore thumb
My Mum used to card (hard wire brush) the wool and then spin it on her spinning wheel and then knit us jumpers (cardigans?? Pullover?). We were the uncoolest kids ever. Gawd we hated those jumpers but damn,… imagine how much someone would pay for a handspun, hand knitted, home grown and raised sheeps wool cardigan these days
Oh my!!! For a city/ ocean girl, this piece was very ewe opening!! Pulled the wool over my eyes!! On vacation saw sheep bring raised in Australia and being sheered…NO idea of the follow-up!! Love your play on words and your brilliant stories…and you, baby girl. 😉♥️😉😉 🐑🐏🐑🐑🐏🙄
Sarah, I loved this piece! I, too, had skied for one fleece and was blown away by 1! Terrific learning experience for all of us who had NO idea what we had asked. Looking back, I just wish I had learned about wool, fleece, spinning, and weaving long before I turned 40! Thank you for the happy memory!
If you feel like dabbling in wool again, I know a gal!