American Miniature Cheviot Sheep
Wool and wool products
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Yarn
We asked our spinning mill to make some Cheviot yarn for us, and the result is the soft-as-a-cloud bulky yarn
that we offer here. I often hear people say "I can't wear wool - it is so itchy". This yarn will disprove those
ideas! I have had a woman ask for some to make a baby sweater for a first grandchild-on-the-way. That is just how soft it
is! You can use it in the natural creamy white or dye it to a lovely color that you choose. This 2-ply yarn is $45/pound or
$3/oz. It really goes far and fast - patterns show up even if all you do is a knit-purl design. Raw Fleeces I always hire an excellent shearer who does not leave
second cuts. But this year I had to take two ewes to a sheep fair in Waynesburg, PA the week AFTER shearing, so after the
show I hand sheared them myself. My son could not resist taking a picture of me at work. I was very careful - so careful,
in fact, that it took me over an hour to shear each girl. The results were fine, although I left more wool on the sheep than
Hoyt does. All of my fleeces are skirted at shearing and then gone over a second time. There are no tags, and they have been
picked a bit (my fields and feeders leave them fairly clean). If I plan to show them they are skirted again and heavily picked. Morning Star Star
is a young ewe and this was her second shearing. She is one of the sheep that I took to the show and then sheared myself (see
picture above}. Her fleece is lovely and soft with
a nice crimp. This year it was about 2 1/2" staple - a great spinning length. After careful skirting it weighed 3 1/2
lbs and is priced at $8/lb. Darra Darra has a very interesting fleece. In our
breed we have three possible colors - white, black, and dilute black. She is a dilute black. This means that her fleece is
a mixture of black and white fibers. It blends to a dark heather grey when carded. It is soft and 2 to 2 1/2 long. After skirting
it yielded 3 pounds of lovely spinning wool. It is $6/lb. Faery Kiss Occasionally we cross-breed with Shetland rams, and Kiss is the result of this a few years back. She was a
twin, and both lambs got the best genetics of both breeds. The white spot on her black forehead which gave her the name Faery
Kiss has faded, but each year she produces a marvelous fleece. Our only problem is that we never know what color she will
be! Her Shetland side causes her to change from white to grey, sometimes in the middle of a year! I was very surprised her
first shearing gave me a lovely light grey fleece - and a white sheep! This year she is mostly white with a few areas of grey
roots, which could be skirted out or left in. Just imagine how beautiful that will be when it is carded! Her fleece is super-soft
with helical crimp of her Cheviot mother. There are 3 1/2 pounds of this lovely stuff - $8/lb. Isaac Every flock needs a ram, and Issac has been with us for a long time. He is retired from breeding
now, and spends his days keeping our Quarterhorse, Tack, company. Last year I could not sell his fleece because I was putting
the hay in the horse rack on the wall and he crowded in under Tack to eat out of the bottom while the horse ate out of the
top. Hay cascaded down on him and his fleece was so full of it that we couldn't pick it clean. Thisyear I got smart, out the
hay on the floor of the pony shed, and everyone eats there. Isaac's fleece has always been in demand - one year it sold to
a woman who had come to help on shearing day. She had her choice of all the fleeces, and she chose Isaac. His wool has an
exceptional crimp on this fleece, right up to the tiny curls at the tips. It will
spin with a lot of loft, and goes up to 3" in length. There are 3 1/2 pounds of it (I expected more because he looks
so big - but it seems he is just as fat as he is wooly!). $8/lb Hope Hope
is another of my cross-bred Shetland/Cheviots, but she is 3/4 Shetland, and that is frlected in her fleece. It is soft and
crimpy , but of a shorter staple (about 2") except a few areas that are longer (but definitely soft). In the Shetland
world she would be called Moorit in color - a delightful soft brown. I recently blended another of her fleeces with llama
os a similar color - - -Yummy and easy to spin. We have only 2 pounds of this fleece, (she is a tiny girl) and it is a bargain
at $4/lb.
Shepherd's Croft Morning Star Star is the patient ewe in the photo - she is 2 years old, and this second fleece is lovely. It weighs about 4 lbs. skirted, and the staple is between 3 1/2 and 4 inches. It will be a creamy white, typical for our flock. It has a nice sheen, and the crimp is distinct. Price: $8/lb Shepherd's Croft Abigail SOLD Abby was the other ewe that went to the fair, so she is also hand-sheared. Her fleece is also long and heavy. Our Cheviots have dense fleeces, and the unique helical crimp adds loft to the yarn. Her fleece is 4 lbs. and the price is $8/lb. Faery Kiss Well, Kiss has done it again. She is a crossbred Cheviot/Shetland with unpredictable color. Her first fleece was grey, but when she was sheared that year I ended up with a white sheep! The next year her fleece was 1/2 grey and 1/2 white - it changed color in the middle of the year! So shearing is always interesting with Kiss. This fleece is mostly white, with areas of grey and grey "roots" in some places. It is mostly 3" in staple and soft as a cloud. It has the famous helical crimp of the Cheviot with the soft hand of the Shetland. It could be taken apart in separate colors, but however you process it, it will give you a gorgeous fleece. It weighs 3 1/2 lbs and is $8/lb.
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