Fleeces!

Recently the annual conference of the Black & Coloured Sheep Breeders Association of NZ was held in Masterton. What an opportunity to see (and even buy) some of the very best handcraft fleeces from breeders all over New Zealand! Marion, Lynette and I (Mary) looked after the displays for two days while the delegates were otherwise occupied.

First of all, congratulations to three of our members who did wonderfully well. Lynley Coffey won Champion Fine Fleece and Supreme Champion Fleece with this dark beauty.

Her fleeces were placed in several other classes too, including a first in the Handcraft Fleece section (which is for smaller fleeces that can’t make the weight criteria of the main competition). Her sheepskins won both the fine wool and strong wool sections of that competition; she had three placings in the Handcraft competitions; and she also had the Champion in the photograph competition! The only possibly comment is “Wow!”

Lynley Bolt also did well in several classes, and was awarded the Monuina Trophy for the most points by an entrant who has not previously had a first placing.

And Patrizia Vieno placed in the Handcraft Fleece section with a remarkable Gotland – true black isn’t seen often in fleeces.

We are proud of of you all!

Here’s a quick cruise past some of the handcraft competitions

and the sheepskins.

Now, back to the fleeces, which were enough to make any spinner’s fingers twitch. They ranged from softest Merino
to this fascinating Lincoln.

You could find pretty much any colour.

Now the inevitable question – Did I buy one? I have to admit I did, one from the South Island. Here it is.
I was drawn to this fleece by its lovely staple formation and even crimp, as well as the light colour (I’ve been spinning mostly dark wool for a while). I was also influenced by what the judge thought of it – the judging card is always worth some study if you are thinking of buying a competition fleece. If you enlarge the picture (just click on it) you may be able to read the card.

To a spinner, the most important results are soundness – you don’t want your fibres to have a weak spot, where they will break and form noils in your spinning; and freedom from fault – you don’t want to find daggy bits or prickly thistle (for example) hiding in the fleece. Remember that the judge has had the fleece spread out and examined every part of it. My fleece scored 10/10 for both these.

Most of its other scores were perfect too, though there were a couple of 9s. So why wasn’t it placed in its class? Well, near the bottom you can see that it only got 20.5 out of 25 for its weight. That’s a lot of importance to give to something that doesn’t much matter to a spinner, but it’s important to farmers who need to make a living. It counts for even more in competitions for white fleece.

Once I was pretty sure I was going to buy it (not before that!) I did one little test – I nicked a couple of staples and took them to the “Ladies” and washed them.
I wanted to be sure of the colour – the grease on a fleece can change its colour quite dramatically. (I remember once in England remarking on a nice moorit fleece which some ladies were spinning in the grease, and being told that it was actually white!)

The result was nice, a brownish grey with some variation. I think it’s perhaps Corriedale or Corriedale cross. I probably won’t get it carded but wash the staples then flick-card and spin them. We’ll see.