In Your Hands
- Fine fibers spun into cobweb yarn
- Notorious Shetland lace knitting comes from these fleeces
- Highly variable fleece
- lacy shawls to study sweaters and shawls (haps)
- Low lanolin
- Smooth to hand spin
Temperament
- Small sheep with calm demeanor
- Natural hardiness and adaptability
- Easy lambing
History
- Breed goes back thousands of years
- Thought to have come to the Shetland Islands by Viking Settlers
Fleece
- 2-4 lb fleeces
- True double coated
- Fine undercoat with coarse long outercoat
- Transition Double Coat
- Fine and coarse coats are mixed throughout the fleece
- Single Coated
- Crimpy, shorter staple
- Wide range of colors
- 11 main colors
- 30 markings
- 2 – 4 1/2″ staple length
- Fine fiber = crimped
- Longer fiber = coarse, wavy to straight
