Support your local fleece pusher, I mean, producer

It's the trendy thing to do, don't you know, thinking globally and buying locally...

Last weekend we went on a mini get away in Indiana, only to find many of the places we normally visit were closed, probably due to exhaustion from retail hell of the holidays. So I suggested a trip out to Sheep Street, located just outside of Morgantown Ind. They use to have just a store front, and mostly yarn, but several years ago, they had moved into the countryside, started raising sheep and had opened their shop on the farm.


The store is lovely and has a very large selection of commercial yarns. When I got there, the place was full of knitters, it turns out that Fridays are a get together day for many of the local knitters at the store.


I am not on a yarn diet as many bloggers are currently trying, however, I really did not feel in the mood for more yarn. The only slightly tempting yarn was a commercially spun blend of Sheep Street's own fiber, and it was a lovely handspun looking yarn. But it's so close to exactly the type of yarn I spin, that I could not spend the money on it. So I walked on by the beautiful displays of yarn.


There are many tempting looms there also, which I managed to rush by without being snagged into wanting to try any of them. One shuttle throw, and all would be lost, and I would have dreams of weaving. No, I shut my eyes and put my hands in my pockets, and strolled by as quick as I could, only to run smack into this:






OK it wasn't actually spread out on a car hood at that point, I did that today to take the pictures.

I spent some time talking to Nancy, the owner and found out that they currently have over 100 sheep, and they are mostly shetland. So they now have expanded the business to include lovely fleece for spinners.

I really am not trying to be on a shetland kick (for many years it seemed the only fleece I purchased was border leicester). I have been combing the black shetland fleece this fall, and wouldn't have minded working with a different type of fleece. I just could not resist the color and length of lock and softness of this fleece.

So I have yet another fleece to process. I think I have around eight now, in various stages of processing. That's actually a good thing, if I get tired of shetland (oh my, how could _that_ ever happen!) I can work on the cormo, or black welsh mountain or....

As we walked out of the store, 5 lbs of fleece in hand, I thanked my hubby. He asked what for, and after a brief pause to think, I said: For letting me support the local fleece producer.

CW