Hello Dolly! Dolly's fleece is first on the table! The fun begins...Sister History
Sister Sheep consists of biological and non-biological sisters. The biology began in Wisconsin and moved to Colorado. One sister became a knitter, seamstress, weaver, all things fiber and the other sister became a cattle rancher. The sheep came into the picture when the fiber sister and her non-biological sisters began knitting for Afghans for Afghans, a service knitting organization created to hand knit blankets and garments for the people of Afghanistan. They wondered, “Why don’t we spin our own yarn for these projects?” and off they went to buy fleece. That led to the fiber sister asking the rancher sister, “Why don’t you raise sheep and we’ll spin the fleece?” That sounded like such a good idea that the rancher sister did some research and then drove to Wyoming to pick up 7 pregnant Rambouillet ewes. Thus Sister Sheep was born.
That rancher sister took to raising sheep like crazy. We now have 33 sheep producing beautiful fleece and we have introduced the Romeldale-CVM heritage breed into our flock for added staple length and natural color.
Rancher Sister Sarah and mohair goat sister Marny
In the foothills near Denver, another fiber sister and animal lover began raising mohair goats. That flock, while small, produces prodigious quantities of gorgeous mohair for spinning, weaving, knitting, and felting.
Fiber Sister Julie and non-biological fiber sister Flo
Sister Sheep is devoted to producing the finest naturally grown and processed fine wool and mohair fibers for discerning handspinners, artists and craftpersons. Hand processed with natural cleaners, hand dyed (most often with natural dyes), and wet felted or woven, the journey from the flock to you is a process that we love. It is our hope that this love and respect for fine fibers is reflected in our wares!
Sister Fiber Fun
One of the best times of year is just after shearing when we get to look closely at each fleece and prepare it for sale. It's called skirting when we pull off the leg wool, head and neck wool, and other parts that a handspinner would not want to work with. We spend 3-4 "sister hours" on each fleece.
It's Sarah, Julie and Flo - ready to get started! It's going to be two days at the ranch, skirting like crazy! The rest of the fleece will come back to Golden with Julie and Flo to be skirted at our home fiber studios.
Here's our ewe Lucy on the skirting table - her fleece, that is!