Shear delight…

Bank Holiday weekends can sometimes be a washout but for once the weather matched the forecast and, while not as hot as predicted, was warm and dry enough for me to toddle up to Ramsbottom to give Tony and Kath a hand with the shearing of the sheep.
Whatever I was expecting, it certainly wasn’t the sight of Tony, still in his Sunday best shirt and tie, hand clipping a ewe. After a few minutes of chat it was down to business and I was given the task of trying to ‘roo’ a ewe. Unfortunately the wool hadn’t risen enough for it to come off easily and, despite tugging and pulling, I couldn’t seem to make the fleece come off and had to resort to clippers. With the ewe fairly immobilised by a head restraint, it was quite straightforward to clip the back and down the sides of the belly. Doing the legs was a different matter as they don’t like their legs touched so trying to clip the fleece from a squirming, wriggling sheep made it a slightly more difficult task.
The second ewe we did was one of the older ones and well used to the process. She stood quietly while the fleece was literally pulled off her. When the new wool starts to grow it pushes the old growth off to some extent and that means it can be pulled, or roo-ed, easily. Again, starting on the spine the fleece is peeled off the sheep like you would a banana, except that it’s wool, warm and smells differently. The ewe, I’ve forgotten her name, stood quietly, burping occasionally.
Finally we attempted a ram. This is a whole different ball game, if you’ll pardon the expression. Firstly, they have horns and, secondly, they are much stronger than the ewes and a lot more wilful, so even getting them into the head restraint was a task in itself. I held onto the horns while Kath pulled with the halter but it wasn’t easy. This one had to be clipped and so, again starting at the spine, we clipped the fleece from its back. The ram let its displeasure be known by having a wee a couple of times and dropping a few sheep currants, but neither found a target. He settled down as we did the belly but got understandably skittish when it was time to trim the fleece from around his tea and sugar, add to this my nervousness with a sharp pair of clippers and it’s a wonder there wasn’t blood. I was proud of my ability to shear and only once nicked a sheep but not enough to draw blood – although it was enough to make the ewe a bit nervous.
As a bonus I was given the fleece from the chocolate coloured ewe that I clipped. As soon as my carding brushes arrive I will attempt to turn this into some sort of yarn and knit something from it, the first time I will have done the whole process from clipping to knitting via carding, spinning (not sure how to do this bit yet) and washing. It seems every week I learn something new and I feel good that I can do these things. I look forward to learning more and, maybe one day, passing on some skills to my offspring.