Firefly Fields

Sparky's fleece (left) was Reserve Grand Champion at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool in 2005.
That's second place out of the whole show of 82 fleeces!
Bo's fleece (right) took 3rd place in the colored class of the Finn division.

Rammy-lamby's lamb fleece won 1st place in its class at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool
and 2nd place in its class at Michigan Fiber Festival in 2004.

Roving for Sale

Our roving is ready! We just picked up a whole bunch of roving processed by the guys at Wooly Knob Fiber Mill and it is beautiful! Check out the colors and blends they did for us on our Roving page. All roving will be shipped out Priority Mail shipping via USPS. (International orders go airmail.) To place your order, please email us.

Purchase or Reserve a Fleece

We taking reservations for our March 2009 shearing. Check here to see which fleeces are still available. Most of our fleeces are already reserved for by fall for shearing the following spring. Each fleece comes complete with a photo and biographical information about the sheep.

Our well-skirted, jacketed handspinning fleeces sell for $12 per pound for adult fleeces and $15 per pound for lamb fleeces. Our well-skirted, jacketed, hand-spinning fleeces range in size from three to 4 1/2 pounds.

We only sell our very best fleeces as handspinning fleeces. We want you to be thrilled with your purchase! If after shearing, we find your first choice does not meet our high standards, we reserve the right to help you select a similar fleece. If no comparable fleece is available, I will refund your deposit. After shearing and skirting, we will let you know the weight and cost of your fleece as well as the postage. When we receive your final payment, the fleece will be shipped to you in April or May.

Show fleeces: I like to keep back one or two of my very best fleeces to show at our local fiber festival. This festival is held in September of each year. This gives me an opportunity to show off what my flock produces as well as to educate the public about Finn wool. I never know which one will be the best until after shearing. I always make predictions, but I have not been right yet! If the fleece that you have reserved turns out to be my best for the year, I may need to keep it until fall. If do not wish to wait, I will gladly refund your deposit. If you do not mind waiting, you will only need to pay the remainder of your bill for the fleece and I will pay the postage when I ship it in September. And... after all, you will getting the very best one!

2009 Fleece Reservations

Colors: W = white; BL = black; G = grey; BR = brown; S = silver/grey
Codes denote the actual color of the fleece, not the genotype of the sheep.
Do not rely on photos for color information as wool tips often sunbleach to another color.
All the wool undernearth remains the true color.

Rams

Bo - BL - reserved

Kahvi - BR - reserved

Wendall - BR - available

Taivo - S - (lamb) reserved

Vesa - W - (lamb) reserved

Ewes

Uma - W - available	Lumi - W - reserved	Mara - BL - available	Helmi - W - available
Emmi - W - available	Pilvi - W - available	Annika - BL - available	Sini - S - (lamb) reserved
Eeva - W - (lamb) reserved	Laila - W - (lamb) available

Wethers

Elias - G - reserved	Panda - G/W - available	Sparky - W/BL - available
Number 16 - W - available	Boris - BL - available

Payment information...

Wool Raised Especially for the Fiber-Artist

Our sheep are out on pasture for much of the year. We believe in allowing our sheep to live as natural a life as possible. We believe that a happy and healthy sheep will produce the highest quality fleece. We love to watch the sheep graze. There is almost a rhythm to their grazing. Then they go lie in the shade and chew their cuds. They have the most blissful expression when they do this -- like sheep meditation!

Our sheep have access to shelters out in the field for shade and protection from the elements. During the warm months, they definitely appreciate the shade. They will also take cover in a driving rain or windstorm. Otherwise, they prefer to be outside. Because they are always moving around on clean grass, the fleeces stay very clean.

Sometimes the very tips of the wool will become a bit sunbleached on the colored fleeces from being out in the sunshine during the summer months. This lighter color blends in very nicely when the wool is carded. Although many people think of Wisconsin as being just south of the arctic circle, we do have hot and sometimes humid summers. By summer, the sheep have quite a bit of fleece which they need for protection against sunburn and biting insects. Because of their wool, they are already feeling warm. So we do not wish to compound this by adding covers yet.

We grow our own hay, right here at Firefly Fields. This allows us to better control the quality of the hay that we feed our sheep. In the autumn, when we need to start feeding this hay to our sheep, we cover their fleeces with jackets. This insures that the fleece is not contaminated with chaff / vegetable matter. It is surprising that the sheep do not seem bothered by the jackets at all; they don't even seem to notice! The jackets much be changed once or twice during the winter to a larger size. This is both because of the growth of wool, as well as increased body size in the lambs.

Our sheep are sheared in March before the ewes have their lambs. There are several reasons for this. It makes it easier for the lambs to find the teats to nurse. They latch onto the teat and not dirty belly wool or dung tags in their search for milk. Also, shearing makes the ewes as cold as the lambs. Ewes like to lie out in the snow when they have a full coat of wool. A "naked" ewe is happy to hang out in the barn and give birth inside. When the baby lambs are born, they can snuggle up and get heat given off by their mother's body (since it isn't insulated by 4 to 6 inches of wool). Also, both the fleece and the ewe stay cleaner since there is no wool to catch and hold amniotic fluid.

People often ask if I think it is "mean" to shear the sheep or if they seem to mind. On the contrary, they don't seem to mind at all. Shearing is just giving the sheep a short haircut and as long as the sheep are not stressed by the way they are handled, they do not have any pain or discomfort. In March 2004, my lightly skirted whole fleeces (with belly wool and dung tags removed) ranged from 3.22 to 6.76 pounds. That is a fair amount of extra weight for a small sheep to carry around. I hire an excellent, New Zealand-trained shearer who keeps the sheep very calm and does not put any extra stress on them. He seldom even nicks a sheep! By the time he is done, they seem relieved to be free of their wool. (The way people feel after a much needed haircut!)

Our shearer, David Kier, gives Rammy-lamby his first "haircut".
Photo by Carol Rettig

Immediately after shearing, an initial light skirting is done out in the barn. At this time, any really dirty parts are removed from the edges of each fleece. This is generally the area which would have been under the sheep's "rear end" and on the belly.

Sandy DeMaster (my sheep mentor) and Patrice Beal help me skirt a fleece.
Photo by Carol Rettig

Then each fleece is rolled, bagged and labeled with the sheep's name and eartag number.

Later, we do a more thorough skirting of each fleece. At this time, we evaluate each individual fleece more critically and remove any additional dirty, unusable wool. Often this is along the edges or the area from under the elastic at the neck of the jacket. The "handspinning fleece"(the clean portion protected by the jacket) is separated from the rest of the fleece at this time. The rest of the good, usable fleece, is used to make roving, commercially spun yarn or other products. We also take small samples to send to customers, keep for our records, or send to Yocum McColl for analysis at this time. The handspinning fleeces are each re-rolled, bagged and weighed.

Spin Finn!

Finn wool is classified as a medium wool with micron counts from 24 to 31. The staple length is generally from 3 to 6 inches. Finnsheep sheep are normally sheared twice a year in Finland and once a year in the United States. Their wool is very versatile and can be used for a variety of artistic and creative mediums, incuding spinning, knitting, weaving, and felting. Finn wool is suitable for making garments such as sweaters, vests, hats, socks, mittens/gloves, slippers, and scarves. It can also be used for wall hangings and other artistic projects. It is one of the best wools for felting and is suitable for needle felting, wet felting and fulling.

Finn wool is much softer than many of the other medium wools. One of its most special characteristics is luster. Luster is a sheen or shininess. (Luster is most commonly found amoung the longwool breeds such as Lincoln, which have courser wool.) Finn wool is the only medium wool to have this high degree of luster. Some of my sheep's fleeces almost have a gleam!

Most of the Finn wool in the US is white. Some people (especially those who specialize in handspinning fleeces) also have black and piebald (spotted). Only recently have additional colors been introduced into the US from Finland. These colors are brown, silver-grey and fawn. We now have 2 brown and 2 silver-grey Finnsheep.

My flock has been selected for wool quality (in addition to maternal traits, health and prolificacy). This is why we send a sample of each sheep's lamb fleece to a lab for analysis. The information we receive about micron count and coefficient of variation (how consistent the fleece is) allow us to use objective, as well as subjective measures, in analyzing our fleeces. This information is later used in planning our breeding program to continue improve our wool.

Our "No Drama" Returns Policy

We want you to be thrilled with your purchase. We make every effort to provide a quality product and to provide an honest description of it. When you receive your purchase, please remove it from its box and bag and thoroughly examine it. If for some reason, you have made a firm decision that you are not satisfied with your purchase, please email us. Then put it back in the box and mail it back. When your return is received, you will receive a full refund.

Finn Wool... Soft, Lustrous, Lovely!