Santa Cruz Island Wool Makes Its Day

Post date: Sep 04, 2016 6:17:45 PM

Almost as an afterthought, I entered a Santa Cruz Island fleece in the Monterey County Fair Wool Show - as I have several times in the past. This time I entered Lucia's fleece from our 2016 spring shearing, as it seemed very nice, clean, with a longer-than-typical staple length. We weren't able to attend the wool judging in August due to a previous commitment. So this past Friday we went to the Monterey County Fair to see how the fleece, and the three skeins of yarn I also entered, did. Much to our delight, the fleece won first place in the Breeds division, "Other" class, and won Reserve Champion for its division! It was displayed prominently and wonderfully, and I think will do a lot to promote the Santa Cruz Island sheep breed and their wool.

The judge was very kind, rated the fleece Excellent on everything (Cleanliness, Weight, Uniformity of Crimp, Strength, Character of Fleece, and Color) except Staple Length (rated it Good for that), and wrote "dreamy, fine, soft, very little waste" on the scorecard.

So, kudos to Lucia for growing the fleece, to Jim for shearing, and to me for skirting and entering the fleece into the competition.

There is Lucia's fleece in the top photo above, with ribbons, and there I am grinning like an idiot next to the fleece (and the other champions), with the finger of the nice lady organizer of the wool show in the foreground.

On Monday - tomorrow! - the fleeces are auctioned off. If no one buys ours, I will bring it home and decide what to do, if it sells at auction, fine!