Fleeces & Wool

Fleeces and Wool

I am pleased to announce that we now offer wool in three formats for all your fiber arts needs:

· Raw fleeces

· Washed fleeces

· Carded wool

My flock has gotten large enough now that I no longer separately list each individual fleece for sale here. It’s just too time consuming to keep the site updated that way!

However, I do have lots of fleeces available, so please contact me and I’ll be happy to help match you up with a fleece that meets your needs. Scroll down for more information about what we have to offer.

I’ll also post fleeces to my Etsy site occasionally. But if you don’t see any listed there, don’t assume that I’m out of stock. It’s more likely that I just haven’t yet had a chance to post more.

I hope to begin offering yarn and commercially carded roving and felting batts at some point in the future, but we’re not quite there yet.

As always, if you have any questions, just ask!

Purebred Icelandic sheep in Virginia’s heartland

Payment Methods

Actual shipping costs are added to the cost of each fleece.

I accept checks, money orders, and PayPal.

Do you know where

that wool came from?

We love our sheep and

want you to love them too.

Each bag of wool we sell

comes with a color information card, showing the name and photo of the specific sheep

who provided that wool.

Carded Wool

Ready to use. This wool has been hand washed, air dried, meticulously picked clean of debris, and painstakingly carded the old fashioned way, with hand carders.

Your choice of five colors. These are the natural colors of the sheep. No dye has been used.

· White

· Black

· Brown

· Gray

· Beige

Available in quart (1-oz.) and gallon (4-oz.) sized bags. I’m not currently set up to do high volumes of carding, so if you need larger amounts, consider our raw and washed fleeces.

$5.00 1-oz. bag

$20.00 Five 1-oz. bags (one of each color)

$15.00 4-oz. bag

$50.00 Five 4-oz. bags (one of each color)

You can order these directly from my Etsy shop, or email me and let me know what you need. Include your zip code so I can figure your shipping costs.

Just a few of the beautiful fleece colors our flock produces.

Text Box: Our fleeces generate rave reviews! Read what previous customers had to say.

About Icelandic Wool

Icelandic is a dual-coated wool. The long, mohair-like outer fleece, called the tog, provides strength and durability to your finished projects, while the fine, soft inner wool, called the thel, provides softness, warmth, and loft.

The two types of wool can be used separately or together, to make 3 entirely different types of yarn.

Icelandic wool is also highly prized for felting because it felts so quickly and easily.

Raw and Washed Fleeces

White

White fleeces are perfect if you want to dye your wool. The fleeces shown below in their raw state will be a much brighter white once they are washed.

Moorit

Moorit is just the Icelandic sheep term for brown. Moorit fleeces can range from walnut browns to bright, foxy russets, to soft, sandy apricots.

Spots

Any of the fleece colors listed above can come in a spotted version, meaning that there are patches of white as well as the base color. The ratio of white-to-colored wool in a spotted fleece varies widely. Some are mostly white with only a little color. Some are half and half. Some are mostly color with only a little white.

Black

Most natural black fleeces are not a true, pure black. They often have tints of dark chocolate, and may have silvery shades as well. This depends on genetics, the weather, and even the sheep’s diet!

Moorit Gray

In Icelandic sheep lingo, a “moorit gray” is a sheep that has brown tog (outer coat) and pale thel (inner coat). Shades vary, but many of them are a lovely cinnamon-sugar color. They make a subtle, heathered yarn.

Moorit Badger

A moorit badger sheep has light-colored fleece on its back and brown fleece on its chest and belly. The fleeces range from pale cream to soft wheat shades.

Black Grays

A “black gray” is a sheep that has black tog (outer coat) and pale thel (inner coat). Shades range from pale silver to steely gray. When spun, this color makes a heathered, tweed-like yarn.

Black Badger

A black badger sheep has light-colored fleece on its back and black fleece on its chest and belly. The fleeces range from pale cream to soft silver shades.

Moorit Mouflon and Black Mouflon

A mouflon sheep has moorit or black fleece on its back and pale fleece on its chest and belly. A mouflon fleece is essentially the same as a solid moorit or black fleece, only with a few locks of the paler color mixed in.

I no longer list individual fleeces here on this website. With 80 or more fleeces coming through here each year, it became too time consuming to keep the list updated.

I will occasionally list raw fleeces in my Etsy shop, but for best selection, email me and let me know what you’re looking for.

I’ll be happy to send you descriptions, weights, and photos of specific fleeces that might meet your needs.

Include your zip code so I can figure your shipping costs.

Raw fleece

Straight off the sheep’s back. This is the cheapest option, because you do all the fiber preparation yourself.

$12/ pound (adult fleece)

$16/pound (lamb fleece)

Washed fleece

Your choice of raw wool, gently hand washed and air dried. You do the carding yourself.

$16/pound (adult fleece)

$20/pound (lamb fleece)

See below for a sampling of the colors

I may have available.

Know your Options!

Raw or Washed?

When you purchase a raw fleece, you get the wool in its purest state, straight off the sheep’s back, preserving the natural lock formations, and giving you complete creative control on how you process each one.

Washed fleeces are simply raw fleeces that have been hand washed and air dried. They are ready for the carding process.

With either type of fleece, there may still be a small amount of vegetable matter (VM) mixed into the wool from the sheep’s pasture and/or hay. This should not be difficult to remove as you card or spin. All tail and belly wool has already been skirted off.

Adult or Lamb?

Lamb fleeces are finer and softer than adult fleeces. They are good for garments that are meant to be worn next to the skin. Although some adult sheep produce wool that is nearly as fine-textured as a lamb’s, each sheep only produces one lamb fleece in its life.

Whole Fleece or By the Pound?

Fleeces may weigh anywhere from 1.5 to more than 4 lbs. depending on the timing of shearing and the size of the sheep.

I prefer to sell fleeces whole, but if you have a special project for which you need less wool, I am willing to sell raw or washed wool by the pound. Just ask!

Color?

Icelandic fleeces come in a glorious array of natural colors. Browse through the photos below to get an idea of the many beautiful possibilities!

If you are interested in seeing what these colors look like when they’re still on the sheep, or if you’re curious about the genetics of color inheritance in Icelandic sheep, see my article here.

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