Friday Fleece – Badger

Patchwork Badger…

supplied the fleece  for this week’s challenge. Badger is my only Jacob Sheep bottle baby.  In keeping with my practice of allowing the ewes to lamb where ever they like (within the confines of their fence, of course),  Badger’s dam, St. Jude’s Janice lambed at the top of the hill. I heard screaming at 3 am and went out to find Badger at the very bottom of the hill while Janice worked to clean a second lamb.  In later years, Janice has gotten over her habit of butting anyone that touches her newborn lambs, but she was still into it at this time (her fourth lambing).  With one lamb tucked under each arm and one hand on Janice’s horn holding her away from me, we made the VERY long trip up the hill to the barn. 
The next day, I was still having to hold Janice for Badger to nurse and Janice was still butting Badger. Since Badger was the four horned ewe I had REALLY been hoping for from a Junco/Janice cross, I made the decision to bottle feed her.  Janice has since gone on to successfully raise twins without assistance , as has Badger. And I have confined the sheep at night to a flatter area!

Badger’s fleece is a “down” type. I wish I’d thought to grab a lock before I picked it, but I didn’t. This is the only remotely intact lock.

As you can see (maybe), the lock structure is nearly square and short. There is very little luster. But, it’s big on ‘stretch factor’….

going from ~ 3″ staple length to a just over 5″ fiber length.  Although this fleece does not have a clearly defined crimp, it has a lot of crimp – that’s what makes it stretch.   I love the diversity that I find in my Jacob flock.  Badger’s fleece is wonderful  for knitting, especially for socks. It’s not my favorite type of Jacob fleece (although Badger is one of my favorite ewes), but it is part of what makes the breed so interesting.