07.29.08
For the Shear Love of It
One experience I had during our visit to the Isle of Man was only made possible because of my very good friends there. Maybe I should go back a tad further and say that my Aussie friend, Helen, started it a couple years ago by rekindling my knitting and yarn addiction. 
Well, since my friends at the IoM knew of this interest, and that I was interested in sheep and curious to know if they had any sheep shearing exhibitions there, they arranged a very nice surprise for us–a “private” viewing of sheep shearing where we got not only front row viewing, but hands on experience. This was totally unexpected, but very much enjoyed and appreciated by me. Brian and I would have not had this opportunity had it not been for them, not only in contacting these shearers, but also in finding that place which, honestly, I would never have found by the descriptions such as, “oh, over there where these such and such trees grow,” ha! Sadly, I’m very nature and wildlife challenged having grown up in a concrete city and all that foliage looked similar to me. Well, I do exaggerate, but not by much! Brian knew how much this meant to me, so he made sure to take quite a few pics. The first step taken for the shearing process was to corral the sheep. Next the shearer prepared his tools and then picked out one of the sheep to shear. Here he is positioning the sheep for shearing. Notice how nice and fluffy it is as this is a “before” picture.
Once he had the sheep in position, he started to clip away at the upper fleece around the neck with hand shears. After he got to a certain point, he continued to shear with the electric shearers. Apparently, it depends upon how long or thick the fleece is as to whether they are ready to be sheared or not. They told us that when the fleece is not ready to come off yet, it’s too thick and dense to even get the blades in. At that point hand shearing works better, but even so, it’s more difficult. So they prefer to wait until the fleece is longer and practically ready to fall off. As a matter of fact, the sheep in the pic on the right has a patch where it looks like some fleece already came off on its own. The next pic shows that he’s transferred from manual clippers to the electric shears.
Here is the fleece that was shorn.
And here is the sheep “after” the hair cut. . .
Ah, I hope she felt much fresher after that.
As with so many other issues in our world, one complaint has been of cruelty to animals. I know there are a group of knitters out there who refuse to use animal fibers because of animal cruelty issues. Well, I’m sure there is some or even a lot out there, but just the mere shearing of sheep is not a cruel act, as far as I see. And now that I’ve seen shearing first hand, I know that it doesn’t have to be a cruel and terrible process for the animals. The sheep at this shearing didn’t appear distressed and one even fell asleep while it was being shorn. Here’s a pic of it sleeping during it’s haircut.
Now these shearers are very friendly people. We were cautious to stay out of their way and not cause any trouble. I was thrilled just to be able to see the process firsthand, but then I was told that it was okay for me to touch the sheep, too, if I liked! Granted most of the sheep don’t let you just go up and touch them, but there was one little baby sheep that was okay with it because at birth his momma abandoned him and so he was bottle fed since birth. That regular bottle feeding made him used to people touching and picking him up. I got to carry that little cutie.
And so did Brian. Didn’t I say that he had touch any animals he could? Tee hee. I could see the little kid in him come out when around animals.
But that wasn’t the end of it. These fine people were so hospitable. I really must learn to be so hospitable. I was offered to try my hand at shearing. Here I am trying to get the sheep in position.
And another shot with me actually getting a chance at doing some of the ‘ole snip, snip.
This was my very first experience to see sheep shearing “live,” and not only was I able to carry a baby one, I was able to experience a little of how to shear one. And not just any sheep, either, but a Manx Loaghtan sheep, a breed we don’t have available here. Now how many city girls get to experience that? Ha! I really love the Isle of Man and it’s people. I’m so glad that there are still people there who value working with the land and their traditions.
Marlakins
