Now for your listening pleasure we have Sandy talking about how to select a raw

fleece when you're in an auction or fleece buying situation. Welcome Sandy. Hi

Jasmine. So let's talk about picking fleeces. Let's talk about what's important,

what you look for, what you don't want to find. Let's talk about what happens when

you pick a fleece and you get to be hands-on first and then we'll talk about the

auction situation. It's a little bit different. Sometimes in the auction

situation we don't get to touch the fleeces and then we have a tougher

decision to make. When you're picking a fleece in a shop situation where you get

to put your hands right on it the first thing you want to do is smell of it. Does

it smell wrong and wrong is usually like sour or ill. Like maybe the animal

was ill. That's a big clear no sign. Don't even go near that fleece. Generally

it does mean the animal was ill or the fleece has been poorly treated and

transport. We don't see that very often. Hand spun or fleeces for hand

spinners are typically much better cared for. Usually from boutique growers who

really really care for their animals. They're often jacketed which means that

after shearing the sheep essentially wears a sweater and they continue to

change that covering out as the fleece underneath grows so as not to

mat. You don't want the fleece to grow through the cover or you lose the entire

crop of the fleece. You also like to find jacketed fleeces if you can because

they're less likely to grow mold or have sunburned tips. There was a bad wet

year a few years back where a number of the boutique growers lost their

entire fleece crop because they ended up with moldy fleeces. They were green

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