project fleece

Welcome to anyone who stumbles across my blog. I hope you enjoy my musings about sheep and spinning.

It is hard to buy a fleece. At least, for me it was. I have been trying to purchase one since January and it is now the last day of April. I am a new spinner and had the idea, as so many new spinners do, that I should buy a fleece and process it from scratch. Little did I realize that that was going to be rather a time consuming endeavour. Like everything, getting your hands on a fleece is all about "knowing the right people".

I tried a local farmer approximately 45 miles north of me and after three emails, a visit down to the Green Barn Farmers Market in Toronto in which said farmer told me to call her and we could set up something, and no response from the first voicemail and two additional phone calls, I was getting very discouraged. A knitting friend even enquired at the Market for me and she was told by the farmer's "Communications Person" that the said farmer was too busy to call someone like me who was only trying to buy a fleece. So much for trying to support local people! I guess I am sounding bitter and I don't mean to be but I had hoped to buy a local fleece but they did not seem to want to sell it to me. I had to go further afield. SO I have decided to get a fleece from Orillia from someone my spinning teacher has recommended.

This has led me to some interesting questions. Why it is so hard to buck the status quo and make something from local products instead of going to the GAP or Walmart? Why are we encouraged to shop local and then it proves to be so hard? I don't mean to slam the aforementioned farmer, but if they are too busy to deal with me, how do we set things up so they are not?

BIG SIGH. I still don't have the fleece yet but I will soon...I hope!