In late May, at the peak of lilac season, I drove up to Windy Knob Farms between Omena and Northport to buy a corriedale fleece. Although the farm itself has been around for a very long time, only recently have the current owners begun raising corriedale sheep.
The current owners, Marek and Dan:
Dan and Marek have put a huge effort into establishing a fine herd of natural colored sheep. They’ve also got a guard llama, chickens, and the most spectacular views of the best of Leelanau county. Looking east from their porch you can see lilac bushes in the foreground and Grand Traverse Bay in the background. The southward view from the farmhouse is of some beautiful cherry orchards. It is a most lovely farm. Looking east:
And they have lovely sheep with lovely fleece. I bought Lisa’s fleece. Lisa has a light-to-medium grey fleece, very nice crimp, very soft. The staple length was on the short side, 3-3 ½ inches, because they’d had her sheared earlier to avoid a “break” in the fleece. But the fiber was so very nice.
Lisa and friends on the hoof:
Here's Lisa off the hoof:
I originally planned to wash and card Lisa’s fleece myself, but I realized that I don’t have the time. So last Saturday, when I went to the Fiber Arts Festival in Charlevoix, I took Lisa’s fleece with me and I dropped it off with Deb McDermott of Stonehedge Fiber Mill to have prepared into roving.
I look forward to spinning Lisa. And I look forward to future visits to Windy Knob Farms.
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