The Good Living Guide to Keeping Sheep and Other Fiber Animals: Housing, Feeding, Shearing, Spinning, Dyeing, and More

by Janet Garman

Overview

A comprehensive and inspiring guide small-scale fiber farming and wool crafting.

Fiber crafts—such as knitting, weaving, and crocheting—continue to surge in popularity, with sites like Ravelry (a social media community for the wool obsessed) gaining more than six million members. Artists are seeking quality raw materials in greater numbers. The cottage industry of supplying not only raw fleece, but handcrafted yarns, is strong.

Janet Garman has a small fiber flock (including Pygora fiber goats) and shares her expertise, as well as interviews, tips, and advice from fiber farmers and craftspeople across the country. In these pages, readers will learn the basics of properly raising sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, and rabbits, with tips on selecting animals, feeding, housing, breeding, and healthcare. From there, instructions are provided for shearing, sorting, skirting, washing, picking, carding, combing, and spinning the wool. Enthusiasts will also find recipes and instructions for natural, plant-based dyes and advice for selling your finished yarn.

The proper care of fiber animals leads to a superior yarn product. Lapses in good care can show up in the fleece. As the demand for quality yarn and fiber grows, more people are becoming concerned with the animals’ treatment and care. Give your animals a good home and a happy life and enjoy superior fleece and yarn products for your own homestead or to sell.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781680994056
Publisher:	Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date:	02/19/2019
Series:	Good Living Guide
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	28 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Janet Garman is a farmer and freelance writer in Maryland. A career in writing began after the nest emptied. All the years of studying farm management and raising many species of livestock along with a full house of children led her to begin sharing her experience in a farm theme blog and website, timbercreekfarmer.com. Janet's background includes a degree in large animal farm management and animal science from University of Maryland and decades of farm and homesteading experience. Her other books are 50 DIY Projects for Your Chickens,Chickens from Scratch, Raising Your Own Chickens from Hatch to Egg Laying and Beyond, Habitat Housing for Rabbits, and Margarita and the Beautiful Gifts. She lives in Crownsville, Maryland.
Janet Garman is a farmer and freelance writer in Maryland. A career in writing began after the nest emptied. All the years of studying farm management and raising many species of livestock along with a full house of children led her to begin sharing her experience in a farm theme blog and website, timbercreekfarmer.com. Janet's background includes a degree in large animal farm management and animal science from University of Maryland and decades of farm and homesteading experience. Her other books are 50 DIY Projects for Your Chickens,Chickens from Scratch, Raising Your Own Chickens from Hatch to Egg Laying and Beyond, Habitat Housing for Rabbits, and Margarita and the Beautiful Gifts. She lives in Crownsville, Maryland.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Choosing Animals and Making a Plan x

Part I All About Sheep 1

Acquiring Sheep and Basic Care 3

Choosing and Buying Sheep 3

Preparing to Bring Home Sheep 9

Housing 10

Fencing 14

Feeding 16

Sheep Health Care and Concerns 25

Vaccinations 29

Common Diseases 30

Sheep Management 42

Breeding Sheep 48

Keeping Health Records and Care Instructions 54

Part II Goats, Llamas and Alpacas, and Rabbits 57

Fiber Goats 59

What is Cashmere? 60

Choosing and Buying Goats 61

Horns or No Horns? 61

Feeding Fiber Goats 62

Housing and Fencing for Fiber Goats 62

Shearing a Fiber Goat 63

Preparing the Goat Fiber for Processing 67

Llamas and Alpacas 71

Llamas versus Alpacas 71

Housing and Feeding 72

Llama and Alpaca Health 72

Rabbits 77

Housing 78

Feeding 79

Part III Shearing and Processing Fibers 81

Shearing and Preparing the Fleece 83

Shearing Day 83

Skirting 90

Scouring/Washing the Fleece 93

Carding and Combing 95

Hiring a Fiber Mill to Process Your Fleeces 97

Natural Dyes for Wool 103

Tools for Naturally Dyeing Homestead Wool 104

Mordants and Modifiers 105

Color Modifiers 106

Dye Recipes 107

Other Common Plant Dyes 122

Powdered Natural Dyes 123

Part IV Working with Yam 129

Spinning 131

Woolen versus Worsted Spinning 131

Plying or Plied Yarn 131

Yarn weights 132

Yarn Tools 133

Knitting 135

Knitting Abbreviations 135

Crocheting 137

Crocheting Abbreviations 137

Weaving 139

Embroidery, Tapestry, and Crewelwork 141

Rug Making 142

Felting 143

Selling Your Farm-Raised Fleeces and Handmade Yarns and Products 146

Selling a Raw Fleece 147

Can Raising a Fiber Flock Be Profitable? 147

Selling on the Internet 148

Wool Pools 149

Sheep and Wool Festivals 149

Acknowledgments 152

Recommended Resources 153

Index 155

Editorial Reviews

This is such an amazing resource and can be enjoyably read from cover to cover. As someone with some livestock experience who is preparing to branch out to fiber animals, I found answers to most of my questions. I highly recommend this book!”  —Jess Lane, The 104 Homestead, 104homestead.com

“If you are considering a fiber flock, this would be a great addition to your library! Covers a wide variety of topics from purchasing your sheep all the way to marketing your wool.” —Sandra Morris, Mitten State Sheep & Wool

"A must read for any homesteader or fledgling fiber animal enthusiast. In my earliest homesteading days, I bought a fiber flock with best of intentions and not-so-perfect outcomes.  If I had a copy of The Good Living Guide to Keeping Sheep and Other Fiber Animals back then I surely would have saved myself from stress and heartache, as well as avoided the embarrassment of poorly invested homesteading dollars. This practical guide has everything that you need to keep a happy, healthy, and productive fiber flock!" —Devon Young, blogger at NittyGrittyLife.com and author of The Backyard Herbal Apothecary

"As a long-time fiber enthusiast, I am so pleased with The Good Living Guide to Keeping Sheep and Other Fiber Animals! For a textile nerd, there's just nothing finer than raising your own fleeces, and this book can easily empower you to begin with just a few, well-chosen animals. There is a lot of inspiration and experience in these pages, along with plenty of tips and tricks to make fiber animals a reality for any homesteader. Just think of running your hands through the fibers you grew on your own land!" —Tessa Zundel, author of The Do It Yourself Homestead

“This comprehensive guide to raising a backyard flock of fiber animals guides the fiber artist to true self-reliance. It covers everything the artist-shepherd needs to raise her own medium including growing the fiber animals, preparing the fiber, natural dyeing, basic fiber arts techniques, and marketing the finished products. This can-do guide points the way to successful fiber farming.” —Christine Dalziel, author of The Beeswax Workshop

“This is such an amazing resource and can be enjoyably read from cover to cover. As someone with some livestock experience who is preparing to branch out to fiber animals, I found answers to most of my questions. I highly recommend this book!”  —Jess Lane, The 104 Homestead, 104homestead.com

From the Publisher

This is such an amazing resource and can be enjoyably read from cover to cover. As someone with some livestock experience who is preparing to branch out to fiber animals, I found answers to most of my questions. I highly recommend this book!” —Jess Lane, The 104 Homestead, 104homestead.com

Jess Lane

This comprehensive guide to raising a backyard flock of fiber animals guides the fiber artist to true self-reliance. It covers everything the artist-shepherd needs to raise her own medium including growing the fiber animals, preparing the fiber, natural dyeing, basic fiber arts techniques, and marketing the finished products. This can-do guide points the way to successful fiber farming.” —Christine Dalziel, author of The Beeswax Workshop

Christine Dalziel

"A must read for any homesteader or fledgling fiber animal enthusiast. In my earliest homesteading days, I bought a fiber flock with best of intentions and not-so-perfect outcomes. If I had a copy of The Good Living Guide to Keeping Sheep and Other Fiber Animals back then I surely would have saved myself from stress and heartache, as well as avoided the embarrassment of poorly invested homesteading dollars. This practical guide has everything that you need to keep a happy, healthy, and productive fiber flock!" —Devon Young, blogger at NittyGrittyLife.com and author of The Backyard Herbal Apothecary

Devon Young

"As a long-time fiber enthusiast, I am so pleased with The Good Living Guide to Keeping Sheep and Other Fiber Animals! For a textile nerd, there's just nothing finer than raising your own fleeces, and this book can easily empower you to begin with just a few, well-chosen animals. There is a lot of inspiration and experience in these pages, along with plenty of tips and tricks to make fiber animals a reality for any homesteader. Just think of running your hands through the fibers you grew on your own land!" —Tessa Zundel, author of The Do It Yourself Homestead

Tessa Zundel

If you are considering a fiber flock, this would be a great addition to your library! Covers a wide variety of topics from purchasing your sheep all the way to marketing your wool.” —Sandra Morris, Mitten State Sheep & Wool

Sandra Morris