Spinning Yarns
The Wellman family is five generation ranchers from Northwestern Colorado with a rich traditions in sheep. In the 1920’s my great grandfather partnered with his neighbor to bring the first 500 sheep to their homesteads in Thornburgh, Colorado. We have been raising registered Corriedales since 1976. Since that time we have grown and developed a flock that is focused on outstanding productive traits and beautiful fleeces.
As an agriculturalist I have a passion to connect people to their food,and in the case of Wellman Family Corriedales, their fiber. One of my favorite parts of the business is taking rams and ewes to fiber festivals where they can interact with the animals and get an understanding of their personality and see the compassion producers have for their flocks.
Additionally, it has been a blessing to bring the handspinning sheep up to North Park and give the students of the North Park Agricultural program come out and assist with blanketing the sheep, which we do to keep the fleeces clean from plant matter. Also, students are taught about wool quality and the factors that determine the uses of different types of fiber.
We sell our wool in 3 forms the raw fleece, roven and yarn. Many people who handspin like to take the fiber straight from animal, wash it, card it and then use either a drop spindle or a spinning wheel to make yarn. We have some fleeces processed by Yampa Valley Fiberworks in Craig to take our wool further on in the process. Roven is when the fleece is washed and carded ready to spin. Depending on how fine a fleece is depends on the type of yarn we then choose for them to spin in to. Some is spun to a heavier weight called a worsted weight, lighter weights are called sport weights and some have been blended with either bamboo or silk.
