This is a Hogget Fleece from an Icelandic ewe lamb (female) rather than a ram (male).  And here is the Wikipedia definition of Hogget 

Hogget is the name of the first shearing of a sheep older than 3 months, and is the best wool that animal will ever give. It still has the unsheared lamb's wool, yet it is longer. Hand spinners prize such wool.

The lamb's name is Jade and she was raised by Owen for his 4H project.  She is a showgirl and won the Best Fleece, Grand Champion, Champion Bred and Owned, Overall Supreme Fleece at the 2018 Cumberland Fair here in Maine.  Owen is a family acquaintance, the grandson of a dear friend, and was a real friend to my father Maynard when my Dad was in his 80s and Owen was 5.  They bonded over hunting, making things work, and building an awesome tree top hunting blind which, now that my father has passed away, Owen, who is now in his teens, uses during hunting season himself. 

The reasons for using this fleece for this project are all wound together.  First there is the quality of the fleece itself, and the fact that it is Icelandic.  The original shawl was made with Shetland but, upon doing a bit of historical research, I have discovered that the DNA for Shetland and Icelandic sheep is very, very close indeed.  The Shetland sheep have been more carefully bred in the last few hundred years, but both are also very similar to the sheep of Iceland and Greenland; in a word they are all coming from the Viking stock.

This wool was prepped by yet another spinner of my acquaintance, Jenny Underhill.  I judge the hand spinning and knitting from hand spun at the Cumberland Fair every fall for the last few years and I have come to recognize Jenny's hand spun on sight.  If the skein is very even, very smooth, no kink of any kind; in a word perfect then it is Jenny's.  She has a gift for perfection.  The prep on this fleece is as close to perfect as I have seen.  It is very lofty, soft, no signs of felting or vegetable matter, and in every way worthy of the high quality of the fleece itself.

The skein below is an example of my spinning which is not as perfect as Jenny's but not too bad.  I will ply two strands together once I get enough spun up to sort and match the subtle grey shades of the natural color of the wool.

If you were here and could lift the lid of this cedar chest you, too, could be overwhelmed by the wonderful smell of cedar and clean washed wool.  The chest itself, handily enough, is exactly the right height to sit on for spinning on my Canadian Production Wheel.  The wheel itself is approximately 100 year or so old and has a whole story attached to its history which I will go into in a later post.  But for now let me just tell you that the smell of the whole combo is divine and I wish so much that I could share it with you.

And here is nice picture of the Cedar chest that my Joe bought me for Christmas in order to fend off further moth invasions.  It was built by Graham Wood Works and purchased through Etsy.  Here is  the link if you would like to look into getting one for yourself or for someone you love. 
https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1550836901?campaign_label=proteus_transaction_buyer_notification_v2&utm_source=transactional&utm_campaign=proteus_transaction_buyer_notification_010170_239798626671_0_0&utm_medium=email&utm_content=&email_sent=1544785958&euid=tNJg1PdROwZWLRY4y9ZwBtfXdoL6&eaid=444903602150&x_eaid=04b0b9e66d

Close up shot of the fly wheel (or maiden) of the Canadian Production Wheel.  Do you see the little grooves that years and years of spinning have worn into the wood.  This is a spinning wheel with a lot of experience.

This is a photo of My Ancestress which was the everyday Shetland Hap shawl worn by the women who needed a shawl for warmth and wear and didn't particularly care if it fit through a wedding ring (which was the standard for the fancy and expensive Shetland lace shawls that were produced and sold to the richer folks).  You can find the pattern for it if you wish to make your own on my pattern page and also a bit of a write up on why and how I made this shawl in the first place.  There is a tragic end to this story and the villain of the tale is the MOTH.  Late last spring I noticed suspicious flying creatures around my basket of shawls that I keep out for the winter.  Upon examination I realized that there had been moth spread from some unwashed fiber in my stash into the shawl basket and that two of the shawls (this one and the red EZimmerman Pi are Squared shawl) were among the victims.  Unfortunately I was completely unable to cope with the situation as it required at that time due to a long drawn out flare of my Crohn's Disease which I have had for the last 50 years or so, since I was a child in elementary school, which will periodically interfere with my ability to cope with the demands of daily life.  So I just tossed the suspected victims into a garbage bag and placed them in isolation, and expelled the unwashed fiber to the land fill.   Two months or so later I was able to go through my fiber more thoroughly, mend some of the less egregious moth damage on a couple of the shawls, but had to admit that my two absolute favorites had suffered irreversible damage and had to be tossed out as well.  I was too sad to even discuss it for a while.

Finally this fall I told Joe, my husband, about the losses and because he is awesome and the best husband on the planet he began to do research into how to ward off moth menaces in the future.  For Christmas he ordered a hand made cedar chest which is very fragrant and now sitting in the studio with 2.7 pounds of grey Icelandic hoggit (lamb fleece).  There will be more pictures of the chest, the fleece, stories about the source of the fleece, who did the prep, etc., where I will go on and on about my long term project which is....

I am going to make another one, not exactly the same of course, but similiar and in the Hap Shawl tradition.  I will be spinning the wool, making the shawl but a bit bigger this time I think for drama.  This particular project will go on for months so you will be getting updates interspersed with other, less ambitious projects that I am working on.  I have resolved to make myself whole and rise from the ashes.  I'll have to think of another name for this one -- may be the Phoenix Hap Shawl?  Feel free to leave suggestions.

This is a photo of the studio this morning, with the intense northern light blasting in through the 1910 glass windows.  I just wanted to show you all the love gifts that randomly show up in my day.

The yellow couch and the glass top coffee table are gifts from my sister Peg. 

The green leaf pillow on the couch and the knitted lace curtains reflected in the glass top were both made in Hawaii over 15 years ago.  The lace curtains were knit to go in the windows of that Hawaiian house that we were planning on building, but we only built it in our minds.  When we moved into this New England home they fit perfectly in that window...so evidently I actually made them for this house. 

The white lace blanket on the couch was made by me from Harrisville yarn well over 30 years ago.  It is a single ply undyed wool that Harrisville no longer carries, but if you click through you'll find the closest thing they have right now.  I remember wrapping my son Blake in it to take him out to see the moon.  He is now 31 and has a baby boy of his own.

The beautiful vase is a gift from my friends when they came by last spring for a Soup Day with the R&R Spinners.  The tulips are a gift from my friend Ollie Groves who came by the house last Saturday for dinner with her husband, Joe's cousin Karl.  The green coffee mug is a gift from my son Joshua and his Patti.  It has become a regular morning feature since I received this Christmas. The half mitts are knit up from Peacefleece wool and the pattern is available.  The white nubby blanket that you can see through the glass is a baby blanket that my Great-Grandmother made for my brother Mike (who is now 57ish years old).  And the project in the middle of it all is the one I am currently working on....a pair of Christmas socks for my sister Peg which she will receive as soon as they are done.  I'm pretty flexible about the Christmas gifts.  You might get a Christmas gift at any time.

I have had friends ask me how I manage to stay so happy and hopeful despite some pretty rough chapters in my life.  This is it.....all the love.  I am grateful for all the love.

 Adam is also showing the hat with the bottom edge folded up.  My husband Joe is always moving the band up and down to adjust the temperature on his head.  Rolled up like this your ears are warmer but your forehead is cooler.  I have seen him roll it up like a yarmulke when he is working outside...which looks rather silly but is evidently cooler for him.  He and Adam have the same "haircut" and Joe's hat is very similar to Adam's, although it is 10 years older.  When it is warn out I will replace it, but evidently these things last forever.