That's Michelle Aplin in the middle telling spinners all about her Finnsheep flock that has grown from 19 to 90. Finnish Landrace first arrived in New Zealand in the 1980s and was released from quarantine in 1990. It has a fine wool of high luster.
Too bad I met Michelle on the third week of my trip and had already accumulated a large duffel bag of wool. Still, I managed to squeeze in three kilos of her luscious fiber (white, black and a two-toned gray), thanks to Pat Old who packed Patsy Zawistoski's wool when the latter was visiting New Zealand. Pat's advice: put the fiber in a strong plastic bag, use a vacuum cleaner to suck out all the air, tie the end tightly, fold it over and tie again. It worked! I brought back to the US 25 kilos of wool. That's more than 50 lbs packed in a duffel bag and a half.
Below, more fibery goodness.
