Phlox was born here on the 11th of March 2013. I was very lucky to witness the straight forward birth of her and her twin sister Smudge and capture some lovely shots of their first moments with their mum Fern. Phlox and Smudge were born as a result of their dad Pancake hopping over the fence one night to reach the ewes. Their existence is a very happy accident. We have quite a few sheep we can say the same about. Phlox was a very cute friendly lamb but as she grew up she got less friendly and wilder. In 2018 Phlox had her first and only lamb a stunning ewe lamb who we named Pepsi. The birth was not straight forward and as I was pregnant with my son Ollie at the time I couldn’t intervene to help but luckily me neighbours were on hand to safely deliver Pepsi. Phlox was a super mum and she became a lot friendlier once again when she had Pepsi although she still remains one of the wilder sheep in the flock. In 2018 I used her fleece to weave two small seat pads which are now much loved by a lady in England. Phlox has a coarse fleece which reminds me of a Welsh Mountain hill fleece. The fibers are quite straight and there is lots of kemp which makes the wool very durable and great for weaving rugs or needle felting. I have used her fleece quite a bit for needle felting. It is good core wool for building a solid base and I have also dyed the white wool and used it to make hanging stars for Christmas. If Phlox’s fleece was sold to the wool marketing board it would be totally undervalued and only fetch about 30p. I value all our sheep’s fleeces and the different uses each fleece is suitable for. I wouldn’t be able to create such sturdy needle felted animals if it wasn’t for fleeces such as Phlox’s which are the foundation core wool of many of my needle felted animals.
