What is a Featured Breed?

• "Featured Breed' is a way to highlight a certain breed or species within our event.

How will Shetland Sheep be Featured?

• A special award in the Fiber Arts Show (Items made with over 50% Shetland)
• A special class in the Fleece Show
• An ample supply of Shetland fiber available for purchase at the Fleece Sales
• Shetland available for viewing in the Live Fiber Animal Exhibit
• Live Demonstrations

Shetland Sheep Breed Information

Breed Information:

Shetlands are a small, hardy 'primitive' breed.   They have, for generations, been noted for their very soft and well crimped fleece.  The wool is the finest of all native breeds and shows an amazing variety of colours and markings.  All of these characteristics make Shetland fiber ideally suited to many uses from shawls to outerwear to blankets.

Shetland Sheep are an ancient, heritage breed that is known to have been in the Shetland Islands for approximately 1000 years, probably introduced by Scandinavian explorers.  The sheep are naturally short-tailed, hardy and adapt and flourish in a variety of climates.  

Shetland fiber is usually double coated, with a defined crimp, 20-25 microns.  A fleece is usually 2.5 -3.5 pounds.  They come in 11 main whole colors from dark black/brown to snow white and 30 recognized patterns and markings.    

Over the years, some Shetlands have been bred to be single coated, leading to even more variety in Shetland fleece qualities.

Fun Facts:

• As a primitive breed, Shetlands can shed their wool!  Typically in late spring they will start to shed their fiber and like pulling hair out of a brush you can pluck or roo it off them.  Rooed fleece can be amongst the softest because the fibres have no harsh cut ends as occurs with a sheared fleece.
• Recently, there has been ongoing attempts to preserve the Shetland Heritage breed's older characteristics, including the dual coats.
• Shetlands belong to the Northern European short-tailed group which also contains the Finnsheep, Norwegian Spaelsau, Icelandics, Romanovs and others.

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Fleece Types
Kindly/ Single Coated: (Bottom Right) Extremely soft! Short staple length of 2-4 inches and best for softest next-to the skin garments.
Longish and Wavy (Top Right): Most typically seen. Staple length of 4-6 inches. Spins very easily and best for worsted wool applications like in Fair Isle Sweaters.
Beaver/ Double Coated (Left): Long and Luxurious. Staple length of 6-10 inches but can be longer! The two coats are easily separated and can be spun together or separately.

More Information:
https://www.shetland-sheep.org.uk/
https://www.shetland-sheep.org/about-shetlands/

Books:
“In Sheep’s Clothing”, Nola and Jane Fournier, 1995.
“The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook”, Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius, 2009.

Fiber Arts Award: Featured Breed - 2025 Shetland & 2024 Gotland

2025 Shetland Fiber Arts Entries:

• Entries MUST contain 50% (or more) Shetland fiber
• Enter your item(s) under the appropriate Fiber Arts Category
• To be eligible for the award, select: 
  • ​Featured Breed Award -  option 2025 Shetland

Did you buy Gotland fiber or yarn in 2024?  Enter what you made!
Dorset Fiber Arts Entries:

• Entries MUST contain 50% (or more) Gotland fiber
• Enter your item(s) under the appropriate Fiber Arts Category
• To be eligible for the award, select: 
  • ​Featured Breed Award -  option 2024 Gotland

Fleece Show - Featuring Shetlands!

• Enter your Shetland Fleeces in the Fleece Show!
• Special Award for the Best Shetland Fleece!

Fleece Sale - Featuring Shetland!

Sell your Shetland Fleeces!

• Fleece can be entered as Show-Only, Show & Sale, or Sale-Only!
  

​Buy a Shetland Fleece or two or more!​

Live Fiber Animals - Featuring Shetland Sheep!

Come see Shetland Sheep up close in our Live Fiber Animal Exhibit in the Pavilion from these exhibitors! Learn all about the breed and fiber.

• Blue Mist Farm
• Mellabelle Farm
• Sleepy Hollow
• Wandering Creek Farm

Vendors - Featuring Shetland Sheep!

Visit these vendors featuring Shetland items:

Demonstrations - Featuring Shetland - TBA

Information TBA

Special Shetland Activity during Fiber Fusion - TBA

Information TBA