by Stephany Wilkes | May 15, 2018 | Craft, Sheep Shearing
That’s a sentence I never expected to type. A couple of years ago, I started organizing notes, journal entries, and voice notes recorded during long hours of driving into a book, and the supportive, lovely folks at Oregon State University Press are publishing...
by Stephany Wilkes | Mar 23, 2018 | Craft, Sheep Shearing
Peak shearing season (January through June) has reached its halfway mark, though many folks perceive March and April as its beginning. This is the time of year when I receive a surprising amount of email along the lines of “Can I come shearing with you?”...
by Stephany Wilkes | Jan 19, 2018 | Sheep Shearing
Emily Chamelin, who must be one of the top shearers in the world (certainly in the U.S.), alerted fellow shearers to some unfortunate news today, news I want to share here. Current and prospective shearing clients: I now charge more to shear sheep with metal Scrapie...
by Stephany Wilkes | Dec 3, 2017 | Fleece and Fiber, Sheep, Sheep Shearing
Folks love stories of so-called Shrek sheep, found God knows where with years’ worth of wool growth (and living proof that sheep do not “just shed” their wool if left alone in nature). But, as a shearer, those stories used to create nothing but...
by Stephany Wilkes | Oct 17, 2017 | Fleece and Fiber, Sheep, Sheep Shearing
If you had told me I’d end up in Vogue, and for sheep shearing no less, I’d have called you a liar. But there it is. I am so grateful to this esteemed publication for showing where our clothes come from, and for telling the world about the most wonderful...
by Stephany Wilkes | Jun 24, 2017 | Sheep Shearing
“Where are you from?” people ask. “Where do you live?” “I-80,” I say. The name of this business still holds, though. Interstate 80 is transcontinental, inching east-west (or, I dare say, west-east) from San Francisco, California to...
