[Brucklay]

So Hazel have been loosing a bit of fleece to decided to give rooing a go - actually quite therapeutic and she wasn't too bothered - having removed most of her fleece a few bit left which may need clipped later if they don't fall off or I get them I stood back and thought not a bad job - went to the internet to do a bit of research - yes I know should have been done before the act only to find if I don't a good job the fleece would have been in one piece not 5000!!! Can't see me ever being able to do that - her she is

[Fleecewife]

Well done    The bits which wouldn't come off should be ready in a couple of weeks.  Mine are not usually ready to roo until May at the earliest, but sheep do vary.
There are two very different ways to roo.  One you peel the fleece off but need very strong hands, especially thumbs, or you use the edge of a blunt knife.  My OH does this with Soay.  The other is the way you have done, where you pull the locks off one by one - this is the handspinners way, as you can sort the fleece as you roo, putting the different qualities into different buckets, and you can usually spin straight form the buckets with no further preparation.

[in the hills]

Wow!

I love crafts and had thought about having a go at spinning our soay fleece but I never really found any. It was well dispersed, mainly lining birds nests!

I am not sure that my girls would stand still that long and it seemed to come off very gradually. I think its already started!

How do you know when it is the correct time to roo and how do you keep them still for that long?

[Fleecewife]

They are ready to roo when the wool starts to lift and is easy to pull off.  If you open the fleece you will see the 'rise' which is a greasy layer where the old wool slowed down growing over the winter and is now being pushed up by new growth coming on.  There needs to be about a centimetre of new growth or more before you start to roo. Pull each lock carefully and the old fleece will separate off at the rise.  Sorry, I Haven't got time just now to go into more detail.

To hold the sheep still, use a halter and tie her to a gate.  Sit on a low stool and put your knees one in front of her chest and one behind her backside to hold her in place, if you are doing the spinners method.  With a larger sheep you might not get it all done in one day.  For peeling a Soay my OH pretty much uses the normal shearing positions.

[Brucklay]

Here's a pic I've just taken of the first clump that came off Hazel. Thank you for the decription Fleecewife of what you should see, I can clearly see what I would describe as a greasy layer although it not come out as yellow in the picture - so that's the 'rise'

[suziequeue]

Amazing!!!

[Hermit]

We Roo for the shows, Shetlands up here anyway are supposed to be shown rooed. It leaves a lovely even clean fleece for the show ring. There is a good guide to rooing on the Shetland Sheep Society website , or was. The neck fleece is always the hardest but it comes off in time.

[Fleecewife]

Here's a pic I've just taken of the first clump that came off Hazel. Thank you for the decription Fleecewife of what you should see, I can clearly see what I would describe as a greasy layer although it not come out as yellow in the picture - so that's the 'rise'

Tecnically the rise is the very thin area where the new fibres are pushing at the old ones, but it's marked by the greasy layer, which was layed down in the winter when fleece growth slowed and the sheep needed to keep warm.

The clump you have got off is much bigger than any of my sheep would let me pull !  Mine make me do one or two locks at a time.  In fact it looks as if yours could have been peeled successfully.

As Hermit says, it leaves a lovely clean even fleece with Shetlands but Soays can sometimes look as if they have been skinned alive  probably because their fleece is shorter than a Shetland's.