11. The Argali - a wild sheep fleece

Also known as the mountain sheep, it is the largest wild sheep roaming the highlands of Central Asia.

The small batch I had in my Advent calendar comes from a family in Mongolia who sells it for 20 years and the supplier is buying it directly from them.

Female sheep reach a height of 135 cm and weigh up to 216 kg. The winter fleece is brown. 

The fleece I spun comes from sheep who are kept as pasture animals whose winter fleece it is combed off, not shorn. It has between 17-19 microns.

It is by far the finest and most lustrous fleece I ever spun, the closest thing I can compare it to is cotton fleece, and it is light as a cloud. 

I have a very small quantity to do anything with it so it will most probably be combined with others as part of the shawlette I plan to knit once I have all the Advent calendar spun and I have done my selection. I hope to get more similarly smooth yarns, I have a couple of these mini skeins already that would match perfectly with this one.

Plying it made me feel like I was part of an ancient melody, the yarn flows so smoothly through my fingers, it feels like love and magic, and wonderful stories told deep in winter by the fireplace. The shawl name I will knit with this yarn is called Lelu, which is Finnish for "song".