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You've Got to be Kidding

This last summer ('97), we had a sales booth at the Estes Park (Colorado) Wool Festival. There was a group of wonderful ladies selling weavings in the booth next to us, and during the day, as things slowed down, we would chat.

Since they were all interested in fibers, Jean pulled out a batt of her home prepared Navajo-Churro wool and showed it to one of the ladies, and asked if she had ever seen anything like it. "No" she said, "What is it?" When Jean said Navajo-Churro, the immediate response was "You've Got to be Kidding!" The first lady immediately called one of her friends over and pointing to the batt said "O.K. what is it?" The friend suggested a Merino cross , and when told Navajo-Churro blurted out, "You've Got to be Kidding". As the day progressed, the "experts" identified it as everything except Churro, (including a yearling Angora goat (mohair) and wool blend). Virtually every person, after being told Churro, would blurt out the same thing, and everyone behind the "expert" would chimed in as a chorus "You've Got to be Kidding".

On that weekend we educated quite a few fiber people about what a good Navajo-Churro fleece should be like.

Today (Aug. 13, '97) we received a message from a lady in Canada who had purchased one of Jean's Navajo-Churro fleeces. This lady had attended a workshop given by an expert in fleece of the Jacobs, Navajo-Churro, and Icelandic types, and offered a sample of Jean's fleece for inspection. The expert said that it could not be Navajo-Churro because they are only good for rugs, and went on to tell the lady that the fleece was probably a Merino-Romney cross. In this lady's message, she wondered if the fleece was truly Navajo-Churro, or was perhaps was the sheep's name "Churro".

Jean explained that "Yes, the fleece is Navajo-Churro, (pure bred 100% Navajo-Churro) and that the fleece is like the Navajo-Churro fleece from long ago, soft, long, lustrous, and without crimp.

I am sure that when the "expert" learns that the fleece is truly Navajo-Churro, she will say "You've Got to be Kidding!"

Education is a slow process of destroying the myth that all Navajo-Churro is harsh, coarse, wool only suitable for rugs. It is a real compliment to a breeder who works hard at regaining the old time fleeces, to hear "You've Got to be Kidding"

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Our fleeces are typical of good Churro wool. While there are other breeders that raise Navajo Churro sheep with the same type of fleece, most breeders do not take the time or make the effort to keep the fleece covered to insure clean and unweathered fiber.

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