The Spinning Shearer

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Greenfield, NH
The Spinning Shearer

Hi, Sarah here! My love for fiber arts and animals pushed me to pursue shearing in 2025 and I absolutely love it.

Based out of Central New Hampshire and serving Northern New England Hello, I am Sarah Hegener and excited to start my journey as a sheep shearer. I am a fiber artist who went down the rabbit hole of processing raw fleece into spinnable fiber in early 2024. I have dived deep into processing fiber and became enthralled with sheep shearing. I attended the VT Sheep Shearing school in Shelburne, VT in the fall of 2024 and have been working along side other professional shearers as often as I can. My prior experience working with angora rabbits helped immensely in adding sheep to my services. If you are interested in hiring me, please fill out my Jotform (found under "website") and I will get back to you as soon as I am able.

10/29/2026

I forgot to take pictures at the first stop but I got 3 stops done today from Wolfeboro, NH to Amesbury, MA. Why so spread out? Because I don't have a lot of fall shearing, and I'm trying to condense my days. It was a long day but good clients and hopefully next year the sheep remember that I'm not so bad. Had a big serving of humble pie today but I still got it done.
Corriedales, Romneys, Finns, and a Shetland (who I milked, again!). 5 ewes crutched, 7 sheep fully shorn, and 13 sheep got their hooves trimmed.

10/26/2026

Had a great time shearing at Cathy's Farm today. Her Finns are lovely, only had a bit of trouble with one wether who took a while to settle down, and her big ewe Millie is just a solid chunk of a girl and she got a little too far away from my machine.

Speaking of machine, I set up my Heiniger One drop machine! After using them for all but one sheep at shearing school, I want to set this up as often as I can and keep working on my form. I had to tighten the tension retaining ring on my handpiece because I couldn't tighten the tension past it. Pretty sure the tension issues I had using it before were mostly just user error and not being comfortable enough with it to diagnose issues. It worked great for me today, only had the last one get too far out of position on me.

10/26/2026

Had an amazing time at the Advanced Shearing School held by CT Sheep Breeders Association. Colin, Siri, and Matt were great instructors and we had a good number of sheep. I would have liked to shear more, but we ran out of time, but I'm happy I got to do as many as I did. We got so many great pointers and parts to focus on and improve.

I definitely want to use my drop machine more after mostly using them here. I still need to work on keeping the sheep in position on the board but I made a lot of improvement. I do need a new tension pin for my handpiece though, it's a bit worn since it was bought second-hand. I also got most of my gear sharpened, and the rest Matt took to finish sharpening for me.

This was a great time. We had a nice small group and it was great to meet the other students I didn't know, as well as spend more time with Carolina S. , Sierra Nicole Hamilton , and rachel . Hopefully they hold this again, it's a very beautiful part of CT, and I'm glad I got to do a little sightseeing as well.

10/20/2026

I'm going to be going through the wool I have in the next month. Finishing up yard cleanup and cataloging what I have available. Fleeces can be split and purchased in pound increments for those who want to try different wools or colors.

10/16/2026

Only 32/112 days this year were single stop days. Even that sounds like a lot to me now but most were early in the season, bigger farms, or days I needed to get other things done. 80 other stops were 2-5 stops in a day. Only have a few clients left for fall shearing before the year is out, but they will be after the shearing school. Only a week left before I leave! I'm very excited, can't wait for all the valuable nuggets of wisdom I will pick up from the wonderful instructors. Hopefully I will be able to flow through the pattern better. I still feel like I take each part in separate steps instead of flowing through and having smooth transitions. I'm sure my footwork and handpiece movements need a lot of pointers as well. I still have a long ways to go, but I try to be better everytime I put my mocassins on.

Thanks to Sam for the photo from our last group shearing at Broken Boat Farm

10/13/2026

Some days... just don't go to plan. I stayed home to wash a bunch of wool, but my landlord was available to work on our furnace, so most of the day I had to ration water and also made the mistake of trying to wash a whole 4 lb fleece in a 5 gallon bucket... so that took longer. In the end, from 9am to 9pm I got about 5 lbs of wool scoured... thank the gods I got these immersion water heaters or I wouldn't have been able to do anything. I skirted 2 small fleeces and the extra pound maybe 2 of a bigger fleece that I washed.

Anyways, the white fleece is from a Border Leicester ewe named Phoebe at Four Hounds Farm. I have gotten several fleeces there after shearing and I promised to process this for him.

The colored fleece is a small portion of a mostly BFL cross wether named Coffee I got at Spinner Farm during the Wool Arts Tour. He has a good mix of colors on him and I am looking forward to using this. I am sure I will probably have plenty of that to sell once I get through skirting it. He was a bit of a messier boy than he first appeared, but there's a lot of fleece and some parts are quite clean. Theres definitely a difference in his britch wool, so I'll be separating that from the softer body.

Also I'll be looking for some pure white Finn wool for a client who wants more like she already bought from me that I blended with white satin angora. I dont remember where I got the finn from but I know a few clients who have Finns and I'll check with them first, but if you have other recommendations I'm willing to check them out if I can't get some on my own. I should only need a pound of raw wool. She is going to make her wedding veil from it, how cool is that?!

10/11/2026

Lots of fun shearing at Broken Boat Farm today. 5 of us were shearing and finished around 1pm for 45 sheep. Lots of itty bitty sheep and a few normal sized ones. These sheep are very friendly and easy to catch and shearing with friends always makes it easier.

10/10/2026

I sheared 3 sheep for demos at Ten Talents Farm in Greenfield today for the Wool Arts Tour. Thankfully the sheep behaved well and we didnt have anyone escape and run out into the road or anything. Very grateful to help out and be able to fill in for Malcolm who normally does this, and I finally got to meet him. The white fleece is from a full Rambouillet ewe and the colored one (there were two), are from Rambouillet x Corriedale ewes. It was very nice to work with Conrad and Ellen and share the process of shearing and skirting with many visitors.

10/10/2026

I'll be filling in, doing 3 sheep shearing demos at Ten Talents at La Bergerie Dumas today. I was not available tomorrow so we are doing all the shearing demos today at 11, 1, and 2. Malcolm is their regular shearer, and I actually was going to attend on my own to come to this farm first so I could finally meet him, but unfortunately he had a medical emergency come up. I wish Malcolm a speedy recovery, and hope I do well enough for the demos in his stead. Hopefully I'll be able to meet Malcolm at some point, I have heard many wonderful things about him and it's always nice to get to know other shearers in the area.

10/09/2026

Arnold got his haircut last night. He has matured into a very sweet boy and he behaved himself well this time. His owner was able to pluck most of his fiber off this time, so I just came in for the clean up. He will be spending time in the house while his fur starts to grow back. I'm not sure how old he is, but I'm thinking he and the two does I got from the same place are probably 5+years old now. Some breeds, like German angoras, tend to age faster, but rabbits have been known to live over 10 years. Arnold and my Mocha and Star are half Satin, half Giant angoras. Arnold is a pretty small guy, so he definitely takes after his dad, but he is not satinized. But he is still awfully cute and produces some nice fiber. Looking forward to seeing what Rickie does with it!

Address

420 Slip Rd
Greenfield, NH
03047

Website

https://form.jotform.com/243404325208145

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