Every April and October, the Guernsey people gather to help shear the Guernsey Squirrels. Dozens of small squirrel farms host weekends where community members are welcomed onto the properties where they join hands and circle around the squirrels, gathering them into caged domes where they await careful hand-selection for the shearing of their pompadours.
Unlike other livestock, the Guernsey squirrel enjoys being sheared. Skilled hands can shear over forty squirrels per minute! It is, after all, just one quick sweep across the forehead with a pair of clippers to yield a lop of silken fur.
The shorn pompadours are collected on a table and prepared for spinning
After the fur is prepared, the women of Guernsey Squirrel Farms spin the fibers into a silken yarn.
Gender roles are blurred on the island of Guernsey, and men tend to be the ones who knit the fibers from the Guernsey squirrel into products which are sold around the world.
Pictured here is a typical Guernsey lad creating a final product out of the dyed fibers!
