Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. Thomas Merton

Sunday, May 2, 2010

A Curly Pig Tale

Perhaps of interest to the spinners out there--





Mangalitsa, a rare breed of European pig that originated in Austria and Hungary. The name has several spelling variations. From Wikipedia, I found that the Serbian name is Mangalica and means "hog with a lot of lard." A zoo in the UK has recently imported three of them in an attempt to save them from extinction. A British variation of the "sheep pig" was once a common sight in Lincolnshire and was shorn once a year to make sweaters from the hair, but they became extinct in Britain in 1972 according to an article at Scribd.com http://http//www.scribd.com/doc/30350048/Mangalitza-Sheep-Pigs




Additional information at
http://http//www.scribd.com/doc/30350048/Mangalitza-Sheep-Pigs

http://http//www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/swine/mangalitsa/index.htm

http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangalitsa

http://http//www.pawnation.com/tag/mangalitza/


7 comments:

  1. Wow, what a sight. I have never heard of this animal. I can see why it would be a sheep/pig. It does look a bit piggy and sheepy at the same time.

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  2. There are even folks who think that someone crossed a sheep with a pig to get that result, but they are a natural critter.

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  3. I've never seen a creature like that...makes me appreciate the sheep and the pig even more, this one looks a bit unnatural to me...like a labradoodle,(mix between a labrador and poodle) remember those fadish dogs? Smile today. :)

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  4. I saw this on Facebook the other day and so many folks were going on about how cute it is. All I could think is that is one ugly sheep/pig. They were saying that the fiber is really coarse.
    I wonder if it oinks like a regular pig?

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  5. I've never heard of this before. Very interesting.

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  6. Yes, Robin. From a knitting aspect, from what I've read, the wool is supposed to be coarse. I can't imagine wearing a sweater knit from it.

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