General Information
Sheep shearing and fiber festival season is upon us, and my obsession is your gain. I will take your raw unwashed fleece and turn it into clean, soft, fluffy batts, loose bagged roving, or center-pull bumps. If you haven’t spun from a small mill processed fleece before, you are in for a real treat. Batts and roving can be spun many different ways from woolen to semi-worsted, depending on spinning technique and desired yarn. I will take care of the dirty work, and you will get back clean, lovely to spin batts and/or roving.
Washing prices are determined by the raw unwashed weight and the grease and dirt level of your fleece. If the fleece has not been skirted or prepped, I will do that, but I have to charge you for it! (see skirting below) Your fleece will then go through the washing process, and the clean dry fiber is weighed. The rest of the services are based on the clean weight of your fleece.
Based on your choice, your fiber will be processed into batts, loose roving, or center-pull bumps and carefully packaged up so it arrives nice, fluffy, and ready to spin.
Skirting and prepping :
Please skirt your fleece before sending it to be processed. Spread your fleece out on a large flat surface with the “pretty” cut side down so the “dirty” side is facing up. Remove anything and everything from around the outside edges of the fleece that look poopy, felted, matted, or globbed with grease. Carefully look over your fleece and pick out any bits of grass, hay, stickers, etc. that you would not want in your finished batts or roving. The better job you do skirting and prepping your fleece translates to a much better finished product. Turn the fleece over so the cut side is up. Look for and remove any second cuts(short chunks of wool).
Sorting and washing:
In preparation for washing your fleece, I separate the fleece by chunks of locks. Not quite lock by lock, but close. The fleece is placed in mesh laundry bags for washing. The fleece is given 3 washes and 2 rinses to ensure removal of all grease and dirt. The fiber is removed from the bags to air dry.
Picking:
Most fleeces will be sent through my Patrick Green Power Picker to open up the locks. Fine fleeces that are not sent through the picker will be opened up by hand during the carding process.
Carding to batts:
The clean and picked fiber is now ready for my Patrick Green Exotica Cottage Carder. This card produces a very large, smooth, and fluffy batt. Your batts will be neatly rolled in tissue paper and shipped in a box.
Carding to loose roving:
Your fiber is sent through the carder and is drawn through the rollers and roving deck at the rear of the machine where it drops into a container in one continuous length of roving.
Carding to center-pull bumps:
Your fiber is sent through the carder and is drawn through the rollers and roving deck at the rear of the machine where it then drawn up onto the bump winder where it is wound into a center-pull bump.
