[Jacob-list] cleaning fleeces

[Linda]

There have been some great suggestions.  I keep trying to manage so that I get less vm, but I end up every spring picking out bits of hay. I have an old Patrick Green picker, too, and it does speed things up.  I don't sell raw fleeces - they are just not clean enough for me to be happy selling them and by the time I pick out the trash I'm  more than halfway to processing it so I might as well just go ahead and process it.  I process almost all of my fleeces myself (I only shear 20 or so a year) and I'm happy with the processed fleece I end up with.  It's worth the time to me to spend the time taking the vm out since I end up with a saleable product. I have a motorized drum carder and I can also grab bits of trash I missed as it feeds into the carder.  I'm like Trish - I enjoy handling the fleece.   There's a whole story there, too, like in tree rings.  HMM - this weak spot in Milly's fleece looks like she hit a bad spot then.  

I loved Juliet's comment > And finally, when you are wearing your sweater, pick out any bits
> still left in - that can provide months of fun :-)
I used to make sweaters for myself out of my handspun yarn and think I had to save the sweater to wear for "good".  After waiting for a year or so for some occasion that warranted wearing my sweater, I realized that I enjoyed wearing the sweater and since what I do most is hang around with the livestock, I'd just wear the sweater to the barn.  Now, the sweater that came from a fleece that I carefully cleaned every tiny bit of hay from, is usually covered with hay from me wearing it to feed the sheep :-}  PS - I can toss the sweater into the dryer on no heat and it will take out almost all the hay.

Linda

 

 
www.patchworkfibers.com
Registered Jacob Sheep, Angora Rabbits, Handspun Yarn

On Mon, 6 Mar 2006 15:18:33 -0500, Betty Berlenbach wrote:
> Hi, All,
>
> What great suggestions!  I never heard the drier thing, Linda.  If
> ever I have a messed up fleece, I will try it.  I have no llamas or
> goats, and feed hay on the ground in piles five feet apart: 24
> piles, 24 sheep!  Some think this is horrible and unsanitary, and I
> remind them they eat grass on the ground all summer.  If they have
> enough, they won't eat contaminated hay.  I lose a little but mixed
> with urine and feces, what great compost it makes for the gardens,
> mine and neighbors'. I put the hay out while they gobble up the bit
> of grain I give them to distract them, not having an effective way
> to lock them out of the hay feeding area.  My biggest problem is my
> shearing day always comes directly after 3 days of rain or snow,
> for some reason.  The good part of that is it's always lovely and
> fairly warm, at least 25.  The bad news is that I have to shut them
> int he shed for 3 days prior to shearing and feed them.  There is
> not quite enough room to separate the hay into 5 foot apart piles,
> so most of the hay that is in their fleeces is on top of, and the
> product of the last three days.  Fortunately, I have a crack team
> of friends who skirt each fleece on site.  They have about 4
> minutes per fleece, before the next one is ready, but it's amazing
> how much skirting and hay bit picking can happen with four people,
> two hands each, doing the job.  Any bits that have hay in them are
> picked out and put in another bag, which the shearer takes with
> him.  I am just not the kind of person with the patience to hand
> pick or work with anything with hay bits in it.  Any fleece which
> has more than 10 bits of hay in it that I can see, gets tossed and
> not sold, or used for quilt batts, or given away.  I don't sell any
> but the ones I'd buy myself...same with the lambs...

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