Scouring - This is a gentle washing in a biodegradable detergent and hot water to remove the dirt, dust and lanolin from your fleeces. This is the most important step in quality processing. In order to continue processing, it must be squeaky clean. If fleeces are sent as pre-washed and don't meet our standards, we will need to rewash it.
Rewashing - for fiber sent as prewashed, if needed. Pre-washing will lower your shipping in costs because up to 50% of a raw fleece weight may be wool grease, dirt and debris.
Hand skirting & removing foreign matter - hand picking to remove debris, hoof trimmings, sticks, straw, "the barn-yard", twine and other things that will ruin our carder and make for a lower quality product for you. Skirting should be done as soon after shearing as possible to keep second cuts and debris from becoming imbedded in the "good" fleece.
Picking - this is not the hand picking noted above, It is mechanical opening of the fiber necessary prior to carding.
Blending- The process of mixing fibers or colors. We can obtain silk, soy silk, kid mohair, wool and alpaca and other exotic fibers to blend with yours or send your own custom blend and we will process it to your specifications. Your farm's custom blends will be kept in strict confidence. Our carder does a thorough job blending multi colored fibers, if you need to keep colors distinct, please give us a call and discuss it with us before shipping.
Carding to roving - Medium grade wools. Mechanical separating of fibers to lay them in parallel strands that will hold together for further processing into yarn or felt. These are used in hand-spinning and decorative felting.
Carding Long Staple Wools & Exotic Fibers. - Many of these fibers are slippery and hard to card properly unless the card is specifically designed for them. Our card is.
Carding into Batts 16"x 48", specify batt thickness. Although some exotic fibers won't card to a batt thicker than about 1/2 inch. In the Fall of 2006 we will be adding a 24" carder that will be able to produce batts as thick or thin as you require. Batts are used for quilting, felting, and hand.
Retail packaging and labeling - For an additional fee, you will get your fiber returned labeled for resale, ready to price and put on your shelves. You may either send pre-made labels or send a copy of your artwork and we will create one for you. Specify the packaging size (s) and packaging material you require. Please call to discuss your needs with Robyn.
Our promise to you...
Quality Assurance (Maximizing Your Processing Dollar)
The quality of fiber we will be able to return to you is directly related to the fiber quality that you send us. You can insure a better quality product with less loss through the mill with a few simple steps:
Give clear and accurate instructions as to what you want done and how you will be using your fiber.
If you are sending washed fiber, please follow our instructions. Fiber sent as pre-washed that is not squeaky clean, or fiber washed with conditioners, will have to be re-washed.
Carefully skirt your fleeces to remove all manure tags & dung. This will save on shipping costs and they must be removed prior to further processing.
Remove burrs and all vegetable matter, hoof trimmings, twine and other debris. These things will ruin the teeth on the carder and spread throughout the rest of the fleece if not removed prior to processing. If not removed, a separate skirting charge will be added to the total invoice. If the entire fleece is full of vegetable matter, it will be refused and sent back to you at your expense, or destroyed, your choice. Areas of fleeces containing excess amounts of VM & debris will be removed and returned with the usable portion of your fiber (in a separate bag of course).
Shaking the fleece out will help remove some of the debris & dirt.
Check the fleece strength and look for second cuts. Breakage and second cuts can cause noiling and a lower quality product for you. Look for canary staining, caused by periods of hot, humid weather. This causes weak places that will break in processing.
We reserve the right to refuse fleeces with excessive amounts of debris or matting that will prevent quality processing. We do this not only to protect our investment in equipment, but also to protect you, our customer, from paying for processing that will only leave you disappointed with the end product. Fleeces that are refused will be returned to you, at your cost or destroyed by burning if you wish.
If you pre-wash your fleece, do not store mothballs with your fleece. If they get into the carder, they will explode into a large dust cloud that is hazardous to our workers. We would suggest that you use cedar blocks, removed before shipping, or lavender (enclosed in a mesh bag) to keep moths away from your fiber. Moths especially love Angora rabbit and will ruin your fiber in a very short order.
Notes: Llama and alpaca should have the blanket kept separate from the neck and legs because of the shorter, coarser fibers in the neck and legs. Seconds are best used as stuffing because roving & batts will not hold together with the shorter fibers. Blankets may be carded into either roving or batts. Seconds are best used as stuffing because roving & batts will not hold together with shorter fibers and the seconds are courser fibers. If your fiber obviously will not work with the equipment we will not card it and charge for cleaning only. Blending with wool would be recommended if you are wanting to make rug yarn from your seconds.
Fiber loss: You can expect some loss of incoming weight as a result of the processing. If you haven't properly skirted your fleeces, you will have some loss when this is done. Some breeds can loose up to 50% in the scouring process alone. Another 10% to 20% may be lost while carding.
We believe that all breeds of fiber are useful- it's a matter of finding the best use for it that will bring the raiser the best return! Robyn would be glad to help you find your wool's best use.
We may be interested in processing some fleeces on shares or buying raw fleeces outright from you. We are interested in many breeds & types of fleeces, Fine wool breeds and long staple wool, and alpaca especially. Please contact us if you have more fleeces that you will be able to use or sell yourself.
We can help you with marketing as well. We can set up a separate page for our customers on this website, with your contact information on it or help you find markets for your fiber. Contact us for more information.
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