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Post by Otter on Jun 24, 2015 19:33:39 GMT
People buy fleeces, to make their own roving.
People buy roving, to make their own yarn.
If you were bartering, how would that work? Is there a standard deal? Suppose I had 5lbs of clean, washed fleece. If someone wanted to make roving and we traded for some back, what would each person get? Same with yarn.
DD wants to get into sheep, and I said I wanted wool sheep because wool and she asked how it would work, and I realized I have no idea. So, how does it work?
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Post by Muller's Lane Farm on Jul 1, 2015 18:14:51 GMT
There is no 'standard' deal, Otter. Clean, washed fleeces are worth more than raw fleeces. Roving is worth more than washed fleeces. Yarn is worth more than roving. Just as there is waste from taking raw fleece to clean fleece, there is waste going from clean fleece to roving. Then there is the quality of the fleece itself and how it was cleaned. Does the fleece have any weak spots? How fine/coarse is the fleece? When it comes to spinning, you can't even go by weight. A spinner can take 4 oz of roving and spin it into 500 yards of 3-ply yarn or less than 100 yards single yarn. The single yarn would take much less time to do so even though both yarns weigh the same, the 500 yards of 3-ply would cost a lot more. |
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Post by Otter on Jul 2, 2015 5:47:19 GMT
So there are no standards and everyone is just on their own to do a lot of research, wing it, and hope that their idea of, say, clean fleece matches the seller's idea of clean fleece?  Bummer. |
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Post by Muller's Lane Farm on Jul 2, 2015 14:44:07 GMT
Gah!! my post got lost in cyber space!
As a fiber producer, your goal is to produce a good fiber that has no weak spots, minimum VM, lice & dandruff free.
Fiber artist are very individual ... some want a well skirted, coated raw fleece while others may want a nice scoured fleece and others may only want carded roving or combed top.
As with anything else, having good fleeces and marketing your fleeces is your key to success.
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Post by Otter on Jul 4, 2015 3:51:35 GMT
I understand, I was just looking for a starting place. DD is a 4Her, and willing to keep wool jackets on them and really make a study and project on growing good fleece. She is interested in raising Karakul sheep. Her 4H leader immediately tried to talk her into a hair sheep breed. She thinks those are ugly, I said I'd at least like wool if we're going to have sheep and she started thinking that wool can't be a "useless pain" if I spend $$ per skein.
She was hoping to be able to trade (in a buyback kind of deal) fleeces for some roving back, and roving for some yarn back, but perhaps I should just have her find a good wool mill and then she can have roving for her own crafts and sell some yarn to me and other folks to pay for it.
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Post by Muller's Lane Farm on Jul 4, 2015 20:44:24 GMT
Karakul fiber is rather coarse but it has a nice sheen to it. I think it might be a dual coated fiber so the undercoat might be finer. If it is dual coated and you only want the undercoat, it would need to be combed rather than carded and there would be a lot of waste wool (the coarser outer coat) that is still spinable but really good for only outer wear (like coats) or for rugs.
Their staple length can also be long 6"-12" so that might be a problem if you're looking for a mill to process it.
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Post by Otter on Jul 5, 2015 22:08:47 GMT
TY, good to know. She thinks that the breed is cool and heard the wool is good for felting, which are her main criteria  |
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Bummer.