From The Trash Bin

I have a big garbage bag full of wool that has been carded on a drum carder. I have no idea who originally owned the sheep and what breed it was. I also don't know who put it through a drum carder without picking out the second cuts and excessive amounts of VM (vegetable matter). I was just asked if I would like to have this big bag of wool, donated anonymously to the guild. I opened the bag and looked inside, and even me, a relatively new spinner, could see that there was trouble.



I took it on the condition that no one would complain if in the end I decided it wasn't worth the effort and threw the whole lot in the garbage. It was obviously not spinnable "as is".

Out came my handy, dandy combs. I discovered that with a lot of time spent combing (just as much as if the wool was uncarded) the VM dropped out quite nicely. The resulting 'nests' spin up into a beautifully soft and springy wool. Of the two samples I tried the thicker one is the nicest.

Fleece Salvage

Shelby, the resident fleece inspector, checks for spots that need more washing. Her report? Loads of VM still present but most of the dirt and all of the yolk and poop are gone. *sigh* (The aromatic poop is her favorite part.)



The comb loaded up with the VM filled wool.



3 to 4 complete passes through the combs and it is looking fairly VM-less.



Dizzing off a roving and picking out any noil that shows up.



The long strip of roving rolled into a nest for later spinning.



It takes me about an hour to do six small nests. Pretty labour intensive, but it saves a fleece that otherwise would have been thrown in the garbage. The resulting roving is soft and springy and should make for nice spinning.



Too bad it takes most of the summer to comb up one fleece! I can only stick with wool combing for about an hour at a time. Even if I somehow found the time to do it twice a day, that's a LOT of wool to get through.

Rattle Yer Dags

Disclaimer: I am a relatively new spinner with very limited experience dealing with raw fleece. I've been asked to show the process I use, and some of the things to look for when sorting through a newly shorn fleece. I am not qualified to make judgements on the quality (or lack thereof) of a fleece. This fleece was free and from a sheep not raised for it's wool --- if that tells you anything.

The first thing I do is to lay the fleece out "whole" if possible. The shearers seem to try to keep the fleece in more or less one piece so if you are careful and don't tug it to bits, you can usually lay it out and push it into the basic shape it was when it came off the sheep's back.



I find it helpful to do this because you can then sort out general areas to look for problems. For instance, around the outer edges are where you will find the wool that was at the bum end, the underbelly and legs and around the neck and face.



The bum end of course is where you will find "dags" as the New Zealander's call them. This is the dried bits of sheep poop. Never fear, although it is smelly and unpleasant it does wash out.



New Zealander's have a saying "Rattle yer dags". It means to hurry up. It comes from the rattling sound that the clumps of dried poop make as the dangling bits bang together when the sheep are hurrying along.



Another thing to keep an eye out for is VM (vegetable matter --- bits of grass, thorn and feed). You can see large bits of it in the above picture.



The yellow crud is "yolk", something like sheep sweat. It is seen close to the skin of the animal. Although it washes out it can stain the wool if it is particularly bad. In the above picture the yolk is visible along the bottom edge. The dark bits at the other end of the locks are weathering. This is dirt and sometimes sun damage that forms on the outside of the sheep's coat. Sheep that are raised specifically for handspinners sometimes wear a coat to prevent this.



After looking at the top side of the fleece I turn it over and look close at the cut side for short bits called "second cuts". These shorter bits are the result of a shearer going over the same area more than once. The short bits of fiber, if left in and carded, will result in noil in the batts or rolags. Noil makes your yarn lumpy and sometimes weaker.



The pictures above and below show an example of how second cuts look on the underside of the fleece. In the picture above, the second cut stands out( in the centre of the picture) like a little cotton ball floating above the locks.





This final photo shows the dreaded VM. In this particular section it is quite fine and spread thoroughly through the fleece from tips to cut ends. I suspect this section may be from the neck of the sheep where it would be exposed to more of the animal's feed. If you are carding your wool this VM is a problem and needs to be removed first or it will be spread throughout your wool. I comb my wool (I don't own carders) and find that most of the VM just falls out into my lap during the process so I don't worry about it too much.



Like I said, I am inexperienced and if you can add more or if I need correcting, please feel free to elaborate in the comment section. Thanks.