Getting Fleeced

So recently we've begun a new venture at Hill Giant Farm. Our friend Anna, of Anna's Custom Yarn Barn (https://www.facebook.com/CustomYarnBarn) asked if it would be possible to order some roving from us. For those of you who don't know, roving is the step in fleece production before it is finally spun into thread or yarn. Because we have approx. 500 lbs of raw fleece in our barn, as we speak, we said "Sure." The next step was to set about figuring out how to make it happen. Thankfully, we know a very talented and helpful woman who has been working with textiles, including wool, for a long time. After some instruction from her, we set out on our own.

The first thing you need to know about fleece when it comes off the sheep is that the outside is as dirty as wherever the sheep has last been. We sheared our sheep on a rainy day at the end of May, so needless to say, they were muddy. Also, sheep produce a natural oil called lanolin which is used in handcreams, soaps, shoe polish-you get the idea. Lanolin is what keeps the fleece waterproof and the sheep dry. By the end of a day handling the fleece your hands are really soft. If you happen to wear leather boots/shoes when you jump in the wool bag, they get a good polish and waterproofing. So our first step was to wash the fleece in order to remove as much dirt and lanolin as possible. To do this you need lots of really hot water and dishsoap. So, naturally, we fired up the turkey deep fryer and filled the pot with water. Once the water reached 200 Fahrenheit we poured it onto the fleece (covered in soap), stirred it to get everything wet and let it soak. We did this about 6 times per 64L bucket of fleece. Some people do this step in their washing machine but we weren't ready to risk the well being of our new front loading washer.

Heating the water.

Unwashed fleece.

Ikea bed frames come in handy. Drying fleece.

Having washed the fleece the next step was to dry it. To do this we spread the fleece out on what we believe to be an old Ikea wooden bed frame that was left here by the previous owner. We also used this same bed frame on shearing day to throw the fleece New Zealand style. The frame propped up on sawhorses gave lots of room to spread out the fleece and allowed for good air flow to help dry it. Point of interest, it takes 3 days to dry fleece when the humidity is 85%, and only 12 hours when the humidity is 10%.

The drum carder with a layer of fleece.

The next step would be to pick the fleece, which is just taking the fleece and pulling the clumps apart. There are machines that will do this for you, but we don't have one so we did it by hand. Once the fleece is picked you can begin carding it. Our friend kindly arranged for us to borrow a drum carder from the local spinners and weavers guild. It fits nicely on a table top and is hand cranked. You begin by taking the picked fleece, in small sections, and placing it into the feeder tray. There are two drums that rotate in opposite directions. On the drums are lots of small metal tines that grab and comb the fleece. The fleece then builds up around the second drum. When the second drum gets full you take the doffer (a long metal stick with a handle) and carefully remove your fleece batten rolling the drum in the opposite direction. The only difference between batting and roving is the width of the piece of processed fleece. Roving is more of a narrow piece for spinning into wool, whereas the batten is wider and used for insulation in quilts and clothes. Batten can also be steamed together to make felt.

Clean and soft batten.

It's pretty neat to be able to say that we can take fleece off of sheep born and raised on our farm and turn it into a new product. It gives us a new appreciation for the amount of work that people used to have to go to in order to cloth themselves. It has taken us days to process a very small amount of fleece and we would still have to spin it and then knit it to make just one pair of mittens. Makes you think.