| Home : Spinning How-To : Select a Fleece |
by Diane de Arden
When selecting a fleece, there are a bunch of things to keep in mind. What are you going to use the yarn for? What tools do you have to prepare the fleece? How much leaves, twigs, and other vegetable matter can you deal with? What color do you want? How much are you willing to pay? I've found a fleece I think I want, what do I need to check it for?
I highly recommend getting a copy of the Fall 2003 Spin-Off magazine. It contains a wonderful article on fleece selection.
What are you going to use the yarn for?This matters with the breed and age of the sheep the yarn is from. If it's going to be against your skin, you want something very soft. If it's going to be outer wear, the softness doesn't matter as much.
What tools do you have to prepare the fleece with?I've found that cards don't work very well for wool with a long fiber length (staple) and combs don't work well for wool with a short staple. If you're just planning to spin from the lock, you might want a fleece that isn't too dense.
Also, cards don't really take vegetable matter out of a fleece. They just break it up into smaller pieces that can cause slivers in your hands. For cards, you want to get a fleece with very little vegetable matter in it.
How much leaves, twigs, and other vegetable matter can you deal with?Cards just break up vegetable matter (VM). Combs will take out most of the VM but they cannot be used on short staple fleeces. You can pick a lot of large pieces of VM out of the fleece before you wash/use it.
What color do you want?Fleeces come in a multitude of colors. You can dye them to get even more choices. Natural colors include white, off white, tan, champagne, brown, gray, and black. Using natural and artificial dyes, you can get a whole range of other colors.
How much are you willing to pay?Cheaper fleeces may have more wrong with them that extra processing might take care of. If you don't mind putting in the extra work, you can cut down on monetary cost. Sometimes cheap fleeces come from sheep of unidentifiable breeds, sometimes they do. This may or may not matter to you.
More expensive fleeces will have less wrong with them. Smaller amounts of VM; some of the sheep may have worn coats. There will be less processing of the fleece after you get home.
I've found a fleece I think I want, what do I need to check it for?Check it for the amount of vegetable matter in it. Is it something you can deal with? Would it just take way too much work to get out?
Open up the fleece... are there a lot of icky bits? That's sheep urine and poop. Ick. You can pull that stuff away and toss it out yourself or you can find a fleece that has been skirted better.
Take a lock of the fleece. Grasp it in both hands, hold it up to your ears, and give it a snap. Does it twang or crackle? Crackling means that the fibers are weak and may break as your spinning. A twang means that the fibers are sound. Now, they will all crackle a bit but excessive noise like that is not good.
Look really close at the lock. Are there little black dots in it? This may be a bug infestation. I'd recommend avioding bug infested fleeces.
Look at the tips of the fleece, the end of the lock that faced the weather when it was on the sheep. Are they really matted and dirty? Would you have to cut them off to be able to use the rest of the wool? Do you have time to do that?