The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: SheepMad95 on June 22, 2013, 05:42:33 pm
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I am trying to sell two herdwick fleeces. wondering how much to sell them for. i told the person that was interested to make a offer, but she hasnt got back to me yet.
it is only the second time they have been sheared
thanks for any help :) :sheep:
Oh - if anyone else is interested Im in Shebbear ( near Holsworthy), Devon.
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what are they to be used for?
we used to have them but i was told herdwicks fleeces could only be used for carpets.
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I have a herdwick jumper knitted by my wife. It is very warm and I think it's fair to say hardwearing.
We're just down the road from you Sheepmad, so if your deal falls through we may be interested. No idea what to offer you I'm afraid.
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i dont know what they are to be used for really, thought id see if anyone wanted them, ive seen a lot of people who do spinning etc asking for some wool.
Oay MikeM ill keep that in mind! :)
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Many years ago my sister had one of our herdwick fleeces spun and made into a jumper for me. It was like wearing fine barbed wire. That's why they're usually only used for carpets.
I'm not trying to be funny, but round here (Selby area) we throw or give away much finer fleeces than Herdwick as they aren't worth transporting. So I would have thought a fair price to a spinner is "free to good home" as it isn't worth the time spent spinning. :huff:
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Some people say that spinning Herdwick makes your fingers bleed... :o
Having said which I have seen jumpers made from it. Not next to skin, nor second next, but definitely in the hardwearing outer layer category. ;)
Free to good home, or if you don't want to do that, enough to cover your clipping costs plus something for your time and trouble.
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Take anything you can get. Herdwick fleeces are good for carpets as others have said but next to useless for anything else and have very little value if any. Our Herdwick fleeces bar the ones we use to line the hanging baskets get burned as the money you get isn't worth the transport and time. You would certainly never cover the shearing costs. Herdwicks do however make a good sheepskin rug
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Well there's a whole lot more to spinning than producing yet another vest, cowl or jumper. I don't know about anyone else, but I soon get fed up with spinning the same old super fine fleece, which is why I mostly spin Heb these days, with just the occasional Shetland and never merino (sorry to those who love it :spin: )
There is also more to using spun yarn than knitting and crochet. Weaving (or felting) furnishing fabric, pegloom rugs and textured floor rugs all need a good firm, hard wearing wool - merino would be useless :roflanim:
So why not offer your fleeces for £5 and let the spinner choose. Be open and say in your sales blurb how coarse and hardwearing they are - 'perfect for rugs', 'perfect for hardwearing warp thread'. There must surely be plenty of fibre artists out there who want to experiment and experience a wide variety of this country's huge choice of fleece types - you just need to find the right person ;D .
I also have a Herdwick jumper which my MiL knitted for me (from yarn bought in Windermere) :knit: . It did make her fingers bleed, and just about cuts my throat, but it is unbelievably hard wearing and warm, and is still in top condition at least a decade after it was knitted.
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Hmm alot of people are saying free to a good home, i just wanted some money to cover shearing costs, i mean its not like i put a lot of effort into growing them! ;) :sheep:
Fleecewife, i will sell them for £5 as you say because it covers the shearing costs.
its good to know they are hard wearing!
Thank you everyone!!! :eyelashes: ;D :sheep:
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can u not put them on ebay for arts and crafts or something? teddy bear stuffing maybe. (obviously needs washing at some point)
out of interest, how would you get a fleece into a hanging basket felt shape? sounds a good idea if you know how.
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out of interest, how would you get a fleece into a hanging basket felt shape? sounds a good idea if you know how.
You just grab a lump of fleece and just spread it out inside the hanging basket. Then add the soil, which keeps it in place.
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out of interest, how would you get a fleece into a hanging basket felt shape? sounds a good idea if you know how.
You just grab a lump of fleece and just spread it out inside the hanging basket. Then add the soil, which keeps it in place.
i was meaning commercially? if you could get the fleeces cut to shape and sold as an eco friendly hanging basket liner? i suppose it needs felting??
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I think a while ago BWMB were marketing hanging basket liners, seems an easy idea. As to herdwick fleece, a lot depends on the age of the animal, first clip can be a nice fleece, as a rug weaver I love the older paler fleece. It also knits well for hats and welly socks, the National Trust did used to sell herdwick knitting yarn with Gansey patterns with the yarn oiled.
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This is very interesting. I guess for very hard wearing but warm yarn I'd have recommended making rugs or maybe throws/blankets. I'm a crocheter and there certainly is far more you can make than just jumpers and the like!
I'd advertise it on eBay or Preloved for a starting price to cover your costs. I have bought quite a number of fleeces that way.
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thank you for the replys,
someone is interested an has offered me £1.50 per kilo, and it weighs about 5 kilos. a good price i think.
:innocent: ;D
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A great price, well done!
It'd be interesting to know what your buyer plans to do with it... always on the lookout for good ideas! ;)
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i quite like the herdwick it dies vary in texture,but is lovely colours,ive just bought from norfolk but the postage has cost as much as the fleece and i pd £3 a fleece,i got them last year and they are nice fleeces.They make lovely peg loom rugs and are nice mixed,have tried spinning and it spins easy,but does feel a wee bit string like.
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Not Herdwick, but today I counted myself lucky to get 20 € for 4.5 x 100 litre sacks of wool (from Texel crosses) - which I had offered to give away for a nice bottle of wine! It's quite evident that there's virtually no commercial value in small amounts of home shorn wool. However the chap who took mine away told me that he proposed to use it for pillow stuffing.
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....and subsequently I've been informed that he intends to use it to insulate his loft!
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http://www.britishwool.org.uk/priceschedule.asp?pageid=50 (http://www.britishwool.org.uk/priceschedule.asp?pageid=50)
9/10p a kilo at woolboard in 2012? :o
You did more than alright! ;)
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If anyone wants some Herdwick fleeces in south Wales, I've got about six (plus two Welsh Mountain crosses) in the barn that I've no plans for. You're welcome to them if you can collect.
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Hi, I've just purchased a beautiful Herdwick fleece from a shop in Bradford-on-Avon (Somerset) for £45 - hope that helps, though expect you've sold them by now!
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H, Do you mean fleece or a sheepskin rug? If fleece is selling for £45 then I have robbed myself ::) ???
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Anything more than nothing is good, the wool board only pay 9-10ppkilo!!!
Unlike my Shetlands which I get about £1.20per kilo for.
Think I might sell the Herdie ones privately and just keep sending the Shetland to the board
This is the first year I've had herdies and they just seem to get huger and huger every time I look at them!!! Lovely great mammoths!!! :-D
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Hi, I've just purchased a beautiful Herdwick fleece from a shop in Bradford-on-Avon (Somerset) for £45 - hope that helps, though expect you've sold them by now!
I think you must mean a sheepskin - still got the skin on, the sheep is now dead - and not a fleece, which is the fibre only and the animal is probably still alive - certainly wasn't slaughtered before the fleece was removed.
I'd pay £45 or more for a superb and huge Teeswater or other exceptional spinners' fleece, but not for a Herdy fleece, not in a million years!
For any nice sheepskin though, £45 is a good price, it will have cost the producer most of that to get it processed.
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I'd not expect to pay more than shearing costs for Herdwick and even at that it would be expensive for what it is. It is a very, very coarse wool and has limited uses.
I was given five Herdwick fleeces a few years ago. It spins into pan scrubber if you try to spin it into anything less than an aran yarn so I got out my big Country Spinner, literally threw the fleece into it in handfuls and ended up with what you could politely call a textured chunky singles yarn. Still a bit brillo like but it made a lovely rug just woven as singles, it was very hard wearing and it doubles as a foot exfoliator. ;D I was very selective as to what I used from the five huge fleeces though, I only used the best bits and the rest ended up in the compost bins.
I can't quite see myself knitting with Herdie yarn, I can't think what I'd want to make. Slippers? Cat bed? There are nicer types of wool like Texel that wouldn't cost more per fleece usually but would be far pleasanter to work with.