[smallflockshearing]

I know I'm slightly on a parallel thread here...

... if you have a low number of fleeces and want to sell, but the distance is too far to make it worthwhile, you can normally get away with storing and collecting fleeces for a year or two if you take really good care of them - then sell to BWMB as a job lot.

[wellies]

Morning Smee2012, we do have a few more than last year  , (had 10 breeding ewes & 2 rams last year) we decided to increase our flock sizes as I'm at home now having given up lecturing & it's run as a business (although everyone of them is still a pet to me  ).


Very grateful for all the wool suggestions. I'm thinking this year I will probably have something made & sell the extra wool. Then I can spend lots of time learning how to do something myself for future years. I really like the idea of having something from the sheep 

[Spinningfishwife]

You could always pay someone in fleece 

£15 fleece = 2-3 hours of spinning time, and that's me being generous. You wouldn't get a lot of yardage out of 3 hours of time (about 150 yds of 2-ply) and that won't include washing and fleece prep, or finishing time. To get yarn spun by hand from fleece is time consuming work and if you're getting it done by a skilled spinner you really should be paying over minimum wage rate. People are always gobstruck when I explain how many hours of work would be required to make even a simple jumper all the way from raw fleece, even before I then multiply it up by minimum wage rate.

Handspinning is a great hobby though and like knitting you can do it while watching the telly or sitting around chatting. There is a short but rather intense learning curve and after that it's really only a matter of practice. A spindle is cheap to buy, a wheel less so but if you ask around you may just come across one in a friend's attic. Or join a local Guild, they often have wheels to hire and they'll definitely have a lot of friendly people who are very willing to help you learn.

I should add that spinning groups can and do get offered a lot of free fleece. Which is great but it means they can also be quite picky about what they accept, especially if storage space is limited or non existent. Not all spinners work from raw fleece and these that do will probably have very definite ideas about what they want for specific projects and limited time to do so.  Also unless a sheep has been sheared with hand spinning in mind it can often be very time consuming to process it into a usable form, which is a waste of a spinner's time if they can buy a good quality, well skirted fleece that has been sheared for hand spinning for just a few pounds. It's not just a question of being ungrateful! My group once arrived for the start of a new term to find a heap of 28 Jacob fleeces on the doorstep. Fortunately they were all clean, well skirted and nicely sheared, also individually bagged, but they still took up a lot of space. We solved the problem by giving one free to everyone that signed up that term. I've still got most of mine though, several years later. I don't use a lot of Jacob.

There are leaflets available for smallholders giving details about how to go about producing fleeces for handspinning. http://www.yarnmaker.co.uk/fleece.html.

These are available free to use and distribute, I give lots of them out at demos to folk who own small numbers of sheep and who would like to get some return on their fleeces.

[Clive]

Hi Fleecewife, I sympathise with the migraine and hope you feel better today. In the past I have given it to my shearer and they spin it and put it to good use. I'm sure they are aware of the value but I take on board your comments. When we first started we only had 5 and I really was at a loss to know what to do with 5 fleeces and I think it became a habit not to utilise it as part of our sheepy out put (even though our flocks have grown over the years). I also have to admit that I really know very little about wool products etc but am very interested to learn. Thank you for your recommendations I will have a look at the companies you have recommended and get organised for shearing time.

Seems to me that if your shearer has been making use of your fleeces in previous years they should be open to some barter/exchange for finished goods? Just an idea if you don't decide to go down the spinning route

[kanisha]

My thoughts exactly Clive

[Clive]

You could always pay someone in fleece 

£15 fleece = 2-3 hours of spinning time, and that's me being generous. You wouldn't get a lot of yardage out of 3 hours of time (about 150 yds of 2-ply) and that won't include washing and fleece prep, or finishing time. To get yarn spun by hand from fleece is time consuming work and if you're getting it done by a skilled spinner you really should be paying over minimum wage rate. People are always gobstruck when I explain how many hours of work would be required to make even a simple jumper all the way from raw fleece, even before I then multiply it up by minimum wage rate.

Handspinning is a great hobby though and like knitting you can do it while watching the telly or sitting around chatting. There is a short but rather intense learning curve and after that it's really only a matter of practice. A spindle is cheap to buy, a wheel less so but if you ask around you may just come across one in a friend's attic. Or join a local Guild, they often have wheels to hire and they'll definitely have a lot of friendly people who are very willing to help you learn.

I should add that spinning groups can and do get offered a lot of free fleece. Which is great but it means they can also be quite picky about what they accept, especially if storage space is limited or non existent. Not all spinners work from raw fleece and these that do will probably have very definite ideas about what they want for specific projects and limited time to do so.  Also unless a sheep has been sheared with hand spinning in mind it can often be very time consuming to process it into a usable form, which is a waste of a spinner's time if they can buy a good quality, well skirted fleece that has been sheared for hand spinning for just a few pounds. It's not just a question of being ungrateful! My group once arrived for the start of a new term to find a heap of 28 Jacob fleeces on the doorstep. Fortunately they were all clean, well skirted and nicely sheared, also individually bagged, but they still took up a lot of space. We solved the problem by giving one free to everyone that signed up that term. I've still got most of mine though, several years later. I don't use a lot of Jacob.

There are leaflets available for smallholders giving details about how to go about producing fleeces for handspinning. http://www.yarnmaker.co.uk/fleece.html.

These are available free to use and distribute, I give lots of them out at demos to folk who own small numbers of sheep and who would like to get some return on their fleeces.

That's quite an eye-opener SFW! Thank goodness for my Wiltshire Downs. I have no fleeces to worry about and don't have to take up spinning!

[Stellan Vert]

Hi from Shropshire

I am in agreement with SFW.

I was asked at a Craft Fair for a price for spinning fleece to yarn.

Before quoting a price I timed how long it took to take 1/2 Kg fleece from raw fleece to spun yarn.
Cleaning, washing, carding, spinning by hand, plying took 12 hours to give 350g of yarn of about DK (Double knit) grade.
So a 2.5 kg fleece would take about 55 hours to spin giving a yield of about 2kg of spun yarn and at a cost of about £250 (£5 per hour).

I didn't get the commission, the lady was stunned by the price. (So was I )


SV.

[SallyintNorth]

Anyone who spins is probably not at all surprised by your figures.

We (our local spinning group) were recently asked to take a table at a local craft fair.  None of us spin or knit to sell, but wanted to be at the craft fair to raise awareness of our group, and of spinning in general, so thought we'd better have a few items to sell.

One of our members did a load of research about how to price up handcrafted items to sell.  One model that seemed well-supported was to charge all applicable costs (including detergents, electricity for heating, washing, etc) plus £1 per hour's labour.  Yes, that's right, £1/hour.   Not sure what the EU would make of that!  Nor of the hours one would have to put in in order to produce a lot of crafted items on top of ones normal daily work!

To put another spin (sic) on Stellan Vert's figures, you're looking at £125/kg, or £6.25/50g for DK yarn produced from your own fleece, where you provide the fleece for nothing.  If you try to buy nice 100% wool yarn, you will need to spend something of that order for nice yarn of a single known breed of known provenance.  So I'd say it's not out of the way - but I suspect most non-spinners would be, as SV says, stunned.

[wellies]

Just had a lovely email back from the Natural Fibre Company (aren't they lovely  ) Anyway they have laid out the costs for me and I think it sounds reasonable (but I admit it's an investment and not to be taken lightly). I must say I'm rather excited and think I will have my fleeces processed if I can make the figures add up . I've done some research looking at other flocks/businesses which sell processed wool from their pedigree sheep and their wool seems to be various prices for a 50g ball some around the £5 others a lot more. Does anyone have an idea of how much Ryeland wool normally sells for, I'm struggling to find prices. I think If I could sell it for £4.95 or £5 I can justify having the fleeces done or set hubby the task of becoming a proficient knitter in a short space of time  I wonder how many of my family members would appreciate a hand knitted scarf for Christmas 2014 

[Bionic]

Wellies, are you a member of the Ryeland Flock Book Society? If so take a look at the web site. I was there earlier this week and note they have an ad at the top selling spun Ryeland wool. I can't remember how much it is though.

[wellies]

Bionic I am. I seem to remember mumblings they were doing it at cost though to get people interested in using it, more of a promotional thing. Have just found some on the Blacker yarns website though & that looks nice I love my sheep but it would be better still if they could add a few pennies from their produce to help with their bills