Smallholders Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Fleeces  (Read 6872 times)

tizaala

  • Joined Mar 2011
  • Dolau, Llandrindod Wells,Powys
Fleeces
« on: June 30, 2012, 01:07:50 pm »
What is the going rate for Castlemilk Moorit fleeces? We have a lady interested in them for spinning but need some advice on what to charge.
Thanks

woollyval

  • Joined Feb 2008
  • Near Bodmin, Cornwall
    • Val Grainger
    • Facebook
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2012, 01:11:19 pm »
If good clean and well rolled etc ask £5 per fleece
www.valgrainger.co.uk

Overall winner of the Devon Environmental Business Awards 2009

Brucklay

  • Joined Apr 2010
  • Perthshire
    • Brucklay Pygmy Goats
    • Facebook
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2012, 01:18:42 pm »
This came up earlier


http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=24547.msg238703#msg238703


Good luck with your sale - let us know how you get on  :fc:
Pygmy Goats, Shetland Sheep, Zip & Indie the Border Collies, BeeBee the cat and a wreak of a building to renovate!!

jaykay

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Cumbria/N Yorks border
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2012, 01:35:00 pm »
I think £10 for a nice fleece. I'm a spinner and I've happily paid that for a BFL fleece.

woollyval

  • Joined Feb 2008
  • Near Bodmin, Cornwall
    • Val Grainger
    • Facebook
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2012, 10:54:43 pm »
slight difference between BFL and Castlemilks!!! BFL is the best of the best where fleeces are concerned!
www.valgrainger.co.uk

Overall winner of the Devon Environmental Business Awards 2009

jaykay

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Cumbria/N Yorks border
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2012, 11:08:53 pm »
BFL is nice. I haven't ever spun Castlemilk.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2012, 11:46:36 pm »
As well as all the criteria of quality discussed elsewhere, you also need to take into account the overall size of the fleece and the popularity/rarity of your product.
I have never spun a CM fleece, but they are quite rare and would be popular with re-enactors for spinning at events.  I would ask £8 for a good one, clean and well grown.  Unless she has recently started spinning, your customer will know what she wants and what is a good fleece.  You could ask her to show you how she chooses her fleeces which will help you to produce what your customers want.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2012, 11:56:39 pm »
slight difference between BFL and Castlemilks!!! BFL is the best of the best where fleeces are concerned!

I would say the best of the best are some of the Polwarth crosses, which are the fleeces which fetch £40, or superfine merino, kept coated .
BFL is lovely - and funnily enough that's what I'm spinning at the moment - but they are readily obtainable in various preparations, from raw to tops, at a fairly standard rate.  Castlemilks are much more difficult to find and I have never seen prepared CM tops (doesn't mean it's unobtainable of course) so that raises the price and makes them more comparable to a mainstream good quality fleece.  As Tizaala gets more knowledgeable about his fleeces, shears and prepares them with fleece quality in mind, and advertises them widely, so he can raise the price above £10  :sheep:
« Last Edit: June 30, 2012, 11:59:30 pm by Fleecewife »
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

tizaala

  • Joined Mar 2011
  • Dolau, Llandrindod Wells,Powys
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2012, 10:28:11 am »
Thank you all for your good (as usual) advice, the " Lady "  that was interested suddenly lost interest when I refused to give them to her for nothing , cheeky bitch, anyway I've stuck them on  ' marketplace ' at a low price for AS members  , If anyone out of our area wants them and is coming up for the Royal Welsh Show you can collect them then. Gabi brought one into the house for me to look at and it has been taken off cleanly with no daggy bits , feels nice and soft. PM me or call with any questions,

Chris H

  • Joined Oct 2011
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2012, 10:44:40 am »
CM can be wonderful, but like many it depends on age and care. a good one spins with ease and you have a super colour as well. I would pay a bit more as you have the rarity value as well. BFL is in my experience pretty boring, for a better weaving thread I would go for a Leicester longwool and comb for worsted.
Each breed offers a perfect thread for a specific need, there is not a 'best' it depends on the need ;)
Me I get excited with a Herdwick and a Blackface, but then i am a rug weaver :thumbsup:  I think I can say i have spun just about every breed, and the pleasure is the diversity, a well sheared fleece from a healthy and well cared from animal is a joy what ever the breed.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

woollyval

  • Joined Feb 2008
  • Near Bodmin, Cornwall
    • Val Grainger
    • Facebook
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2012, 10:54:06 am »
CM can be wonderful, but like many it depends on age and care. a good one spins with ease and you have a super colour as well. I would pay a bit more as you have the rarity value as well. BFL is in my experience pretty boring, for a better weaving thread I would go for a Leicester longwool and comb for worsted.
Each breed offers a perfect thread for a specific need, there is not a 'best' it depends on the need ;)
Me I get excited with a Herdwick and a Blackface, but then i am a rug weaver :thumbsup:  I think I can say i have spun just about every breed, and the pleasure is the diversity, a well sheared fleece from a healthy and well cared from animal is a joy what ever the breed.

Very good advice here! I have processed hundreds and hundreds of fleeces of possibly every different kind...cannot really think of a breed I havent handled! CM ranges from very nice to not so good! It will needlefelt beautifully but will not wet felt without lots of persuasion!
It really is a horses for courses thing with wool as every breed was developed or improved for a specific purpose eg Herdwick is like wearing brillo pads if made into jumpers  ::) but for rugs its magic and hardwearing....what it was supposed to be :thumbsup: Good luck with fleece sales all....there is a good market for flecces at the moment!
www.valgrainger.co.uk

Overall winner of the Devon Environmental Business Awards 2009

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2012, 12:23:42 pm »
I've just been offered the fleeces from a small Heb flock so I've said I'll cover the cost of shearing, use two myself, and see if I can sell the rest to my spinning and weaving local friends.  The owner is interested in seeing spinners spin, so I'm hoping I'll be able to organise it that he can see some of his own fleece getting used at a Guild or Fibre Group somewhen.

I hope they're nice ones when I get them!
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #12 on: July 01, 2012, 02:48:36 pm »
I've just been offered the fleeces from a small Heb flock so I've said I'll cover the cost of shearing, use two myself, and see if I can sell the rest to my spinning and weaving local friends.  The owner is interested in seeing spinners spin, so I'm hoping I'll be able to organise it that he can see some of his own fleece getting used at a Guild or Fibre Group somewhen.

I hope they're nice ones when I get them!

Eeek!!  Heb fleece can be lovely but it can also be matted and unuseable.  Have you looked at them on the sheep Sally?    :wave: :sheep:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #13 on: July 01, 2012, 05:57:40 pm »
I've just been offered the fleeces from a small Heb flock so I've said I'll cover the cost of shearing, use two myself, and see if I can sell the rest to my spinning and weaving local friends.  The owner is interested in seeing spinners spin, so I'm hoping I'll be able to organise it that he can see some of his own fleece getting used at a Guild or Fibre Group somewhen.

I hope they're nice ones when I get them!

Eeek!!  Heb fleece can be lovely but it can also be matted and unuseable.  Have you looked at them on the sheep Sally?    :wave: :sheep:
Nope.  There aren't a huge number, so I realise I am taking a punt.  It's a very nice man, a friend of a friend.  If they're not right this year, I can at least tell him what would be needed another year.  He absolutely won't screw me any more than I'll screw him.  At worst we'll both learn something so that hopefully the fleeces will be good enough to use next year, at best I get some nice Heb fleece for spinning this year and so do some of my friends.  It will of course in fact be somewhere between the two...
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Fleeces
« Reply #14 on: July 01, 2012, 06:26:33 pm »
Oh goody, sounds like a plan  ;D  - I hope you get some nice ones then  :sheep:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

 

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