[Fleecewife]

Great thread!
I was wondering what to do with my Soay fleeces... going through my first shedding season just now and have been trying to roo/collect as much as possible but obviously it comes in bits.
Is that of any use of at all to hand spinners?
Or what do other people do with their Soay fleeces?

A couple of points about Soay fleece:  they are tiny; and a whole lot of each fleece is horrible 

The nice bit (which spins up beautifully soft and plush) comes from the shoulders, flanks towards the front, and possibly round the neck although they've usually caught every bit of seed, hay, sticky willy seeds and so on in it so it's unspinnable.  Britch wool on Soays is frequently very coarse and hairy, although there are exceptions.

I have had a few Soay fleeces shorn by Mr Fleecewife, and a couple of them have been lovely, with not too much hair and of a reasonable staple length.  It seems very funny to roll a Soay fleece. The hair stays in when shorn, but is left behind when roo'ing.
More usually I roo them, and discard the horrible bits as I go along.  I then put all I get into one bag and sell it as mixed.
The way I roo though, where I'm being very careful, is not to peel bits off, but to pull individual staples.  I take a firm grip of the staple tip, brace my other hand against the skin, then pull and wriggle until the staple comes away.  This is much easier on a Shetland, as Soay fleece can be very sticky, but if you can do it, it makes a well presented, almost ready to spin, product.  By discarding anything which is second rate as you go (have 2 piles, one keepsie and the other trash) you don't need to sort it later.
To roo this way, you must have a fair amount of new growth so the rise is clearly defined and 1/2" - 1" above the skin - this makes it easier to separate the two layers.
Always roo on a warm or hot day so the lanolin is soft.
You may well find that the front end of the sheep is ready to roo before the britch.  It's best to take it when it's ready, and leave your sheep with fluffy pantaloons for a couple of weeks 

[trish.farm]

oh my, I am really nervous now!!  Dont think i have wrapped and packed and done what I should have done with my fleeces!!  Think my ladies on saturday will have some strong words for me!!  oh well, all a sharp learning curve!!!

[ladyK]

Thank you FW for you ever so detailed information!
My two males have shed their fleeces so far, the girls are still hanging on to theirs (and to their lambs, looking very heavy now!)
Being a clueless beginner I have just been pulling it off indiscriminately so I guess I have to start another thread about how to use up 'trash' fleece.
I'll try to be more careful when I do the girls.
I think I know what you mean with pulling a 'whole staple' but if you had a photo of a wool 'staple' by any chance I'll be more sure about what I'm looking for.

Thank you all again for your wisdom and experience!

[SallyintNorth]

Here are two pics of mine, showing the staples in the clipped fleece, and the staple spread out.

This Cap'n's fleece, he was a Shetland x (Charollais x (Beltex x (Blue-faced Leicester x Swale.)))

Your Soay fleece will be considerably shorter staple.

[Bionic]

In laymans terms I guess you could say that a stable is like a lock of hair.
 
Ladyk, you could probably use the pieces you have for a peg loom rug. Its very easy to do and the fleece doesn't require the same amount of prep that you would do for spinning.

[SallyintNorth]

Umm.. not sure about using fleece with 1/2" staple for peg looming without spinning?  But would be very interested to know how!

Semi-cotted Heb, I can see I can tear off strips of fleece, roughly twist in my fingers, and weave away.  But the very short Soay-type (to which my first year's Castlemilk Moorit fleeces are very similar )...

[Bionic]

Umm.. not sure about using fleece with 1/2" staple for peg looming without spinning?  But would be very interested to know how!

Semi-cotted Heb, I can see I can tear off strips of fleece, roughly twist in my fingers, and weave away.  But the very short Soay-type (to which my first year's Castlemilk Moorit fleeces are very similar )...

Sorry, didn't realise it had such a short staple. Yes would definitely be a problem for a peg loom. Stuffing something maybe?

[Fleecewife]

Thanks for posting the staple pics for me Sally.  I still haven't quite learnt how to post pics 

If you're lucky you will get a Soay fleece which is longer than 1", maybe 2", but yes, they aren't everyone's cup of tea.  What can help with spinning a Soay fleece is all that grease which holds them together, but at the same time makes drawing out the fibre more difficult.  Basically, not a beginner's fleece.

LadyK - another possibility if my method of rooing by individual staples doesn't work for you, is to roo by unpeeling bits, but maintaining the lock structure (so not just pulling by the handful which does destroy the structure, but use two hands to roll off the fleece).  Then when you have all your surviving good quality bits, separate it out into staples/locks, and sell it as 'mixed roo'ed staples'.  That's a whole lot of bother though, especially if it's for someone else, and will only make about £1 of difference to price - hardly worth it.