One ball of wool sounds like not much to you, but it's a *heck* of a lot of work to the handspinner. So, depending on what the fleeces are (I think it's Ryelands you have?), how good they are, how well-shorn and presented they are, it may or may not be a reasonable swap.
Most of us say that the maximum number of fleeces we can process in a year is about 12. Many spinners just do a fraction of this, spinning from prepared fibres (batts, tops, rovings) the rest of the time, which is much much quicker.
And generally, when spinning from fleeces, most of us want to spin different fleeces all the time.
So the other thing about your offer, is that the recipient will probably retain one or two fleeces, and need to find homes for the other 5 or 6. if they are lovely, this shouldn't be difficult, but I will not be the only spinner who has ended up landed with a bootful of unusable fleeces. (Please don't take offence - you won't be able to judge yourself, although you can get an idea by reading
this page.
Processing time... assuming the fleece is lovely, first the spinner must wash and dry it. This is a big job. Some people do the whole fleece in one, most wash 300-400g at a time. It is insanely time-consuming, and for the most part you can't really do much while the fleece is soaking, as in the hot soapy stages you don't want to leave it for more than 15 minutes.
Note, one ball of wool will generally be about 100g. It might make a cover for a small cushion, but I'd allow 200g or even 250g myself. You could reduce the amount if you were happy to use commercial yarn for one side, of course.
So, now we have our washed fleece. If the fleece weighed 2kgs to begin with, it has probably lost up to about 1/3 of that weight in dirt and grease.
Next, the preparation for spinning. Ryeland is probably best drum-carded, so each lock is pulled out of the mass, given a little comb to the tips and the butts, placed on the drum carder and wound onto the big drum. When the big drum is full, the fibre is lifted off and re-carded. Sometimes three times in all, though I generally do twice myself.
Now we're ready to spin. By now, all the non-spinnable fleece has been excluded, and our original 2kgs is probably not more than 1kg, possibly less.
As a rule of thumb, I reckon I would spin 100g in an evening if I am spinning reasonably chunky, as I would for a Ryeland cushion cover. Prep (selecting locks, topping and tailing, drum-carding) takes at least as much time as the actual spinning; some people say twice as long.
And then the yarn has to be plyed and finished. Plying is quicker than spinning, taking perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 of the time.
Next, the plyed yarn is wound into a skein. This is done onto a 'niddy noddy' and is time-consuming and tiring!
Finishing isn't a very big job, the skein is tied in a few places, removed from the niddy noddy, washed and rinsed a few times, spun and squeezed, then hung up to dry.
So to create your 200g yarn for your cushion cover would use approx. 400g fleece - probably about 1/5 of one of your fleeces.
Washing 400g - an hour (minimum)
Prep for 200g - 4-6 hours (minimum)
Spinning 200g - 6-8 hours
Plying 200g - 2-3 hours
So, for your 200g skeined yarn, approx. 15 hours' work.
Ryeland fleeces are easy to buy, and cost about £8-£10 each.
So, I am not saying you won't find a taker - and I will suggest some places you might ask in the next post - but please be aware what you are asking!
