Author Topic: What to do with fleece (Read 16720 times)

Rosey · « **Reply #15 on:** August 02, 2008, 12:26:17 pm »

I rang the woolboard as I have 6 ryelands and my mum wanted the fleece to spin. I was told i needed to register after four or more sheep unless it was for my own (or mums) use then I was allowed to keep it. They even said good luck to mum for her spinning enterprise.

woollyval · « **Reply #16 on:** August 05, 2008, 12:14:30 am »

Been away but back now!!

Yep about 5p per fleece from th BWMB is about right And NOOOOOO you do not have to register with the BWMB!! ...............well yes in theory, but hey whose going to stop you doing what you like with your fleeces......def not them!

Commercial spinning costs about £25 per returned kg of yarn. This can then be sold for about £50-70 per kg and it takes about 800g to knit a blokes jumper.

Market it right and you are onto a winner! Get the wool spun, then woven and you have cloth worth a lot in the right designers hands!

As I have previously mentioned, get together and do a joint spin with other breeders as it keeps costs down!

Good luck!

Rosemary · « **Reply #17 on:** August 05, 2008, 01:16:44 pm »

Roughly (I know there will be many factors) how much of my fleece would be returned spun from 10kg raw fleece?

woollyval · « **Reply #18 on:** August 05, 2008, 01:35:58 pm »

depending on several factors beyond my knowledge you get about a 60% return......rest of weight of a fleece is grease etc

Rosemary · « **Reply #19 on:** August 05, 2008, 02:42:21 pm »

Yeah, I think we have a few bits of etc on ours

MurmuringWheel · « **Reply #20 on:** August 09, 2008, 05:38:19 pm »

Oooh, what an interesting thread, I just joined the forum to find out I'm already being recommended, thanks Kanisha

Rosemary, handspinning isn't necessarily that expensive. If the fleeces are clean and free of straw etc, and don't need much preparation then handspinning will work out at much less than £4 per oz. Of course it depends on the thickness you want the yarn. Obviously 1kg of laceweight will take much longer to spin than 1kg of chunky. I work on an hourly rate rather than by weight as it is the fairest way for the customer and for myself.

Out of a recent batch of Ouessant which I spun the yield was about 75% of the weight of the raw fleece. Also bear in mind that if you do send your fleeces to a mill in a batch with someone elses you will not be getting back your own wool but a mixture of yours and someone elses, which doesn't sound like what you wanted.

I hope this is of some help, if you need any more advice or decide to go for handspun I would be happy to help if I can.

Diane

woollyval · « **Reply #21 on:** August 12, 2008, 10:53:13 pm »

Can guarentee Ouessant is a lot less greasy than some others! Really does depend on breed!

ballingall · « **Reply #22 on:** September 09, 2008, 12:13:12 am »

Check out your local womans rural institute- someone there probably can spin, or knows someone who spins as a hobby, and they might spin your fleece for free, or maybe ask for some of the wool as a payment. I could name at least 3 family friends who have done that in the past for us.

Beth