This is so cool! I’ve been doing a breed study project for the last year or so. Question for you: is Leicester Longwool the same as Blue-Faced Leicester wool? Or are they different breeds?
Hi, I just watched your video on Suri Alpaca, and you mentioned blending it with other fibers. However, you didn’t mention which fibers; so that’s my question what are good fibers to blend with Suri Alpaca thank you so much.
Hi Tori not ure if you will see this i know the vidio was made 5 years ago. But im wondering if doc bronner soap would word for cleaning a fleece to spin?
I was very disappointed by a bunch of wool I bought on-line BECAUSE it was so short stapled. Then I recieved the great wheel an English wood turner made for me. The short stapled wool works wonderfully with the great wheel. Much better than my longer fibers. So either a great wheel or just supported longdraw on a flyer wheel. Oh, and I use my wool picker and then my drum carder, and if I'm in the non-lazy mode I pick out neps and noils from the bat and draft stripes from the bat into roving.
Thank you so much! I just bought my first Suri blanket and needed advice on prepping. I tried combing with my fine combs and wasn't thrilled. Ran it through the drum carder and definitely experienced the struggle of getting it off on the first pass. I am heading to the kitchen to get cheesecloth!! Planning on carding it into a colorful corriedale batt for shine. Happy to have found your channel. ~ Karen
There's quite a few options! You can spin the locks into a core yarn, you can use them for doll hair/felting, and you can even spin them into their own yarn if you want!
1:10 NB: Human hair is not hollow - it has a medulla at the centre, which is sometimes fragmented, or even absent, but it's such a small percentage that you still wouldn't call it hollow, like a polar bear hair, which is hollow for half the radius of the shaft.
Tip 1 (0:23): photos - preferably natural lighting Tip 2 (1:35): "do not hide the details" - be an honest seller. Take up close photos of any imperfections. Also include the staple length. Tip 3 (2:42): underestimate the weight - the buyer might have a scale that gets a different weight so, to avoid complaints, subtract a little bit from your total. Similarly, add a bit if you are buying.
If you do a search for hand carders, you should find several different brands! I'm pretty sure there are some great videos on RU-vid about the different brands and the pros and cons that might be helpful as well. :D
Hi 😃I am purchasing my first raw fleece for dry needle felting. It is a Cheviot from a local farmer. I’m not entirely sure where this breed falls on the spectrum but will be gentle in washing it. Thank you for so many great tips.
In the middle eastern farms what they do it put it on the stove and boil it with the soap to remove it thorough and with hot tap water rinse it off and do it afew times to make sure it’s completely off
It's very interesting to hear you recommend lamb fleeces as I have been firmly told to never ever ever buy one as they are often tippy due to the fleece being in the amniotic fluid and the ends of the locks will likely be brittle. Have you found this to be true?
Hello! Yes, they definitely can be that way, and that's why it's important to look at the staple length outside the tips. If the tips come off in combing/carding and you're still left with a decent 3 + inch staple length, then you're fine. I've worked with a lot of lamb fleeces that were great. As long as you ask if the staple itself is strong.
Not necessarily, but it depends on if you want to keep the integrity of the lock structure. It will definitely pull away the curl of the locks if you card it. And you need to make sure that your drum carder is coarse enough to handle the stronger fibers!
Late to the party, but I'd love a more detailed explanation of why you don't just use the Namaste wash all the time. I assume there's a reason it's worth having both products. Thanks!
Hi Kelly! So honestly I had purchased the Unicorn Power Scour first and then decided to try the Namaste product afterwards. I know a lot of people prefer one over the other, but I enjoyed using both. I didn't really have a favorite!
@@FeathertailFiberArts thanks so much for the reply! I'm planning my first scour next week, but can't (yet) justify collecting too many products, so I appreciate the input. I got small bottles of the Unicorn products and will probably experiment with different methods on different chunks of the fleece. :)
I don’t know what VM is, but I am guessing the poop tags are just the extremely dirty “tags” of wool that are there with shearing. They really aren’t worth the efffort of washing. I try and separate them from the actual usable wool to give the shearers. But I’d love to know what the VM stands for!
It's more a question of quantity and speed. They'll be able to process it faster and with less hassle than I can on my own, but I definitely encourage you to try if you would rather do it yourself!
Thanks for this video! Most of the fleeces from my Suffolk and (especially) the Ryeland are under 4" and fabulous!!! I either use the drum carder or hand cards and the yarn it makes is soft, sproingy and has the perfect loft. I find longer staple lengths a lot harder to manage for making lots of handspun 😊
