Hello and welcome. This is Kim Bigler, the owner of youthful fiber farm and mill. And I am sitting at home in Harrisburg, Oregon. Getting ready to talk to you all about buying a roll wool fleece. It's kind of that time of year where there's lots of festivals happening. There's wool feelings getting back into the air as fall kind of starts to hit in. People are starting to dust off their spinning wheels, or maybe you think about getting a spinning wheel or a drop spindle and starting to learn.
And once you do that, or maybe even before you get your hands on some wool and you are ready to buy a fleece, we've all been there. So I thought I would give you some tips for heading to the festival or wherever you may be buying that. Please. Just some good tips for you. Before I forget. I do have a Patrion community. And this month we're actually doing a washing wool at home live workshop. And just a couple of weeks. So if you are interested in that, you can subscribe.
There'll be a link in the show notes to the youthful Patrion community. You do need to be at the CUNY or Shetland level to get access to that. But it's not too much. And you get lots of great perks. So check that out. And if that's not your jam, then head to my website and get on my newsletter so you can get all sorts of updates. Okay, so let's start with. This is your first place. I'm just going to give you a couple quick tips on if this is your very first lease.
You're thinking about getting things that I would take into account. If you're going to a festival. Judged fleeces are wonderful for beginners because the judges who know a lot about wool have already. Looked at the fleece determined what kind of fleece it's in generally there are notes. That will tell you the condition of the fleets, what they liked, what they didn't like. And those are priceless, especially as a beginner. I love to see those notes because it helps me. Kind of say yes. That's.
That's what I was thinking or, yeah, you're right. Yeah. Negative side. That's what I was thinking. So judge fleeces are wonderful. You're going to pay a little more for them, but I think it's worth it, especially if it's your first fleece. By will from a wool breeder. This is there's free wool out there everywhere. And I always, my little red flag goes up whenever I'm offered free wool.
Not that there isn't some beautiful free wool out there, but especially if this is like your first fleece, I would buy from somebody who's growing the sheep. For wool purposes, because it's generally speaking, going to be in great shape. And then my last tip would be for your first fleece, buy a heartier sheep breed. It's going to have less lanolin it's going to be less sensitive to felting and other things when you're doing the washing.
So you can be a little bit less stressed and a little bit more. Just experimental with it. When I say. Hardier fleeces, some of the great, uh, Romney fleece. Wonderful to start with Jacob. Fantastic. Shetland, fin. Those are all going to be some great wolves to start with where they're just not quite as sensitive and they're going to be lower and lanolin and perk VM drops out easier from a lot of those leases than they will from firewall fleeces. So. Take that into account.
If you're a first time. Fleece or. Okay. So determining the type of wool that you're going to be looking for here are my ideas behind this. I mean, you can go in and just look for the most beautiful fleece you can possibly find, and that's fine, but if you wanted to go into it with a little bit of strategy, you could start with, how are you going to process this fleece? 'cause not everybody buys a fleece and then processes themselves.
I've heard many of people at flea sales saying, I'm going to send this to the mill. And have them process it to roving for me, maybe even to yarn who knows. But if that is the case, Some of these tips also pertain to that. And I would also urge you to reach out to the mill before a lot of mills in the United States are pretty backlog. So if you're expecting to grab that, please send it to the mill and get it back next month. There's probably not. The highest chance of that.
So you may want to take into account that your local mill may be backed up and you may end up processing this at home because you just want to get it done faster. So are you going to process it at home? Are you going to send it to the mill? Are you going to card it? Are you going to comb it? What's your. What what's your game plan here? And the reason I say these things is because the first thing is it could help determine the length of the fiber that you're going to buy.
So if you're getting a really long staple Lang. Like this past year was the first year I let my Shetlands grow an entire year. Usually I would do six months. So their fleeces. They're best processing type is going to be calmed. And I had someone buy one from me and she started, she was combing it. And the end product is gorgeous because there are these long seven inch.
Locks and they're going to just naturally do better being combed than they are going to be on a Carter because they tend to get those long locks tend to get a little bit more caught up. In a hand card or a drum Carter or anything like that. So, What length, you know, do you want to call them or do you want a card? And even if you're going to send it to the mill, there are a lot of mills that won't take that super long staple length.
So something to consider a lot of them are really restricted when it comes to spinning may aren't for you. But some may even have that parameter when it comes to the Carter, because it still gets caught up in our Carters, just like it. Would it help maybe a little bit less? I can send my Shetland through my mill. But it would love to be combed. So something to think about how are you going to process this? Do you want a card? It, do you want to comment? Do you want to send it out?
This is also going to kind of help determine the highs of the fleece you get. So let's say you decide, you want to get a Shetland fleece. You're probably going to be right around three to four pounds. And that's like after you skirt it. So that's not a very big fleece. Same with effin fleece, maybe even a Jacob. They're not huge. So that's going to be less of a project. Uh, Romney, you're going to get a little bit more heft out of that.
You might be in like five pounds, six pounds, something like that. If you went for a fine wool fleece, you could be upwards of 7, 8, 9 pounds. And then think about. All that washing and carting and our combing. However, you're going to do it. So the other thing to think about is besides the length and the size is if you get a breed, that's a fine wool. You're going to have more lanolin to get out and lanolin is not the easiest thing to get out, always.
So depending on your setup, if you can really have the space and the time and the water. Then buying a fine wool fleece that is eight, nine pounds may not be a big deal to you, but you may say, I want to make this a little bit easier on myself. So I'm going to buy a fleece that is smaller, that has less lanolin and it's going to take me less washes. Maybe you even can find a friend or somebody at the show.
If you're both looking at the same fleece and it's nine pounds, Hey, maybe you split it with them. That's always a great option. So keep your eye open when you're looking at fleeces. VM is another big thing, um, to think about like how much are you willing to tolerate with VM? And as you, if you are going more on the Romney Shetland on that end, The VM. You don't want it to be an entire hay bale in there, but it does drop out a lot easier than a fine wool fleece. They love to hold on to VM.
So anyway, kind of looking at the different types, the different breeds of sheep, those are some of the things to take into account. Okay, so now you've decided or not. Depending on what your personality is. Maybe you're just going to walk in and go for it. And I get that. So you kind of know what kind of wool that you want now. So let's talk about some things to look out when you open that bag, whether it's at a festival or you're showing up to somebody's barn.
You're meeting them in a parking lot. Not that that's ever happened to me, but if you are looking at a bag of wool, here are the things that I look at. First thing. I don't want to see any signs of bugs or rodents. Yes, rodents. I said it, they get in there. Uh, depending on how the wool was stored. I mean, a lot of people just store it in their shop and their barn, whatever, and it happens, right.
It happens, but I don't want to be floating around and find any dead rodents in there or rodent excrement. Yeah. So be wary of that, unless you have a higher tolerance than me. And then there you go. Uh, mobs is a big thing that you want to, if you see MAs. Walmart specifically. And there are a bazillion different type of Moss and not all malls eat wool. So it's, you know, don't completely freak out. But if you see Mavs or you see signs of MAs, which would be larvae.
And you can look up, you can Google and look for images very easily. If you see those. Do not buy the fleece. I wouldn't even, even if they were anxious, dead, nothing seems to be alive. I still would not buy the fleece because if there are multiple malls in there and larvae may have probably done a number and they will eat through the fibers. Uh, not the Maus, but the larvae will eat through the fibers. And then the fibers are, are no longer strong.
So if I see MAs or any sign of Maus, it's a no go for me. Also. Do you want to take that home and risk that being around any of the other fiber you have in your stash? So that's an, that's an. Uh, just not going to happen for me. Okay. Next thing I look at is the staple strength. And this is really important.
You could have a better tolerance for it if you're going to process this at home, but for me at the mill, and even when I'm processing wool at home, I want there to be a nice, strong staple. And that is using the little snap test is the easiest way to do it. You just take one end of the staple and you take the other end of the staple. You hold it between your fingers and then you give it a good stretch and very quickly stretch it out.
And if you're holding it up to your ear, you should hear a nice crisp pop. The fiber shouldn't break. You shouldn't hear a crackle. It should just be a nice clean. And then, you know, you have a nice strong staple. So that's really important because you don't want to go through all this process and then your staples, your wool starts breaking along the way you get it on a Carter, you start combing it and everything's breaking. So snap test is always key.
If I see broken WOL, it's not something that is going to be. Something that I would buy. Now you could be looking at like a 12 inch. Fiber or even like a six inch fiber. And if somehow magically that break happened right in the middle. Sorry. Well, It may not be as big of a deal because at least the fibers are going to be the same length when they do break. But that's kind of up to you. Okay. I also look at next up for me is the level of cleanliness and I am pretty flexible.
It doesn't have to be the perfect fleece for me, but, uh, if it's just completely coated in mud, like. Coated in mud. Uh, probably not going to be something. And for us here in the Pacific Northwest, we see more muddy polices. And like the commercial sheet by me, you wouldn't even know that they're white by the end of the winter. So that would be no, no, no, no, no. Uh, although I have had a lot of success lately with doing a cold soak overnight.
I'll talk about in the wool washing workshop over on Patrion. So if you're interested, check that up. But mud, if it's super, super caked and crusty. It can be hard to get out. So keep that in mind. Not impossible but harder. How much VM is in there. Bye VM. I mean, vegetable matter, how much hay did they put an entire hay bale in there? Or do they just have the normal? Yes, they had some hay. Yes, they were on grass. Yes. They walked through a Blackberry Bush here and there.
Again, not that these things happen on my farm, but there's a certain level of VM. And really that comes down to your preference. Like how patient are you, how much time do you want to spend cleaning this fleece up before you wash it? Because you do want to get that stuff out as much as you can, before you start washing. Uh, there are of course coded fleeces, which if you really want to make this more. Easy. Process for you. Uh, coat of fleece is always a great way to go.
Now, a lot of people don't coat their sheep. So this is a special thing. But if a sheep is coded, what that means is that they literally have this little blanket over them that keeps the VM from just being tossed into their whoa. Fine wools. Especially if you can find a code one, that's going to save you a lot of time and effort, most likely. You are going to pay up for that. And that's okay.
You should pay it for that because they don't just put a coat on the sheep and like, okay, we'll see you in a year. Those coats have to be changed constantly as the wool gets bigger. They need to have bigger coats on. So the sheep have to be brought in the coats have to be changed. If the coats tear, if they get caught in anything, there's so many things and those codes are not exp in. Inexpensive. So if you buy a coded fleece, Be prepared to pay more, but it's worth it.
Considering the work that went behind it. Plus you get a cleaner fleece. So those are some things to think about there as far as what are you willing to put up with? When you are processing this. And then the last things I look at, is there any like Cotting or felting on the fleece, especially on the tips that's where you'll see it, especially in finals or if they are coded sometimes just that rubbing. Along the top of the wool. With the coat. It can cause a little bit of coding there.
So of Cotting. And that's something that again is up to your preference and it may just be here and there. It might be the whole fleece. Uh, making sure that the fleece that you can open up that to me is what I'm looking for. If I have to use force to open up locks, to look at a fleece. That's going to be difficult to wash because. You just have the risk of it getting even more, felt it up when it starts to hit water and all the other things.
So good separation is what I love, whether it's a fine mole fleece or. Uh, not fine Wolf lease a medium or anything like that. I want to be able to fairly easily open up locks without them getting caught up on each other, without them being felted, without them not. It's sort of like when you comb your own hair, if it's getting all nodded up, that's not going to be easy to get out as you process it. So I want some nice open separation where the fibers are literally. Separating from each other.
That's going to make for. An easier processing and the last thing, and this is definitely not a deal breaker to me. But the tips, uh, you know, checking to see, especially on fine wool fleeces. And on darker fleeces, you might see that the tips are lighter color. And what happens is they get sun bleached and this can happen even with a coated sheep, the sun rays go through that code and they can hit the top of those leases. Sometimes it can be enough sun damage that the wool gets, uh, gets.
More fragile up there and you can actually just break the tips off. And if you're holding, not the very, very tip and you're holding the other, and you do your snap test, you might not notice that those tips are a little bit weak. So just checking if they're really a different color. Then the rest of the wool, just see if you just kind of pop at it lightly. You don't want to do this a lot because you want to be respectful of the grower.
And not ruin the fleece, but just look for your own, you know, take a lock and look. You can look through a fleece. It's okay to kind of peek through here and there just don't tear it up and don't pull tons and tons of wool out of it. You know, you kind of have to. Just be, get in there and get the information you need, but don't make a mess. How's that be respectful of the work that went into it.
And the fact that if you're not going to buy it, you don't want the police to look a mess for the next person that looks at it or for the shepherd, if they end up taking it home. So. Those are kind of some of my big tips for buying raw Wolf. Lisa's. And like I said, I do have an old post on my blog, which is being youthful.com. I will put a link in the show notes. It is the only book goodie. Uh, it is from, I think it's September of gosh, 21. 2021.
Where I talk about buying a raw wool fleece and it kind of lays some of these out a little bit more, even talk about the idea, you know, of getting free will, as in like, you don't have to pay for it. Things like that. So you can head to the blog post and check that out. If you want a little more information or you don't want to take notes and you just want to go read something. Most of this information's there. Like I mentioned, I'll be doing a live workshop in my Patrion community.
And just a couple of weeks, one of my patrons is going to be there also, uh, to kind of be, uh, extra. Extra questions, different ideas, different way. Everybody washes at home differently. And so I'm going to give you how I do it at home and the supplies you need and how to get through it. And then Jessica will be there to help answer other questions, or maybe have some ideas on how to do things differently. So. Head over to the Patrion community. If you are interested in that.
And like I said, head to the newsletter, head to my website. If you want to get on my newsletter, just to get updates, to get alerts on when there's new fiber in the shop or new things going on. So. Okay, everyone. I hope that helps. If you're heading to a festival, have so much fun here in our area, we will have Oregon flock and fiber, and just a couple of weeks, I'll be there. Just having fun, not vending, but you'll definitely see me in the wrongfully show, a sail area.
And then I will be down in California a couple of weeks later, again, not vending, but. You'll see me at the RA flea sale. If you're going to lamb town, which is in Dixon, California, I will be there. I'm taking classes. Just getting away from the farm. Uh, for the first time. Towards the end of harvest. So say hi, if you see me say hi, if you see me and whatever. Festival you are going to, if you're able to make it to one. I have so much fun.
And support those vendors, support those vendors and shepherds. Okay. Thank you so much for listening. There is a Google link in the show notes that if you have questions, you can reach out and ask them there. Of course you can always email me or DM me on Instagram or other great ways to find me. I have got all the wool on YouTube. So if you want to see videos. Head there. And I think that's what the places you can find me. There's quite a few of places.
Okay. Everybody have a wonderful, wonderful weekend. And till next time, Stay healthy, be kind to everybody around you and make so many pretty things. I so appreciate you all. Thank you for listening.