Custom Processing

Sheeples Fine Fibres offers custom processing for wool, alpaca, and other exotic fibres. We can produce felting batts, quilt batting, spinners roving, and yarns for hand or machine knitting and weaving. Yarn is available in skeins, centre pull balls, or cones. Cones are knot free and can be waxed or oiled for machine knitters and weavers. The yarn that we produce is of the semi-worsted type.

The following outlines the process that the raw fibre (fleece) off the animal’s back goes through as we process it.

Skirting

Skirting should be done at shearing time. The fleece is placed on a mesh table and then shaken so that any second cuts and as much vegetable matter as possible falls out. We remove the topknot, belly, leg, and all wool contaminated with dung tags and other undesirable items. The fleece is then rolled and tied for processing later.

Washing

Prior to washing we open the fleece up and spread it out on a mesh table. We then further skirt the fleece checking for areas of the fleece that are heavily contaminated with vegetable matter. With sheep this is often the centre of the back. These sections are pulled out and discarded. The fleece is then pulled apart and placed in a mesh bag. The mesh bag is then soaked in a tub full of very hot soapy water. We use an environmentally safe detergent. Two washes and two rinses is our normal procedure. Between washes and rinses we spin the excess water out of the fleece in a regular washing machine. The clean fleece is then taken out of the mesh bag and laid out on racks to dry.

Conditioning

Once wool fibre is dry it is conditioned with spinning oil. The oil allows the wool fibres to slide through the processing equipment easier resulting in less fibre breakage. Since Alpaca and other exotic fibres are very slippery they require conditioning with a cohesive agent to get the fibres to stick together during processing. The conditioning treatment is absorbed overnight and the fibre is ready for processing the next day.

Opening/Carding

The carding process is the most important mechanized step in the production of yarn. A poor carding job makes all the following steps difficult or impossible to do. After years of research we purchased an MC20 Carding machine from TexTek Technologies. This unit is equipped with state of the art electronic controls. It has 5 independent variable speed motors that allow the speed of each set of rolls to be finely tuned to match the fibre type being processed. The carding teeth are made of metallic wire, which is known for its superior carding as opposed to fillet wire. It also does an excellent job of removing vegetable matter. Depending on requirements, fibre exits the carder in the form of clouds, roving or quilt batting.

Pindrafting

The roving produced by the carding machine is quite thick and must be thinned out for further processing. We have a high production industrial pindrafter. In Pindrafting the roving is drawn through a set of combs and rollers which drafts and combs the fibre creating a thinner more parallel roving. The roving is then fed into a coiler which produces a nice neat compact coil of roving that can be used by handspinners, Knit as is, or put through a mechanical spinning machine. The pindrafter does not remove any fibres nor does it remove very much vegetable matter.

Spinning

The Pindrafted Roving is then fed into the spinning machine where it is further drafted and spun into a single strand of yarn. We have a 6 spindle spinner that is equipped with modern solid state electronic controls. The thickness that the single is spun to is determined by the end use of the yarn.

Plying

Depending on requirements, 2, 3 or more singles are then twisted together in a process called plying. This twisting is done in the opposite direction to spinning. We spin with what is called a Z-twist and ply with an S-twist.

Skein Winding

If the plied yarn is destined to be used by hand knitters it is then wound into skeins. These skeins are washed and rinsed to remove the spinning oils and set the twist so that yarn will not unwind. After the skeins dry they are rewound into skeins or wound into centre pull balls or cones. Cones are usually used by machine knitters and weavers, but hand knitters may also use them.

Cone Winding

We have a used 8 head cone winding machine. Again it is updated with solid state variable speed control. If the cones are to be used by weavers or machine knitters the yarn need not be washed thereby leaving the spinning oils in the yarn. If desired the yarn may be washed and then waxed as it is being wound into cones.

And there you have it. From fleece to yarn, a natural product ready to be knit or woven into a garment of your choice.