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Fibre Processing | Preparing Your Fibre What to Avoid in a Fleece Tenderness: Characterized by a weakness in the fibre in a portion of the staple. Illness, stress, or incorrect feeding before birthing can contribute to an overall weakness in the fibre all over the animal. To check for tenderness, tightly stretch between two fingers of two hands a narrow staple by its two ends and flick it firmly with a spare finger. It must be equally strong along the whole staple. During carding and other processes, weakened fibres have a tendency to break in two and will create uneven batts and yarns. While spinning fine yarn from a weakened fibre would be difficult, it could be used for a bulky or slubby yarn or felt. Cotting: When a staple is difficult to pull out or sticks to adjoining staples so that doing so actually tears them, the fleece is cotted. This is usually due to long, wet springs and poor weather, which causes the fleece to felt near the skin of the animal. When cotting is present, there is much waste in the fleece, and sometimes cannot be used at all because of breakages which occur when attempting to pick the fibres apart. It could be considered, however, for felting. Arable: This applies mostly to sheep and angora goats with long, white fleece which are bred on crop-growing fields, poor sandy soil, or red-earth districts. The ends may become caked in mud or sandy soil blown into the fleece. This can be corrected by soaking the fleece in cold water overnight or longer, if necessary, to soften any clay. Vegetable matter: While a modicum of vegetable matter is expected, some fleeces are so matted with seeds, thistles, burrs, etc., that no amount of skirting would make the fleece usable. Yolk: Seen particularly in sheep, these yellowish portions of fleece near the skin, or yolk, are a mixture of a number of materials, such as suint (natural grease formed from dry perspiration) and lanolin, which protect and clean the wool. Suint is the source of the distinctive odour that comes from sheep, and consists of potassium salts of various fatty acids, and small amounts of sulfates, phosphates and nitrogenous materials. Suint is water soluble, but the yolk is not. The presence of yolk is quite normal and can be dissolved in water and detergent. If fleece is left unwashed, however, yolk can harden into tiny fragments which bind fibres together and interfere with drafting or stretching of the fibres, a necessary pre-spinning process. Second or double cuts: During shearing, shears may pass twice over the same area, creating short cuts or fibres that will later create unevenness and slubs in yarn.These second cuts should be set aside at the skirting stage and can be used quite nicely for felting. Stains: Stains that should be removed from fleece include tattoo ink, paint brands, grass, manure and urine stains. Canary stain or canary yellow: A bright yellow, unscourable stain or band of staining in the fleece or on the skin of a sheep which is caused by a parasite. The parasite feeds on the wool wax and then on the protein in the wool itself, causing the wool to weaken and eventually disintegrate. Fleeces with canary stain are not usable for yarn or spinning; the bacteria will continue to eat the fibre over a period of time. It’s important not to confuse canary stain with yolk or lanolin, a sheep’s natural grease that helps keep their fleece clean and is only a pale yellow in comparison. The staple that has canary stain will bow in at the banded area where infected with canary stain. The fleece will also have a strong yeasty smell. Weathered tips: While this applies to both white and coloured fleeces, it is mainly seen in coloured fleeces. Tips become become tender due to sunbleacing or harsh conditions. While unwanted in some circumstances, they may be welcomed in others for special designs of yarn. Kemp: Fleeces consist of many types of fibres which develop into clusters called staples or locks. Staples can have up to three different types of fibres present: wool fibres, hair fibres, and kemp fibres. Kemp fibres have a much rougher and broken surface (under a microscope), are thicker (which can be seen by the eye), and generally resist dyeing. They can be seen in the end yarn result as angular and brittle fibres, are short, and break easily if pulled. While unwanted in some circumstances, they may be welcomed in others for special designs of yarn. Fleece rot: An unscourable colouration of sheep’s wool caused by a bacteria known as Psuedomonas aeruginosa. After prolonged wetting of the skin, the bacteria multiply and produce a pigment which is typically green, but can also be blue, orange, brown or pink. ‘Weather stain’ is a yellow discolouration caused by bacterial products and pigment. These fleeces should be avoided altogether. Lice, mites, moths: If a fleece contains lice, mites or moths, discard it immediately; it can contaminate your other fleeces. |
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Preparing Your Fibre
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