In celebration of the United Nations International Year of Natural Fibres 2009, Wild Fibers invites you to be part of “Keep the Fleece” - the first International Fiber Arts Competition based on All Natural Fibers for All Types of Fiber Artisans from around the world.
The knitty-gritty details of the contest are still up for “executive” discussion, so if you would like more information about becoming a sponsor, contest categories, or registering to become a judge (yes, that’s right – the contest will be judged by as many members of the global fiber community who wish to register online,) please reply to this email and put “Keep the Fleece” in the subject line.
Thank you, as always for your great support of Wild Fibers – we are an ever-growing herd of fiber enthusiasts from around the world.
Kind regards,
Linda Cortright
Linda Cortright
Editor and Publisher
Wild Fibers Magazine
PO Box 1752
Rockland, ME 04841
Recently we have been experimenting with more blending options in our yarns and roving. This is what we have found.
- blending colors of like staple lengths makes for stunning brindled and cabled yarns
- blending with silk requires that you blend with the same percentage of merino
- blending with nylon makes for a great yarn even just adding 5% makes seconds spin like a dream
- blending with tencel gives yarns a wonderful sheen at 10%
- blending with bamboo requires that you blend with half as much merino as well
- blending with merino does not take away from the softeness of the alpaca fiber (we offer superfine merino at 16 to 17 micron)
- blending with hemp gives yarns great rugged looking character for a men’s apparel type market
Please stop in and check out the display of our new blends we have made. Seeing is sometimes believing but touching and seeing it knitted up is where it’s at! Our hope is to create market niche opportunities for our farmers and blending is a great way to capture a niche. Find out what your customers are looking for in blended yarns and let us work out the details of making it a reality!
What blends have you seen in the market place? We be interested in trying something new if it will serve you better!
From farm to fashion - we want to be your natural choice!
I wanted to let you know that we received our yarn and rovings on Tuesday.
We were thrilled at how our order turned out! Of course, since it was the first processed
fiber from our little herd, we had to lay it out and take pictures. You know how
us proud parents can be! The yarn is so soft and consistent and I love that dark
brown we ended up with. I was also impressed with the shine, softness and color of the rovings.
It was a pleasure doing business with you! I appreciate that you took the time to educate and to guide
me so that I might make informed decisions. Your time line was amazingly accurate and the progress
reports were much appreciated. The whole process was just a nice experience and we couldn’t
be more pleased with the end result! Thanks so much. We look forward to working with you again
in the future.
By the end of 2008 we will have improved our efficiency of production here in the mill by almost 600% if the following changes can be adopted by our customers. This will effectively allow us to process 150 pounds of fiber per week by year’s end!
- Optimum batch sizes to same process in full wash load increments (6/12/24 - alpaca/llama; 15/30/45 - Low grease sheep)
- Consolidating drop off & fleece evaluation to twice a month (2nd & 4th Thursdays)
- Shipping only on Fridays (with return postage over-estimated and paid up front and refunds given as necessary)
- Grade A skirted fiber
- Online registration
- Separate yarn & bump/batt queue
- Skein by yards not ounces
Since adopting and beginning to implement these steps as of January first we have reduced our turn around time dramatically. Currently we only 4 weeks out!!! However, this has also created some angst as we’re also one month from being out of work.
If you have fiber that you’re wanting to send in please consider doing it now!!! In order to encourage orders to come in we’re offering FREE DEHAIRING on all orders coming in through February 2008 as of January 30th!
From farm to fashion we want to be your natural choice!
Your friends at MSF,
Karen & JC
Recently we received an email from a potential customer who had leiscester Long Wool Sheep. As we develop new relationships with different breeds we’re noticing that the preparation is always just a little different and the question vary as well. We thought we would give you some excepts from that conversation for those of you who are Leiscester Long Wool folks considering processing with MSF.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Karen,
We spoke on the phone a couple of days ago, and I am in the process of packing up what appears to be roughly 7 pounds of fiber to send. In “attacking” the form you have on your website, I have many questions. So, I hope you will indulge me and enlighten me!
First, it would appear that my seven pounds of fiber will run somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 to process. Does that sound reasonable, about right? It seems very high to me…but since I have nothing to compare it to, I really don’t know…
I’m not sure what you were going to have done, so it isn’t possible for me to know for sure what the cost would be…..but, it would seem reasonable that if you were having sport wt. 2 ply yarn made.
Second, I feel inadequate in being able to assess the “quality” of the fleece I would like to send. Some vegetation is present. As to the degree, however, I cannot be sure. We don’t have a petting zoo farm. Rather, we are a working farm, and the animals are free to graze where they choose within any given pasture. So, I’m not certain if it’s a B or a C grade. Or maybe worse!
The quality of the fleece is determined by how much debris is left in it. If you’ve laid out each fleece on a skirting table (a piece of lattice over some saw horses works well for a skirting table) and picked out all the dung tags and grasses, sticks, etc. so that the only thing left in the fleece is the grease — you’ve done an “A” job of skirting. An “A” skirting makes the highest quality wool products and all serious processors skirt well to avoid higher pricing and to assure better return for their dollar.
Third, I don’t know if I need to have it de-haired. If I do, are the “leftovers” from the process suitable for felting? If so, I have no idea as to the amount of leftovers, hence, what amount of felted material would they yield? Hence, what to expect and what to pay?
Leiscester typically does need to go through the dehairer because the grease holds in lots of chaff/vegetation that can’t be removed by skirting because it’s so thoroughly locked in place. As the fiber is washed, the grease comes out and when it’s picked all the chaff starts showing up. If you don’t dehair, the carder will only remove a portion of the chaff, so your yarn will have lots of vegetation flecks in it. Some folks like it this way, most do not. Leiscester does not give much in the way of fiber for felting after a trip to the dehairer — just lots of chaff! That being said, though, we could certainly felt Leicester instead of making yarn or roving. You would simply select batting at the carder, then select felting, and it would automatically calculate the approximate number of felt sheets you would get from your fiber.
Fourth, I don’t know if cutting is necessary. In this particular fleece, it would appear not, but then, you might have other ideas…
If your fiber length is over 6 inches, and you want anything other than lopi yarn or roving/batting, you’ll need to have it cut. Our spinner can only draft 6 inches adequately.
Fifth: It says that some fleeces will need to be washed and picked twice; does that double the cost of washing and picking?
Yes it does, as I have to use twice the amount of soap, water and man hours to process something that needs washed and picked twice.
Sixth: With seven pounds, can I split the yarn type…i.e., between, say, Sport, Light, and Medium? I will be working this yarn on my KnitKing knitting machine, which is termed a “PC Bulky”— meaning, as you probably know, a punch-card bulky. That doesn’t mean, however, that I want to do Bulky or Super Bulky. On the other hand, I might like having some Sport yarn for smaller projects…..lots of choices, right?
You are welcome to split the 7 lb. up into 2 different batches with at least 3 lb. in each batch, as I don’t do a yarn run with less than 3 lb. You would not want to go larger than a worsted wt. for the PC Bulky machine.
Seventh: I have NO idea as to the number of ply….I am a handspinner but have usually always simply spun and plyed my yarn into two-ply product. I need advice, here. Perhaps the Sport, Light or Medium, would govern the number of ply?
Our mill prices for a 2 ply yarn put up on a cone, but we are happy to do 3 ply for an extra charge of $1 per pound. If you decide on a 4 ply yarn, you would need to choose the next size smaller yarn price, as that’s the size of the singles for the ply and our pricing is based on the amount of time it takes us to make the single. As you can imagine, the thinner you spin the single, the longer it takes, so the higher the price.
Thank you for your time, and I am greatly looking forward to getting started.
Hi!! dearest John and Bobbi, (the people who took the money over for us)
I am sorry for delay for purchase the sewing machine.
I gave the money to Debbi last Wednesday. She huried
to see many places but she had to order and it take
time for that and she got yesturday already and she
will send you picture very soon for sure.
We all so excited that your friend blessed us with
sewing machine. The older kids so glad that. They love
to do very much but we never have but now we have one.
Please say Thank you very much to your friend that we
all so appreciate her and she has such a kind heart
for my people and blessed them and we will pray for
her and her works will be blessed.
You are in our prayers. God be with you and bless you
with peaceful heart and long time.
We often get phone calls regarding the start up of a mill
Here’s some of the questions we get asked and the short answer to those questions.
* How long have you been processing fiber?
about 3 years
* How many employees do you have? Full time or part time?
1 full time and 2 part time employees and three of us work for free!
* How many pounds are you able to process each day?
10 lbs. average, but we have been speaking lots to people about shearing, skirting and sorting and the grade has picked up steadily.
* Are you hoping to increase the amount of pounds processed? If so, how would you be able to increase?
Yes, our goal is 30 pounds a day. If the preparation is done well, then the processing takes less time and the end product is better. We’re also going to start offering a “Premium” line of processing which combines fleeces to make 15-20 pound lots which will great reduce man hours and machinery being idle during change out of fleeces.
* Do you feel that there is lots of demand for alpaca (exotic) fiber processing?
yes
* How long did it take for you to be processing for others everyday?
about 6 months
* Did you do advertising?
yes
* What was the most effective advertising?
website
* What kind of mill equipment do you have?
Mini Mill
* Are you able to process only to rovings or all the way to spun yarn?
to spun yarn and to felt sheet
* Is processing to spun yarn extremely important in your opinion?
yes
* Which type of processing end product is requested more, rovings or yarn?
yarn
* Is you mill showing a profit at the end of the month??
We wanted to thank all of you who have purchased our mystery bumps. So far we’ve been able to raise $400 (40 bumps sold!) and we wanted to let you know how those monies were being used to help Asia’s Hope.
In the last 6 months Asia’s Hope has purchased a twenty acre farm an hour north of the orphanage on which they plan to house young widows who will take care of individual “family” of orphans, and be self sufficient in vegetable raising, fruit picking, and home industry which will include fiber weaving, sewing, etc.
Recently a team visited Thailand and delivered the monies we had raised from our mystery bumps. While they were there they got the chance to talk with Mike and Deb Flinchum who are a retired couple who have moved to Thailand to oversee manage the orphanage.
This was part of the story they relayed to us:
“she [Deb] immediately saw the way to help the orphan girls get past the “purses” and use woven rectangles to work out shawls, jackets, etc. which are much more sellable at the tourist market.
…to accomplish this task, the girls needed a sewing machine and surger to take their fiber weaving to the next step for marketing. Your $400 covered both machines. Deb is so excited to help the girls in this way.”
We’ve asked for pictures of the woven retangles, machines, Mike and Deb and the women who are doing the weavings. As so as we get them we’ll be putting them up.
ingredients:
1 lb. Italian sausage ( I like to use turkey sausage)take out of casing
2 15oz. cans diced tomatoes
2 15oz. cans chicken broth
1 can great northern beans
3 carrots -diced
2 small zuccini -diced
5 cups (or the whole bag) fresh spinach-torn
directions:
brown sausage (out of casing) in large soup pot. Add in tomatoes, and broth bring to boil. Add in beans, carrots, wait 3 minutes, add in zuccini wait 3 minutes (or until carrots and zuccini are soft). Remove from heat, add spinach, stir, cover and let stand 5 minutes. Enjoy! Serves 6-8
Just back from RHinebeck, NY from the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival. WOW! It’s big!!! I didn’t get pictures up before I left for that trip and I had wanted to. The felting forum was a great success and we thoroughly enjoyed having ya’ll here and we hope you walked away inspired to do and be something more than when you came.
First things first.
Here’s three shots of things left here in the mill. If you see something that is yours email us and we’ll be sure to get it to you! (or leave a comment here)
And now for the fun stuff…
Doesn’t look like we had much fun huh?
Weelllll…… Here’s a little story bout a man named Jed!
Just a couple samples of what we did…
Do you have pictures you took and uploaded on the web. Comment back and share them here!
