It has been a very busy few days but now everything is ready for collection. Bev, Kev and I have been sorting, bagging and weighing loads and loads of raw sheep fleece in readiness for collection by the woollen mill.
We have sorted through all kinds of different fleece, Manx Loughton, Blue Faced Leicester, Portland, Lleyn and Jacob to name a few and now we have a huge pile of bags all tied up, weighed and marked 'Cornish Wools'. It is not an easy job, its heavy and very smelly and oily too (lots of lanolin in some of the fleece) but it is very satisfying to have finished all the preparation.
All we need to do now is wait - until it is all processed into knitting yarn. So watch this space for more new shortly.
Thursday 18 February 2010
Tuesday 9 February 2010
Off to the Mill with a load of Merino fleece!!
One week ago after a long convoluted and exhausting journey 35 Merino fleeces were delivered to the Mill for processing. The mill is situated on an old airfield near Goole in East Yorkshire where the Halifax bomber planes were kept during the last war. The reason for making such a long journey was twofold, one reason was that as I am fairly new as a manufacturer of knitting yarns I am trying different mills to assess the finishing quality of the yarns.
The last batch of yarn processed was taken to the Natural Fibre Company in Launceston, much nearer to home and the journey to deliver the fleece to the mill was certainly a a lot easier. Secondly, as yet I am unable to find any Cornish farmers with Merino sheep so I it was necessary for me to visit Yvonne who farms and keeps a Merino flock near Lydney in Gloucestershire and pick up the fleeces I had purchased from her on my way up north. To make the whole thing easier I broke the journey and spent a few days with my family in Bolsover near Chesterfield. So certainly not the most straightforward of journeys but most definately a very interesting and enjoyable one.
Earlier today I called Paul one of the mill owners to find out how things were progressing and I am extremely pleased to report that now all the fleece has been carded (see photo above) to remove debris etc and the fibres are all laying the same way in readiness for spinning. However firstly before any spinning takes place it all needs to be washed, spun and then dried for 2 days in the drying room at the Mill. Then its all systems go towards the finished product. It is just so good and extremely pleasing to see the big machines working again after being sold off for scrap when the old yorkshire mills closed down. Recycling at its best!!
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