SKIRTING AND SORTING

SKIRTING AND SORTING
By Linda Wendelboe

The goal for a hand spinning or show fleece is to skirt off any damaged or contaminated portions but to maintain the shape and integrity of the fleece and the lock structure as far as possible.

The goal for a fleece that is to go to a commercial processor is to keep like quality and similar lengths of fleece together while removing the obvious debris and contamination.

The fleece may be removed from the animal in one, two or more pieces, depending on shearing style and characteristics of the fleece. Belly and tail wool and dags are usually removed during shearing and do not arrive on the skirting table.

The fleece should be placed on the sorting table, shorn (flesh) side down. It may be shaken gently to remove excess debris. All areas with urine, dung, mud, or excessive vegetation should be removed and discarded immediately. Short fibre (1" and under) and second cuts should be picked off or fall through the mesh and are discarded. Any portions of fleece showing signs of active insect infestations should be removed immediately and placed in an airtight bag or container to prevent possible contamination of other fleece.

If there is time and manpower, classing based on intended use can be done at this time. This generally consists of final skirting (separating of different fleece types), picking, weighing, measuring and recording of fleece characteristics. If resources are limited, the fleece may be bagged and labeled and classing may be conducted at a later date, prior to using or marketing the fleece. The intended use should guide you in deciding how much separating of different fleece types needs to be done during classing.

Requirements for commercial processing are usually different than for hand spinning so the classing process may also differ. If the fleece is going to a commercial processor, consider separating all areas of the fleece that are significantly different (coarser fibre or fibre with a much different length or fibre of a different colour). Any of these portions separated off from the main fleece may be put together into one lot with other, similar portions from other fleeces. Each of the resulting lots can be sorted, graded and combined for shipping to a commercial processor for an end use appropriate to its characteristics..

Handspinners’ and show fleeces should be handled gently to avoid pulling them into pieces or disturbing the lock structure. Most handspinners want clean fleeces so they should be picked more thoroughly than is required for commercial processing. Also, there is less need to separate out significant differences in fleece type though often the coarsest area of the britch is removed.

The remaining portions of the fleece (such as britch or veggie necks) can be turned onto the table, shaken and skirted to remove excess debris, checked for consistency of fibre quality, length and colour. Like portions can be combined with like portions for a specific project such as combining britch wool for rug yarn.