We get to see and touch a lot of beautiful animal fiber. We are hand spinners, and are thrilled that more people are making their own yarn, so we want to make some of this great local wool available to you in prepared roving, batts or washed fleece. Some of this wool is great for felting and some not so much... All are packaged in 4 oz bags except washed fleece in 8 oz bags.
Raw, Briesbrook Farm cashmere. Grown in Loudoun County, VA.
Raw cashmere? What’s that? It is the downy undercoat of cashmere goats. Very fine (19 microns or less) and at least 1.25” long. It has been combed off the goats and put in a bag. That’s it!
There is some guard hair and sometimes a little veggie matter. Always a bit of good old Virginia clay dust. The funny bump pattern is created from the comb and they can help you see the guard hair. Guard hair is much thicker than the cashmere, sometimes it is white and sometimes black or gray. You can remove it by picking it out with your fingers. The good news is, since this fiber was hand combed from the goats early in the shedding season, there is much less guard hair than either shorn or late season combed cashmere.
Solitude Wool partner and shepherd of these cashmere goats, Kathy Reeds’s favorite way to spin it is from a cloud. Just dehair and spin! She doesn’t wash it until afterwards. There’s no lanolin to stick to wheels or spindles. Just dust. And that blows away.
preparation: the fleece has been scoured, picked and run through a large carder at one of many small mills we work with here in the mid-Atlantic and other areas of the US. Carded roving has fibers going in many directions, loosely organized. Appropriate for woolen or semi-worsted spinning techniques. Pin drafted roving has had an additional run through moving "pins" that align the fibers more parallel. Combed top is made at a medium size mill. The combed white Merino has neps and is marked below cost.
4 oz /113 grams bag (exceptions noted in the name)
preparation: the fleece has been scoured, picked and run through a large carder at a one of many small mills we work with here in the mid-Atlantic and other areas of the US. Most are carded roving has fibers going in many directions, loosely organized. Appropriate for woolen or semi-worsted spinning techniques. A few have also been pin-drafted for semi-worsted spinning. dyed-in-the-wool: the fleece was dyed prior to processing at the mill. This allows blending of different color fibers in the picking and carding process, sometimes with undyed wool as well to create interesting blends of heathered colors with more depth and easier drafting. kettle dyed: the finished roving has been dyed in a vat. Roving doesn't draft as easily and is a single color
