​How to Prepare Your Fiber for Processing
​Your final product is only as good as the fiber you send us.


Skirt your fleece.  This will reduce your costs for postage, reduce the percentage of weight lost in processing and improve the quality of your products.  You will get the best results from your fiber processing experience if you send us carefully skirted fiber that is as clean as possible. 
If you don't want it in your roving or yarn, don't send it to us!
  • Skirting is the removal of any undesirable parts of the fleece. (Parts that are too dirty, too coarse, damaged, or too contaminated with vegetable matter.)
  • Do this outside.  It is a dirty process.
  • Unroll the fleece and open it up.
  • Give it a good shake.
  • Lay it flat (cut side down) on a skirting table (a frame with screening or mesh netting).  A table will work if you don’t have one.
  • Much of the debris will fall right through the skirting table. If the screening is rust-proof (plastic), the table can be used for drying the fleece after washing.
  • You should be able to tell which ends belonged to the front and back of the animal.
  • Go around the edges and remove manure, tags, felted areas, inferior fleece and second cuts. 
  • Decide if you want to remove the coarser ‘britch’ fiber (hind leg area) and belly wool or whether you want it processed with the rest.  Many people choose to leave it.   It usually blends in well when it goes through our picker.
  • If you remove areas with a lot of guard hair (seen as a halo of longer fibers), your yarn will be softer & less likely to prickle.
  • Remove any vegetable matter (VM) or foreign objects. Get very ‘nitpicky’!  This can be quite time-consuming but will greatly improve your final product.
  • If you are sending it to the mill for further processing, do no worry about keeping the general shape and structure of the fleece intact.  The fleece will be pulled apart during the processing.
  • Please skirt aggressively to improve the overall quality and uniformity of the fiber.  When in doubt, take it out!
  • Skirt both sides of the fleece.
  • Remove manure, tags, felted areas, inferior fleece and second cuts.
  • Bounce or shake your fleece to remove dust, sand and dirt. Depending on the nature of the fiber, it is often possible to remove much of the fine vegetable matter (VM) by shaking the fleece vigorously.  This is much more effective with smaller amounts of fiber rather than whole fleeces.
  • Remove as much dirt as possible.  Dried black dirt is usually dried manure that the animals have laid in.   It will usually come out with washing, picking and carding, but occasionally can remain as little black specks – especially in fibers with a lot of crimp.  It is better to skirt out any heavily contaminated areas.
  • Un-skirted fleeces (contaminated with manure) will be charged additional skirting fees.  We will skirt for about 5 to 10 minutes in preparation for scouring, but if we have to skirt your fleece for an extended time, there will be additional skirting charges of $15/hr. 

Pick the foreign matter and vegetable matter out of your fiber. 
  • Remove large VM, twigs, burrs, seed heads, etc.
  • Processing fiber doesn’t necessarily remove all of the vegetable matter. A percentage of the contaminants will remain in the finished product and this WILL reduce the quality of the final product.
  • The amount and type of foreign contamination that will come out during processing depends a lot on the type of fiber. Finer fibers with more crimp tend to hold onto the VM and dirt. Long wool with straighter or more open locks will release much of it during processing. 
  • It is better to skirt out any really contaminated areas to prevent the VM from spreading throughout the rest of the fleece during processing.
  • If you choose, remove belly, neck and britch (hind) wool.  These areas are usually heavily soiled, contain higher amounts of VM and/or have inconsistent fibers.
  • Fiber with a high amount of contaminants (manure, mud, weeds, burrs, hay, grain, straw, wood shavings, fiber matting, etc) wears out the equipment faster and adds higher processing costs to everyone.
Separate out any fiber differences, (shorter, coarser, etc.)
  • Multiple colors in a fleece make for interesting and beautiful batts, roving and yarn.
  • If you want a uniform (single) color, separate color differences. 
  • You can save your skirtings and use them to make felt!  However, while some skirtings can be processed, waste should not be sent to the mill, i.e. fiber with manure, heavily soiled, excessive VM, etc.
Washing your own fleece (optional)
  • You may prefer to wash your own fiber before sending it to us for further processing.  (See handout for further instructions.)
    • Washing your fleece reduces the weight and therefore costs less to ship. (Lanolin constitutes approximately 5-25% of the weight of freshly shorn wool.) 
    • It gives you a better idea of the actual processing weight of the fiber and reveals the actual color and character of the fiber.  It may impact your decisions on the final product. 

Take the time to prepare your fiber … you won’t regret it!
Although you won’t be able to get everything out of your fiber and our equipment does remove some,
it is still in your best interest to send the cleanest possible fiber.
We look forward to helping you with all of your fiber processing needs. 
​Shepherd's Gate Fiber Mill
110 Boardwalk Dr.
Youngsville, NC 27596
(919) 522-4110
​​
Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep… whoever enters through me will be saved. John 10:7&9