Sheeps' fleeces

hi eorna,
i too have also started spinning recently. I wonder what part of the country you are based in, coz it is quite possible that there is a knitting group near you and there would often be a few spinners in that group, so you could start locally.
also have you visited www.ravelry.com and looked for the various knitting groups in Ireland on it and the Irish Spinners group, the members of this group in Ravelry are from all over Ireland and you may find someone on there who would be interested. There is also at least one group of Irish felters on ravelry.
Also do you prepare the fleece and if so, how much preparation do you do? do you skirt it, do you wash it, etc?
have you heard of Etsy.com, where people sell their prepared fleece? I am not sure how much preparation you would have to do before you can post fleece to UK or Europe or even USA etc.
Likewise, Ravelry has several groups where you can put up fleece for sale to an Irish/UK or International market, if you wish.
what about sites such as www.donedeal.ie and www.buyandsell.ie, would it be any good to put an ad on those sites?
by the way, what sort of sheep have you got and what colour is the fleece? staple length, etc, i hope to meet a group of spinners next weekend in Co Clare, and if you had a printer-friendly flyer you want me to print off and distribute to them i would do so if you email it to me privately:).
regards
liz

hi eorna,
thanks for your reply, i have just a few more thoughts for you.
Another place where you could advertise your fleece for sale is on the blog The Woolly Way of Ireland, find it here:
http://woollyway.blogspot.com/

just to show you what other Spinning Suppliers that are already on this blog look at this:

http://woollyway.blogspot.com/search/label/Spinning%20Supplies.

all you have to do is send an email to the moderator of the blog and take it from there. Compose your blurb, include a few photos maybe and hopefully i'll see you on the woolly way! This is a snip from the blog moderator: If you are sending in info, please keep the format simple, that way I can post the info up quicker. Email woollywayATgmailDOTcom

As regards www.donedeal.ie and www.buyandsell.ie and www.adverts.ie, you choose the category (Art and Craft, Sewing and Knitting, for example), under which you want to place your ad and just go from there, as far as I know.

www.ravelry.com has a few groups for knitters based in Dublin and a group of Irish Spinners, also a lady doing Felting in Carlow i think, (look for the Clasheen group) so joining that would be very easily done, it's free and immedaite and great fun. It'll get you to your desired customers directly.
I see there's a group meeting in Sallins, avid knitting group meeting once a week in SWEET SALLINS (sallins main street) thursday mornings 10.30am ,

The reason I was talking about skirting and washing is in case you wanted to sell the fleece abroad, i am not sure but i think fleece has to be washed before it can be posted to places like the US. But if you are selling locally then that isn't an issue. Except of course that some people prefer to buy washed fleece, but that is something that may or may not occur for you.
Skirting as far as i know means removing the edges of the fleece after shearing, ie the bits that contain the most dirt, mud, 'tags', VM (vegetable matter), also removing some bits from the centre back where there is just so much hay and grain and twiggy bits, etc that it is not worth saving them and cleaning them. People do like to have relatively clean fleece, in my experience, as they do not all have the space or time to clean and pick over a fleece, but once again, you can wait and see what people ask you for.
so by all means do pm me, looking forward to it!
and send me your details so i can tell my spinner acquaintances at the weekend!
regards
liz

Hi Laurenisme,
Am i right in that you are based in Donegal ( it says so under your name?)
I cannot give you a name here and now of a farmer who sells good quality sheep fleece to spin, but I can maybe give you a few ideas of places to ask.

Do you know about the Ulster Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers - link here to their Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/ulsterguild/
and their blog: https://ulsterguild.wordpress.com/
Have a look in there and see if there is anything interesting, or just send them a message to see if they have useful contacts for you. Shearing time is coming up, so now is the time to ask.

There is a website for rare wool in Northern Ireland: The Wool Initiative, who sell Fleeces and Yarns from Rare and Native sheep breeds
http://www.woolinitiative.com/
" The Wool Initiative Company was established in 2001 by a group of Rare Sheep Breeders in Northern Ireland. .....
We work with spinners, hand-weavers and felters ......
Textile artists and crafts-workers source fleeces and yarns of different sheep breeds for particular characteristics. We carry wool from many Rare and Native Breed sheep."
I have just sent a request to them re availability of washed Romney fleece, which is good for beginner spinning. I will let you know how I get on.

Otherwise, you can always ask around, you might find a farmer who has a Jacobs sheep, or check out the local Open Farms , i mean the kinds of places where kids and families can visit and pet the animals etc, as they might have a few sheep, and they will have to shear the sheep and might give you a fleece for a small payment?

Other interesting websites, even if not strictly on topic: Johnny Shiels in Carndonagh makes spinning wheels and has his own website and FB page, could be interesting for you to look at and read:
https://www.facebook.com/irishspinningwheels/
and http://www.spinningwheels.ie/

Oideas Gael in Glencolmcille has a week long tapestry, spinning and dyeing course in the first week of july every year, for very reasonable cost for a week. http://www.oideasgael.ie/en/tapestry/

and finally i found this post on Boards, last year a person in Mayo had some black Zwartbles fleece, free to a good home, you would probably need to wash the fleece, I have done that too, so it is doable :
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056527907#13

If all else fails, try the online sellers in UK, I particularly like Wingham Wool Work, for all sorts of washed fleece: www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk

there is also World of Wool, here is Corriedale on their site:
https://www.worldofwool.co.uk/collections/natural-wool-top-corriedale?sort_by=manual
good luck in your search,
d

Laurenisme wrote: »

Hi Duckling 10,

Thank you so much for your reply and all of your great advice!!! I didn't actually realise that my profile still said Donegal, I am actually now between Dublin and Kildare.

I cannot seem to find that group on Ravelry that you mentioned before that may sell fleece, what is the name name of it again?

Also can I ask what would the average price of sheep fleece cost?
...
Lauren

Hi Lauren,
Dublin /Kildare, ok, well, once again, I do not have exact names of sellers of fleece for handspinning, (well, maybe one), but I will tell you what I do know.
There is an Irish Guild of Weavers Spinner and Dyers and they are based in Dublin, they have a Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/weavespindyeIE/
as as well as a blog www.weavespindye.ie
and a group on Ravelry, http://www.ravelry.com/groups/the-irish-guild-of-weavers-spinners--dyers.
They meet up for a Sunday Spin-In in the studio space above The Constant Knitter, Francis St, Dublin 8, on one Sunday of every month. You can just turn up, or contact them : hello@weavespindye.ie. They do Spinning, wheel and spindle, and weaving, with Guild members present to advise. The last meeting was last weekend, May 14th, and the website says the next meeting is on June 11th 2pm.
check here for meeting dates and times and other events:
https://weavespindye.ie/events/

The Guild has a rental scheme, for people who would like to rent a spinning wheel, or small loom, or drumcarder.
I am sure somebody there will have information on where to buy fleece.

Near you in Johnstown, near Naas, is Craftspun, a small shop selling spinning wheels and wool, for spinning, they also have a website www.craftspun.ie. They sell the Ashford range of wheels and Ashford Merino sliver for spinning. 5 euro for 50grams. they may also stock other types of prepared fleece, they certainly did when I was last there a few years ago.

In Kilkenny, there is a woman , Suzanna Crampton, who has a sheep farm with Zwartbles sheep,
http://zwartblesireland.com/ , who may or may not sell her fleece to handspinners, I am planning to enquire.

The Ulster Guild put up a post about 8 months ago, detailing places to buy fleece and yarn from in either Northern Ireland or Ireland:
read this: https://ulsterguild.wordpress.com/2016/05/23/from-fleece-to-yarn-in-northern-ireland/


I probably should have asked you this already - what are you looking for, a white sheep's fleece straight off the sheep's back? or prepared and washed fleece that you can just start spinning with? have you a spindle or a wheel?

Some of the existing mills in Ireland will sell you carded dyed fleece from the back of their spinning rooms, I got a bag of carded wool from Kerry Woolen Mills, Beaufort, Co Kerry, about 5 years ago. I drove there and literally filled a bag and paid by weight. You do not have to travel there I discovered later, you can just call them and ask them to make up a bag for you and post it on to you. https://www.kerrywoollenmills.ie/
see products here: https://www.kerrywoollenmills.ie/categories.php?cat=20
the carded wool is cheapest, 8.50 euro per lb, (454grm), not incl postage.

There may be more mills selling wool to spin, check out the Ulster Guild blog post mentioned above.

On Ravelry, there are many places to buy fleece, but almost none of them are in Ireland.
Look at the Irish Spinners group first, to see what Irish spinners are doing:
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/irish-spinners
Irish Suppliers list here: http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/irish-spinners/1548342/1-25#19

and if you want to read the For Sale ads or put up a post looking for fleece, then this thread is the one to use:
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/irish-spinners/3146096/26-50#35


then have a look at UK Spinners:
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/uk-spinners

UK Suppliers:
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/uk-spinners/pages/Suppliers

UK Spinners destashing their own stuff:
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/uk-spinners/3160764/1426-1450#1444
(they really do mean it when they say NO CHAT, all replies are to be off the thread, by PM only)

UK Spinners Suppliers, hand dyed fleece, thread for shop updates, new dye jobs, etc....
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/uk-spinners/177265/7626-7650#7632
(lots of amazinf colours and textures)

You could have a look at the ravelry group UK Fleeeece People:
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/the-uk-fleeeece-people

here they have a thread for Fleece for sale:
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-uk-fleeeece-people/715921/1701-1725
(nothing current on that one at the moment, but maybe in a month or so, depending on when people shear)

and handdyed tops for sale, etc
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-uk-fleeeece-people/772250/1026-1050

The Wool Initiative in Northern Ireland got back to me and they have washed Romney fleece, 400gm Washed Romney fleece @ £3.50 per 100gm = £14.00 + postage £5.75 = £19.75 stg.

To get stuff from UK, I often use my AddressPal card, from An Post, it is like Parcel Motel, the stuff I order online from UK sellers gets sent to a central place in St Albans and from there An Post gets it back to Ireland and I collect my parcel from my local nominated-by-me post office, and pay 3.75 for the privilege. It helps in the event that sellers will only ship to UK addresses. I think it also cuts down on postage costs. I get lot of stuff from UK.

A fleece from a local friendly farmer might be free. or a tenner, or a bottle of wine. then you have to skirt it, wash it and dry it, pick it, card it, maybe. It is up to you. You could spin in the grease, but i don't as I like to demo in public and I want to have washed wool if people want to touch the wool or try to spin on a spindle.

let me know how you get on!
regards
d:)