Shop Local - Fibres

[jwugg]

This thread is really a continuation from the direction the labelling discussion is going on the Business section!

I'd love to hear how & what fibres people can get local to them.

We have our own 'Shepherdess Ann' & Zara with her swoon-worthy locks......

In Crete, the sheep are an unknown (to me) breed, grown mostly for milk, some for meat, not for fleece. Traditionally flat rugs (flotaki) were woven with it, or strong bags (think of those dark red zig-zag sort of patterns, almost similar to Turkish rugs). Haven't found anyone using it now. It's very coarse indeed. I was given some a few years ago but couldn't face the cleaning, boy was it filthy! But I would like to try to felt a rug sometime.

When I was in Norway on holiday recently I was excited to buy local wool, but didn't find any. 1 craft shop was selling soft New Zealand merino only! She said I could go to any farm & ask for part of a fleece but I wasn't brave enough.

[tracey]

There is an Alpaca farm not too far from me. I had seen lots of lovely rugs online and fancied having a go. I went to the farm and met all the lovely Alpacas and bought 750g of luscious chocolate locks. I thought I would practice and make a seat pad. Well I made a complete mess of it and it kept the bin warm....I was new to felting, maybe I didn't work it long enough, I don't know. It was because of this that I asked Zara a short while ago whether she mixed any other wool into Gotland when felting.

[wolgelukkig]

I live in the Netherlands and the part where I live is "sheep" country. I am surrounded by Texel sheep, but there are also Kerry Hill, Jacob and Kempisch sheep, Gottland, Hampshire Down, Ouessant and Zwartbles. You pay about 5 dollars for a fleece so it is cheap. I have tried them all and they are nice for spinning and giving structure to felt but I prefer the more expensive but softer New Zealand merino wooltops for felting clothes and objects. Oh, and a lot of people have Alpaca's too and soon I am going to experiment wetfelting with the Alpaca! I just finished spinning more than half a kilo of the fleece of a big grey alpaca stallion but have another half kilo to go. Very time consuming.

[MTRuth]

When I built my yurt I used all local wool. Here's a post about the wool and sheep. We also used a local mill to process into batts.

feltingandfiberstudio.com/2013/03/20/wool-gathering/

[elizabeth]

Dec 14, 2016 10:24:13 GMT wolgelukkig said:

I live in the Netherlands and the part where I live is "sheep" country. I am surrounded Texel sheep, but there are also Kerry Hill, Jacob and Kempisch sheep, Gottland, Hampshire Down, Ouessant and Zwartbles. You pay about 5 dollars for a fleece so it is cheap. I have tried them all and they are nice for spinning and giving structure to felt but I prefer the more expensive but softer New Zealand merino wooltops for felting clothes and objects. Oh, and a lot of people have Alpaca's too and soon I am going to experiment wetfelting with the Alpaca! I just finished spinning more than half a kilo of the fleece of a big grey alpaca stallion but have another half kilo to go. Very time consuming.

 Five DOLLARS!! Wow!
My Michigan contact with the meat lambs says she's sending me more of her dark colored fleeces. She can't find anyone to take them. YAY!!  I plan to make a rug.

[Pandagirl]

We have a lot of alpaca farms around. Sheep as well but none selling fleece that I'm aware of. The owner of the place I buy my fiber from used to have merino but sold them.

My sister in Wisconsin now has sheep. I wrote about it here:
feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/04/25/welcome-to-the-family/

She has since got the more sheep and was looking at Corriedale and merino. I'm hoping to get a couple of fleeces processed next spring from her.

I've used alpaca, but have not been impressed. But then I know different parts of the fleece felt differently. Has any one used llama?

[MTRuth]

Llama felts fairly well but has lots of guard hair. I got mine from a friend who has "pet" llamas.

[Shepherdess]

Lots of alpaca farms around me. some llamas that are mostly guard animals. There are some people with wool sheep but not many and each has only a few sheep. mostly spinners that want the fleeces but end up with to many so sell them. some meat sheep have nice fleeces but nothing to so soft as merino. Spinners and felters seem to be more willing to use different types of wool now. They are realising merino is not suitable for everything. If you want some washable wool socks get some Suffolk or Dorset.

[zed]

I live just outside the city centre now, but I've had lots of different breeds from a couple of people on the UK Spinners group on Facebook, like Lleyn, Shetland, Mule sheep, others I can't think of! And some Herdwick from Judith. I had some Gotland, Wensleydale and Teeswater locks from Sara's texture crafts a few years ago too. I'm sure there are loads if I wanted to find them.