joan
New Member
Posts: 4
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Post by joan on Sept 16, 2019 20:34:04 GMT
Does anyone have experience of dealing with Valais black nose fleece----I'm having problems
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Post by MTRuth on Sept 16, 2019 21:41:58 GMT
Welcome Joan, what kind of problems are you having? I haven't dealt with that particular type of fleece but most fleece is similar so if you tell us what the issues are, we can probably help.
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Post by lyn on Sept 16, 2019 21:58:26 GMT
Hello Joan and welcome to the forum!
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Post by Antje on Sept 17, 2019 6:55:15 GMT
Welcome Joan. I'd be interested to hear what problems you are having too.
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joan
New Member
Posts: 4
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Post by joan on Sept 17, 2019 9:27:00 GMT
The Valais Black Nose is a very big sheep with a lot of quite coarse fairly unruly wool. It is difficult to card since even after careful washing and drying it remains quite tangled (not felted just tangled). Carding videos always seem to show nicely separated and orderly locks being fed in---this is well nigh impossible with VBN. It does felt very well but because of the carding difficulty remains rather lumpy---I feel I should be able to get it a BIT smoother. When I card I have to feed it over the top of the big drum---feeding it in at the licker just doesn't work. I live in Southwest Scotland and these sheep belong to a friend---I'm sure she got them just because they are so pretty--you should try to find a picture!
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Post by Pandagirl on Sept 17, 2019 16:32:59 GMT
Welcome Joan! I’ve not carded fleece, so I’m no help. But I’ll be interested to hear what others say. My sister gave me a fleece and I had it washed, and should have had it carded. It’s also coarse. I don’t recall the breed mixture. Good luck!
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Post by MTRuth on Sept 17, 2019 17:43:18 GMT
It would probably work better if you had a picker. This separates the fibers better before trying to card. I don't have a picker but if I have tangled fiber, I usually do this by hand. You just keep pulling it apart in small bits. It takes forever to do but works significantly better in the carder.
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Post by Shepherdess on Sept 17, 2019 18:02:00 GMT
How you feed it is very important. you need to feed it very thinly you should see the infeed try through the wool. Is it very long? Very long wool can be almost impossible to feed in properly, it raps around the infeed drum and doesn't transfer and if you have to add it to the big drum it is not getting carded. It is more like a round blending board. Combing may be a better option.
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joan
New Member
Posts: 4
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Post by joan on Sept 18, 2019 7:53:33 GMT
You are probably right about the picker---I had thought that too. I think I just have to resign myself to a lot of time consuming hand separating. It's an enormous fleece but I'll get there in the end----thanks for you advice.
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Post by Antje on Sept 20, 2019 22:15:27 GMT
Joan as you have read above it is important to feed the fibre into the licker thinly but I would also add....very slowly. Slowly - allows the fibre to transfer to the main drum, too quickly & it will just get wrapped up around the licker. Don't think 'hare & tortoise' think 'snail'.
Ruth mentioned the labour intensive picking apart of the fibres....a necessary process I know all too well (I’ve carded various Shetland, Cheviot, and Gotland fleeces). Something I have found useful to use are pet grooming rakes/combs - I use them as mini pickers and certainly get a lot of VM out. Of an evening I can sit with a tray on my lap, take small sections of wool, place it onto the 'teeth' and pull the fibre through to get the tangles out. Sometimes if the fibre is very tangled I’ll use a second rake, rather than my fingers, to pull the fibre off by alternating the rakes one across the other.
The whole process of sorting, washing, picking & carding wool is extremely time consuming, not to mention space consuming! But the carding can be quite therapeutic.
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joan
New Member
Posts: 4
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Post by joan on Sept 23, 2019 16:47:41 GMT
Thank you for taking the time to reply so fully-----slow and methodical is clearly the way forward---!
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Post by Nettie Cross on Oct 27, 2019 14:41:05 GMT
The Valais Black Nose is a very big sheep with a lot of quite coarse fairly unruly wool. It is difficult to card since even after careful washing and drying it remains quite tangled (not felted just tangled). Carding videos always seem to show nicely separated and orderly locks being fed in---this is well nigh impossible with VBN. It does felt very well but because of the carding difficulty remains rather lumpy---I feel I should be able to get it a BIT smoother. When I card I have to feed it over the top of the big drum---feeding it in at the licker just doesn't work. I live in Southwest Scotland and these sheep belong to a friend---I'm sure she got them just because they are so pretty--you should try to find a picture! When I deal with VBN or even Churro, I tease the wool as I lay it out to dry, separating the 'cut" closest to the skin. They (VBN) are a semi-double coated fleece, Churro, a fully double coated fleece, so you have a down and then a guard hair typewool, which on VBN tends to be the curly part. If you toss it out on your skirting table to dry right from the wash, the locks hang on to the down. So I tease it all out with my hands (hand picking) and fluff it up to dry. This helps tons in the carding. I don't card locks since, well, what's the purpose? If you want to try it, take a good handful of already washed fleece and soak in warm water, then roll in a towel to remove excess water (I put washed wet fleece in a mesh laundry bag and use the SPIN (only, no water) cycle of my washer to spin the excess water out. Then I dump it on my skirting table and pick it out to dry. This is what I do with all fleece, but especially any long wools or very 'curly" fleeces, Leicester Longwool, Lincoln etc. |
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Post by Shepherdess on Nov 3, 2019 0:19:13 GMT
You could do a face sheep skin if you have lots but don't want to pick it.
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