On Saturday our founder, Emily, went to the spinning mill in leister, Shire Mill and the founder Fiona. Learning more about the process of turning our beautiful cotswold fleeces into yarn, the process is listed below;
Wool spinning processing steps:
1. SCOURING
Scouring is the hot washing of fibre. After it has been spun to remove as much water as possible the
fleece will be air dried.
2. FIBRE SEPARATOR
The fleece is then passed through a fibre separator which opens up the fibres.
The product at this stage is suitable for hand spinning or felting.
3. CARDING
Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous
web, a rectangle of which can be loosely rolled to form a batt or extruded to form a continuous
“sausage” of fibre known as roving.
Any blending of fibres starts at this point.
The product at this stage is suitable for hand spinning or felting.
4. DRAW FRAME
Roving produced by the carder goes through the draw frame to even it out and blend the fibres
together. The thickness of the roving is reduced in preparation for spinning.
5. SPINNING TO YARN
The prepared fibre is spun to produce thread. The threads are then plied to produce the desired weight (thickness) of yarn.
This process was a joy learning about, from turning the fleece into cloud like fluff and then spinning this fluff into yarn. Our knitwear is well on it’s way to becoming your jumpers. We can’t wait for you to see the finished product!
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*spinning process from Shire Mill website*