Brodissime

Picked up a whole Corriedale fleece from a farm yesterday—first time not buying roving. I spread it on a tarp and started skirting, and now I’m second-guessing every lock. I’ve pulled the belly, the really nasty britch, and anything with a big tag, but there’s still a lot of dirty tips and short second cuts. Do you get ruthless and toss anything that isn’t clean and long, or keep a “maybe” pile and let scouring/carding sort it out? I don’t want to waste good wool, but I also don’t want to store a fleece-sized compost heap in my craft room. Where’s your cutoff?

I’m in the same boat—bought a fleece at a fiber fair because it looked so clean in the bag. Ha. I thought skirting meant pulling out hay and poop and then it was basically ready. Is it normal to lose a big pile? And do you wash before you do the fine picking, or pick first? I keep finding little bits I missed.

I skirt on a wire mesh panel over a tarp, and my rule is: decide with your hands, not your eyes. Pull the belly and britch first; those go. Then go around the edges and remove anything matted, cottted, heavily tagged, or full of second cuts. A second cut is a short snipped lock from the shearer going over the same spot—those short fibers will pill and make a lumpy yarn, so I’m fairly ruthless with them. But I don’t toss a lock just because the tip is dirty or weathered. Dirty tips often open up in the scour, and a lot of vegetable matter will drop out during picking and carding.

I keep three piles: keep, maybe, and toss. The maybe pile goes in a separate mesh bag; after scouring I look again. Usually half of it gets promoted and half goes to mulch. Don’t over-skirt for uniformity—you’ll lose the best locks trying to make it look like top. Scour before fine picking, because greasy wool holds VM and dirt. Skirt well enough that your wash water isn’t mud, then let the process do the rest.

Okay, what exactly is “britch”? I see it in every fleece post and I’ve been nodding along. Also, I tried washing one little lock in dish soap and warm water and it turned into a fuzzy lump. Was that too hot, too much agitation, or just bad technique? I’m nervous to wash the rest now.

BRITCH is the back end, around the tail and upper legs—coarser, often urine-stained or VM-packed, and usually not what you want next to skin! I get weirdly excited about sorting fleece by body area. Have you tried skirting on a mesh table so the dirt and shorts fall through while you work? Total game changer. I keep neck wool separate from britch, and I label bags with breed and date. Also, do NOT compost the really nasty tags if you have dogs—keep that away from them. The nice dirty tips? Those often scour out beautifully!

Second cuts—are those the little short bits from the shearer going back over an area? My fleece has a ton of them, especially along the sides. Should I toss the whole fleece or just pick them out? I don’t have a drum carder, just hand cards and a flick brush, so I’m worried the short fibers will just make everything neppy.

YES, those are second cuts! And they are the enemy of smooth worsted spinning, but they’re not a death sentence for woolen-style yarn. Have you tried flick-carding individual locks? It lets you pull out the short bits and VM without opening up the whole lock. I sort my fleece into “smooth spin,” “textured spin,” and “felting/stuffing” piles. Also, if the tips are really weathered, you can sometimes snap them off before flicking—just don’t do it to every lock or you’ll lose a lot of staple length!

SableStitch, the three-pile thing is exactly what I needed. I was trying to make one perfect pile and driving myself nuts. I’m going ruthless on tags and second cuts, generous on dirty tips. ModPodgeMaven, mesh table sounds smart—I’m currently using an old window screen on two sawhorses, which is basically the same idea but wobblier. My “maybe” pile is already bigger than I expected, so it’s going into separate mesh bags. If it’s still awful after scouring, it’s mulch.