SHEARING, SKIRTING AND PICKING
Shearing, Skirting and Picking are the three preliminary steps to achieving a good fiber product.
One way to remove animal fibers is Shearing.
Skirting and Picking are the processes necessary to remove the undesirable materials from the fiber.
The three steps needed to produce a good product are Shearing, Skirting and Picking
Shearing, Combing and Plucking are the Different Methods Used to Remove Fiber from the Animals
Most of us are familiar with the shearing of sheep as well as Alpacas and Llamas.
In addition, people shear some breeds of Angora rabbits and Angora goats.
Plucking is another way to remove the hair from some breeds of Angora rabbits, but only when their fiber is naturally shedding.
Combing is the technique used to remove Musk Ox fiber or Qiviut.
Additionally, Camel’s fiber naturally sheds and you can pick it up or comb it out.
Click on the photos to watch the different processes.
The Next Step is Skirting the Fleece
The process of skirting animal fiber usually refers to sheep or Alpaca fleeces.
However all fibers need to have the undesirable materials removed.
The process is to remove all of the undesirable things in the fiber, such as manure, hay, wire, and other items.
This is just the preliminaries as the final preparation is in the picking of the fibers.
Click on the Photo to see how to skirt a sheep’s fleece!!
Picking is the Final Step in Shearing, Skirting and Picking
When picking fiber, the idea is to get out as much debris as we can so we won’t see it in the finished product.
We go through each lock and take out any grass, burrs, wire, matts, manure, second cuts and hay.
Furthermore, anything else we don’t want in our finished yarn.
Additionally, for some people it could even be a certain length of wool, so they would select only for what they want.
To see a video of how to pick a wool fleece click on the photo.
Finally, we have a fleece that is ready for the final steps.
After removing the fiber from the animal, skirting it by removing the big things we don’t want and then picking it in preparation for washing.
In addition, to choose which fibers you want to use for your project check out Purchasing Raw Fibers.
Happy processing!!