Working sustainably with local fibres from fleece to fibre - creating a woven fabric from a fleece

Introduction to creating fabric from local fleeces

I have been very fortunate over the last few years to have been given several fleeces. Hampshire Down, Shetland, Lincoln Longwool, Jacobs and Alpaca fleeces to name a few. Several people have given me fleeces because they aren’t sure what to do with them and they have been only too pleased for me to put them to good use. Often I have been told that the alternative would be for the fleeces to be burnt. This blog details the steps going from raw fleece to a handwoven fabric.

How much fleece is too much fleece?

The first image below shows the boot of my car stuffed with alpaca fleece with the back seats being equally full. The alpaca owner had two years of fleeces from 3 alpacas in white, beige and brown colours. She had kindly separated each fleece into a bag of the best fleece and a bag of slightly dirtier fleece so I collected 12 large bags in total. When I accepted the kind offer of some alpaca fleece I really had no idea quite how many were on offer!

Alpaca fleeces

As a thank you for the fleece donation I make something in return, a handwoven bag, cushion or scarf. I think people like to receive something made from the fleece of their own animal and this blog shows some examples at the end of things that I have made and given.

Steps to going from fleece to fabric

The pictures below show some of the stages going from fleece to fibre – washing, woolpicking, carding, spinning, washing, dyeing, washing, weaving and a further washing are the key steps.

Sorting the fleece

This step involves manually sorting through the fleece removing as much vegetable matter or dirty areas as possible. If you are lucky the fleece will be in one piece and you are able to lay out the fleece and the identify the head and bottom end of the animal fleece. The bottom end is likely to be dirtier and you may choose to sacrifice this part of the fleece to minimise the amount of dirty fleece that needs to be washed.

Washing a fleece

There is lots that you could say about how the fleece is washed. It depends on so many things and I am really no expert. How I have washed fleeces in the past depends on a number of things including how dirty the fleece is and what the fleece is. Most fleeces I will give a cold water soak overnight. Sheep fleece have a lot of lanolin on them so need washing with detergent with several changes of warm water. Agitation needs to minimised because constant agitation will result in the fleece being felted which make subsequent steps more difficult to undertake. Alpaca fleeces do not contain lanolin but tend to be really dusty and this fine dust can cause problems if you are working with the raw fleece - you may wish to wear a mask to prevent you from breathing in the dust. There are lots of books and resources on washing fleeces so do consult other resources.

Woolpicking the fleece fibres

This process is used to loosen the fleece fibres thus allowing the vegetable matter to drop out. Woolpicking is very useful for shorter sheep fleece fibres prior to either combing or carding.

Carding the fibres

Carding helps to straighten the fibres and to separate them ready for spinning. This process also helps to loosen the fibres allowing any small pieces of dirt and vegetable matter to fall out.

Carding the fibres

Spinning the FIbres

I have used both an Ashford Traditional and an Ashford e-spinner. First singles are spun which are then plied together to give 2 ply yarn.

Spinning the fibres

Handspun alpaca and Jacobs fleece skeins

Fibres ready for weaving

Weaving the fibres

I weave either on floor loom or rigid heddle loom. Here I am weaving on a rigid heddle loom making fabric for the cushion below.

Weaving alpaca, Jacobs fleece and pink handspun merino fibres

White alpaca scarf

Final cushion

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