How to go from Sheep to yarn

I volunteer at a farm museum and I'm about to be blessed with an abundance of wool from some Angora goats and Hampshire sheep. I started spinning a few months ago with already prepared wool and, unfortunately, I don't know where to begin with the raw stuff. I know it involves picking out bits of hay, washing over and over, and carding so the fibers all go in the same direction.

For those on here who have successfully gone from sheep to yarn, do you have any tips or resources on how to get started?

Also, I'll be sure to post the work in progress here when I get my big bag of wool tomorrow.

I know nothing myself, but I do know that there is a BB for preparing wool for spinning! There are some videos. That’s a start, I bet there will soon be others who will help you a bit more with their actual knowledge.

Please do document your progress here, that would be awesome to see!

My five-year-plan includes sheep, but currently I’m focusing on everything chicken as we are getting some choocks next year.

Good luck with the wool!

Hi, Elizabeth & Saana!! Welcome to the world of permie-fiber arts!! I'd probably consider r. ranson our resident fiber expert. I'm a few years in, but only manage to work on fiber processing a small percentage of my year, spending far more time caring for our livestock (including my small herd of Nigora goats) & desperately trying to make something besides rocks and rampant wild blackberries grow.

I'm learning the suint method of cleaning wool, which is probably the most effort, water & ecologically efficient means, for wool. A brief overview: Essentially, one waits for a week or so of hot weather, then puts the wool into hot water, covers it with a screen, and lets it ferment for a while. It's not something you'd want to do near the house. But, when it's ready to rinse, you lift the wool out, saving the water for the next batch (sort of a wool cleaning version of sourdough), and put the first batch in fresh hot water to rinse, etc. I'm still learning, so I'm not ready to teach.

But, goat fiber is quite literally a different critter. The fiber doesn't really cling to itself in one big piece, like a sheep's fleece (or alpaca blanket) does, so must be handled very differently. Instead, it needs tumbling or hand picking, to remove the worst of the vm (vegetable matter), then combing or carding, to better organize the fibers, and does better being washed after spinning or felting.

I have to go make dog food, but I'll be back in a while (is raw, so no cooking involved), to elaborate further, if you'd like. Hopefully, r will be in soon, to give much better info than I have. She'll also be better versed in all the amazing places where you can find her demos and videos, but while you wait, I'd highly recommend her YouTube channel: https://m.youtube.com/@CrowingHen

I'm actually watching to see what advice you get too. I'm very much a beginner when it comes to wool, although I have managed to spin some wool from some local fleeces that were discards (dirty, broken fibres etc.) Washing and carding were relatively straightforwards, but I haven't got any further than some fine yarn - drop spinning is a bit slow and I find difficult to multitask with. I've also got quite a bit of washed fleece to process still...
I looked up Hampshire sheep and it seems their wool is not the finest quality:

Hampshire sheep wool is tough and of medium quality. Hampshires are primarily meat sheep, and their wool isn’t of typical production quality.

Mature Hampshire ewes produce 2.7–4.5 kilograms of fleece with a micron count of 25–33. The yield is between 50 and 60 percent, and the fleece staple length ranges from 2-3.5 inches. The spinning count of the wool is between 46-58.

source

But maybe blended with the Angora you will get a hardwearing and fine yarn for knitting or weaving. Do you have an end use in mind, or is this simply a demonstration?

It's true that not all sheep are created equally, in wool type. But, don't be discouraged. Whether you blend it, to get a different texture, or take full advantage of any given wool's particular qualities, there's always use for it, somewhere. For example, a local friend has 41 sheep. It's just too much for one person to process, so she doesn't process it all. She takes a good portion and weaves it 'in the grease', no washing, no processing, at all - she skirts* it, then divides it into strips, and uses a peg loom to make rugs with it. Then, after the rugs are woven, she washes it in a suint bath - if she even does that, and she's done. Doing that, you can go random, with the color patterns, or divide the natural colors of the wool, to make specific patterns. Working in the grease is great for your hands, too.

There are also processing companies, where you skirt* the wool, and send it out, pay them lots of dollars to process it. And, yet another way to accomplish it, for some, is to go with a 50/50 split deal (I'm working on some alpaca for one of these deals). In a 50/50 split, the owner of the fiber sends it to someone who is willing to process it, for the price of half the fiber. In my alpaca deal, Jennifer sent me about 28lbs of very dirty alpaca seconds (these would be the not best quality cuts & fibers), to clean, make into a finished product, and send half the weight of the cleaned fiber back to her. In the process of cleaning, the fiber will lose up to about 1/3 of its weight, in sand, dirt, and vm. Once it's cleaned, I weigh each one, divide it in half, and make something with her half to send back. She has a gift shop on her alpaca rescue farm, where felted alpaca items sell well, so I'm making a variety of them, for her, including dryer balls, mug rugs, possibly floor rugs, shoe insoles, slippers, hats, mittens, or seat mats. Someone else received the best fiber, and will send back yarns &/ or knitted, crocheted, or woven items, someone else got the third cuts - just barely salvageable stuff - I think she's doing all of it as dryer balls, because there's not much more she can do with it.

Some wools are better for rugs, insulation, horse blankets, etc, some are good for outerwear, some for scarves and underthings. But, there's a use for all of it, in some way, or another.

* Skirting, for those totally new to it, is when you trim the bits off that aren't usable, for anything but compost, like around the belly and under the tail, where urine, feces, and other stains & nasties can accumulate.