Fibre Processing
- The Process Explained
For Fleece to be turned into Yarn, it has to go through many different processes.
Following is a brief description of each stage.
Picker - The fleece is fed through a picker which opens the staples, allowing for the fleece to be
washed more thoroughly. Used mainly for suri.
Washer & Drying
- up to 6kgs of fleece can be washed at a time or 3 different fleeces.
Conditioning - oils are sprayed onto the clean dried fleece to eliminate static build up.
Dehairer - the coarse & medulated fibres are separated from the quality fibres.
Carder - the fibres are carded into rovings. For hand spinners, the rovings are placed in bags or wound into bumps.
Batts are produced for felting.
Drawframe - the rovings are combined and fed through the draw frame which stretches and aligns the fibres ready for the spinning frame.
Spinner - the rovings are then passed through the spinner which turns them into Singles.
Plying -
2 or 3 singles are then plied into the finished yarn
Steamer - the plied yarn is then passed through the steamer. This process sets the twist of the yarn and is then wound onto cones.
and finally.....
Cones, Skein Winder and Ball Winder - the finished yarn is then put up onto cones or skeins. Skeins are useful when dying of the yarn is required. Cones are best for hand and machine knitting. Ball winding of 100g balls.
