Processing

Getting the most from your fleece  ¦  Washing and Carding  ¦ 
Spinning, Plying and Skeining  ¦  Your Fiber's Journey through the Mill

After you shear, go through your fleece and remove the debris and second cuts - they cause lumps in your yarn. By picking out debris or skirting your fleece, you will lower the weight that you send to us (and we weigh in for washing). If you don't get it picked out, some of it may show up in your yarn. More information on Fleece preparation is available on the Your Fiber page.

Star Castle Fiber Mill will gently hand wash your fiber. Your fiber is put through a tumbler after it is checked over for tenderness and length. It is then washed and rinsed by hand, then air dried. The cost for washing is listed on the Price list page. We only wash fiber we are going to process.

Your fiber is fed into the carder, where drums of wire brushes straighten and align the fiber (like a hair brush) and create a thick roving. We can also create batts (a sheet-like mass) for your craft projects.

The roving from the carder then is put through the Pin Drafter which "combs" the fibers making them parallel to each other and lengthens it. It is run through three times to make a beautiful smooth Top for spinning, lockerhooking, or other crafts. This is also called a Sliver.

The end use of your yarn will determine the size of the yarn produced. Please let us know what you will be doing with the yarn, or what size you want. If you are selling your yarn, a sports weight yarn is a good choice. Your yarn will be put up in skeins for you. The cost (in addition to washing) for carding, drafting, spinning, plying and skeining is listed on the Price list page. The skeins will be washed to set the twist unless you are planning to weave with it, so please let us know.

Click on [links] below to view pictures; Back to return
Your fiber enters the mill and is weighed, bag and all. This is recorded as the Received Weight. It is quickly checked for length and strength. If it is not long enough or strong enough, it will be sent back to you as is.

On wash day, it is reweighed, then dumped out of the bag on to the sorting table (a table of netting so dirt falls through). The bag is weighed and subtracted from the Received Weight. The result is used to compute the charge for Washing.
The fiber is unfolded and is checked again for strength and length, and several locks are pulled out to be saved. Big clumps are removed as well as fiber that is matted or short. We do not pick out all the debris.

The fiber then goes for a ride in the tumbler to loosen dirt. It is then put into laundry bags and whisked off to a sink full of sudsy water. After several rinses, it's off to the [drying room] where it's spread on mesh shelves to air dry.

Once the fiber is dry (about 24 hours later), it is reweighed. A spinning oil and anti-static solution is sprayed onto the fiber. It is then placed in a sealed storage tub to sit for 24 hours.

Now your fiber is ready for the [Carder]. In one end it goes, and out the other comes a roving. Five to six of these rovings are fed into the [Pin Drafter] so the fiber is now combed. Twice more through the Pin Drafter it goes before it is ready for the Spinner. At this point your fleece is in 200-foot coils that weigh between 4 and 5 ounces each.

Nine to fourteen of these coils are lined up to feed into the [Spinner], where they are spun into singles. When all of the coils are spun, it is plying time. Two or three singles are spun together in the opposite direction - this makes the yarn.

From here the yarn is skeined off the cones from the machine and then the skeins are washed and hung back in the drying room. When they are dry, they are weighed again, then packed for shipping back to you.

For more information, contact us at: info@starcastlefarm.com
or call (541) 396-6416