FINNEWE$ 8

TEAM FINN – Promotional Vests worn at the Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show. Orders Taken: $25 plus post and handling. All orders to the secretary please.

Hand spun, hand died & hand knitted WINNER created by Maureen!

Pure Finn multi winner @ the Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show from Fairfield Fleece.

Jean’s Felted cushion from Finn x Merino tops created by Wendy Balie from Qld who is experimenting with Finn cross wool for its low pilling qualities required for furnishings.

Pure Finn processed into tops and yarn with some samples of cob-web felting & felted samples. Loddon rise Finns.

SUMMER 2005 - 06

Welcome to this Summer edition of Finnewe$.
I have compiled a special edition on wool and its role in promoting the Finn breed. With some interesting additions on past members who are running Finn in their flock. Seasons Greetings to all!

Past Members Utilizing Finnsheep for Prime Lamb Progress

Georgina Ward of Gilgal Pastoral, Cootamundra and her farm manager David Alexander are running 5000 composite ewes with majority of these ewes 50% merino, 25% Finn, 25% Border Leicester, breeding prime lambs, they have plans to increase this to 7500 ewes. Over last 10 years they have phased out all merino ewes for this composite ewe, which is giving a marked lamb percentage of 142%. Some mobs are giving a marked lamb percentage of plus 160% and they attribute this good lambing percentage to the influence of the Finnsheep genetics that they have introduced into their program. Also these Finnsheep genetics have given longevity to the female, with some ewes still producing quality lambs at 7 years of age.
Most of these lambs are sold over the hooks at 20 kilogram dressed weight. The feedback from the abattoirs was positive and the breed mix had helped in meeting the specifications.
Article from “THE LAND” 20th OCTOBER 2005

HOW MANY WILL IT WIN!

Joy Clarke is a champion at hand knitting and crochet. She is acclaimed at many agricultural shows Australia wide. I first met Joy when she came to use the public Internet facility at the Inglewood Community Resource Center where I volunteer weekly. Joy needed to find the results from the Perth Royal Shows Craft exhibits. OH! Her passion was rewarded again by winning including a special award.
Later she showed me a selection of her prized exhibits which include dolls & baby layettes, scarves, knitted lace table cloths that you can pull through your wedding ring, and several exquisite items all so fine it is easy to see why she is acclaimed Australia wide.
Much of her work was knitted using bargain yarns as she is a pensioner and does this as her hobby. So I made the offer that she use some Finn to enhance her craft and help us promote Finn Australia wide to the craft market.
She has accepted my invitation to knit with Finn wool and show it Australia wide. Maureen supplied some 2 ply pure Finn yarn. This is really a too thick for her work but was all that is available until I can get some 1 ply hand spun. The article knitted is a lovely-fringed lacey scarf in the arabesque design.
To date she has scooped the pool at the Lillydale Show (VIC) obtaining best exhibitor for both knitting and crochet. Yes FIRST prize for the Finn scarf. It will soon be off to Sydney for the Easter Show always with its Finn sticker attached. I get to keep the scarf and display it at the Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo ’06 with all its ribbons. Hope you can join us at the annual Finn display to see for yourself a prized exhibit. Jean McClymont

MY JOURNEY WITH FINN WOOL.

We began with Finns because we have a small farm (only 80 acres) and we needed to specialize in something on a small scale. At the time, 1997 my mother-in-law was a hand spinner. She spun up our very first Finn fleeces, and was immediately extremely enthusiastic about the qualities of the wool – good feel, softness and easy to work with.

In 1998 I took our first bags of fleece to Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show and sold nearly all of them – mostly Finn cross. For the next 2 years we doubled the amount of wool we sold. In 1999 we had our first lot of Finn made into yarn. It sold very well, especially to the machine knitters. Then we had some problems with our processor in that there was too much vegetable matter left in the final product and the yarn was uneven. We found a new processor but he is quite expensive which makes for an expensive end product. Last year we found an excellent processor but unfortunately he can only take it to “tops” and not yarn. So if anyone knows a really good processor in Australia I’d like to try them.

I began hand spinning in 2001 and am now a committed Finn (or occasionally Finn cross) spinner. I joined the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria and have sold fleece, yarn and tops through their craft outlet. Canberra Spinners and Weavers place regular orders and I post fleece, tops and yarn throughout Australia.

When we were in Finland last year I purchased some processed yarn and tops. It was not as soft as ours and they were pleased that we valued the wool so much and were very impressed with our samples.

Recently there has been increased interest in Finn tops from feltmakers. Felting is a fast growing craft and I’ve had a well-known felting teacher tell us that she will now recommend Polwarth, Corriedale and Finn wool, to her students. There has also been interest from people with other fibres combining Finn in preference to other wool. Finn/Suri Alpaca and Finn/Cashmere have been successful blends.
The most pleasing thing about selling our wool is the number of repeat buyers and the wonderful comments they have about Finn wool.

And our prices??

Pure Finn fleece -- $19 a kg.
Cross bred Finn fleece -- $18 a kg.
Coated fleeces-- $25 a kg.
Finn tops-- $55 a kg.
Dyed (by me) tops-- $70 a kg.
Finn yarn-- $120 a kg.
Finn/Cashmere tops-- $130 a kg.

SO don’t just sell off your Finn wool to the wool man – see if there is a local craft shop, spinning group, or other craft persons nearby that may be interested in it. Let’s promote our wonderful wool.

Maureen Shepherd, Fairfield Finns.

FELTING

There are three basic types of felting. Wet felting, needle felting and fulling.
For wet felting or needle felting, you usually start with roving or a carded rolag. Imagine roving (made at a mill) or a rolag (made by hand cards or a drum carder) to be a fuzzy caterpillar of washed and carded yarn. For wet felting, water, soap and friction are used to stick the wool together. This is often used for wall hangings and sometimes mittens and slippers.
Needle felting uses a pronged needed (either singly or sometimes two or three needles in a wooden handle) to join the wool together. Needle felting can be used to make hats, broaches, 3D sculptures (like animals, elves or Santa’s) etc..
Fulling is a technique in which you knit a really big thing (like a giant hat) usually out of worsted weight or bulky yarn and then put it in the washing machine to make it small and felted. It needs to be 100% wool and not “superwash” wool that has been chemically treated to not shrink. You also need a washing machine that agitates.
This is a simplistic explanation of felting but it is a start.

HOW MANY SKEINS OF WOOL CAN I GET FROM A FLEECE?

First of all you would spin many skeins of yarn from a fleece. But how many depends on how you spin it, thickness and ply etc.
Natural Fleece in the grease has 1/3 in dirt and grease & vegetable matter. When you wash the fleece prior to spinning you would then lose 1/3 of the original weight. If the article you wanted to produce needed 700 gm you would need to purchase at least 1kg greasy fleece.

CHOOSING FLEECE: Softness, luster and length are a must. Dirt will generally dissolve with a good wash. Fleece of an even length is best for the hand spinner and commercial tops makers to achieve a good average sample for the whole fleece in its multitude of skeins.

Then there is NOIL. Noil is the short fibers, lumps and vegetable matter in the fleece, which are extracted during the carding or spinning process. It is wise to choose a fleece with little or no second cut, definitely no tender wool, minimum seeds while dust and dirt will wash out readily. Contaminants of vegetable matter and short wool are just so much NOIL. Fleece selected for commercial carding into sliver or tops generally has 30% noil. Cotted wool is just so much NOIL.
Noil is a useful product for stuffing, used in furnishing, doll and bear making. It has been scoured so is clean of grease and dirt. I have sold noil for $3 @ KG to be used for padding dining chairs and use it to stuff “Trauma Teddies”.

SLIVER: After the fleece has been scoured the wool is run through the commercial combing process. This first process is to align the fibers on the chain to producing yarn. Sliver always contains the noil – so the cleaner the fleece the cleaner the sliver. In my experience it is difficult to obtain a good sliver even with double skirting the fleece.

TOPS: This is the next stage in yarn production. Again the clean wool is run through the carding machine further aligning the fibers and extracting the contaminants. The noil is produced here. Generally tops is the product that is sought by spinners and felt makers. But if your original wool was extremely contaminated it may still contain pieces of seed. Then a further process through the tops machine is recommended. Each time the wool is carded has a cost. This cost must be passed on to the craft market. To secure the maximum return for tops is to pay the least for processing so the less contaminated fleece preferably double skirted gives the most cost-effective results.
Hand carding will extract the short fibers and “lumps” but seed is a real problem that needs to be hand picked during the carding or spinning process.
Hand spinning will result in a similar loss of noil being the dirt, seed and short fibers.

MILLING OF WHITE OR COLOURED WOOL:
MIN. 30 KG PER COLOUR RUN Note; CSIRO scouring plant has a minimum weights on consignment. 50Kg greasy or over per order are cheaper, prices are generally available on request. Have your wool processed into sliver, batts or tops and yarn. Tops consignments will be of continuous length in a plastic bag 8 – 10kg, in 500gm weight rolls (cobs) or random weight Bump. A selection of millers will oblige.

SPINNING: If you can’t spin contact your local spinning and weaving guild and ask there or contact the spinning list. You might be able to find someone to spin some wool in exchange for fleeces. Or you might just have to learn to spin! In your copious free time of course.

Come down to the Australian Sheep & Wool Show this year = you will have no trouble selling
all your fleeces at the stall sites sale - plus you can learn to spin or felt all that glorious Finn wool at the craft stalls - you'll have mittens, hats and scarves coming out your ears!!

DYE: Don't forget that you can always dye your wool too, and not just the white. Grays, browns, & blacks over dye so beautifully. It will open another facet to your sheep and promotes the breed's wool. Jean McClymont

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