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Simple Fleece Skirting Table
To construct a skirting table 4 foot by 6 foot you need the following materials. This table will be big enough to roll out half of an alpaca blanket to work on. This table top should cost about $50 to assemble.
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Three quarter inch PVC pipe – half inch is too flimsy to create a frame.
- 2 ten foot lengths and 1 five foot length
- 4 elbow connectors
- 2 tee connectors
Roll of 1 inch chicken wire 4 foot wide – three feet really isn’t enough; sometimes the 4 foot wide is tricky to find so pre-shop this before you get on the road.
20 short zip ties – a few extra wouldn’t be a bad idea, they come in packages and are inexpensive.
You will also need a PVC cutter, some wire clippers, some scissors, and something to weight down the corners of the wire (bricks, toolboxes, what have you.)
If you don’t have a PVC cutter, the store you acquire the pipe from may be willing to cut it for you. Smaller hardware stores tend to be happy to provide this service as opposed to a Home Depot or Lowes. So if you need your pipe cut, find a smaller store to shop at.
The PVC pipe will make a rectangular frame plus a cross bar. Cut the two ten foot PVC lengths into a 4 foot and 6 foot length. Now cut each the 6 foot lengths into two 3 foot lengths. Cut the 5 foot length down to 4 feet. The three 4 foot lengths are the end and cross bar pieces. The four 3 foot pieces become the six foot sides with the tee connector between them.
Now build the frame.
It is optional to glue the PVC pieces together. We did not glue ours and we have to be a little careful when we move it to insure the pipe doesn’t spin in the connectors and warp the shape of the table. However we also have the advantage that we could disassemble the table for storage at only the cost of new zip ties when we are ready to use it again. We also saved some money and trouble on the glue too.
It helps to have a second pair of hands when working with the wire as it is going to tend to want to roll-up again.
Roll the chicken wire out about 7 feet long. Weight down the corners. Set the PVC frame on top of it. Leave some extra wire at each end so you can cut it off at a preferred spot and bend it down around the PVC. Secure the wire to the frame with three zip ties along one end, one at each corner and one in the middle. Clip the wire off at a point in the wire where it will not tend to fray and come apart. Bend the poke ends to conform around the PVC as much as possible. Cut the zip tie tails off with scissors.
Now stretch the wire to the other end as best you can. It doesn’t have to be taunt, but you don’t want to leave too much extra. Pull the wire reasonable tight around the other end and repeat the zip tie process. Install five or six zip ties along each side and clip their tails.
Turn the table over so that the cross-bar is underneath the wire. You now have a skirting table top ready to work on.
The table top can be propped up at the corners on a set of four TV. tables or along each end on saw horses. We do not recommend using PVC to form legs as this yields a very flimsy structure that will wobble every time you bump into it.
Happy Skirting!
Skirting an Alpaca Blanket
Welcome back to my second video in the series on handling alpaca fleece!
In this video I demonstrate and explain how to skirt the blanket of the fleece. The blanket is the part of the fleece that covers most of the alpaca’s body. The blanket provides the highest quality fleece and the majority of the fleece weight sheared off an alpaca each year.
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It is important to skirt your fleece before sending it to the mill for processing and hand spinners will also appreciate receiving a fleece that is as clean and ready to card as possible.
Blanket skirting steps include rolling out the blanket, bouncing and shaking the fleece to remove dirt, picking and removing short cuts from the inside, rolling the fleece over, removing hair from the edges, and pulling out as much debris as possible.
Alpaca Fleece Quality and Uses
Alpaca fleece is and incredibly versatile natural product and all the fleece that comes off the animal can be used for some good purpose.
It is important to do a quick evaluation of fleece quality right at shearing and write on the fleece storage bag tag the expected use for the fleece. This will help prioritize and organize the skirting work and allow the rough volume of fleece available for each potential end-product to be calculated.
The one statistic that sums it all up is Comfort Factor: Comfort factor is the percentage of fibers over 30 microns subtracted from 100 percent. The higher the comfort factor, the better. In order to find out the micron count you have fleece samples tested at a lab.
A Micron is a unit of measurement of diameter equal to 1/1000 of a millimeter. Fineness of Alpaca fleeces is measured in microns. This is essentially measuring how fat each individual fiber is.
With some practice, you can do a pretty good diagnosis with your fingers too. Evaluating fleece manually is determining the fleece’s Hand (Handle): A subjective assessment of the quality of the feel of the fiber. Not quite the same as fineness. Fine fiber may also feel dry or brittle or harsh and so would have a poor hand. Fiber with a poor hand may be downgraded to a coarser micron category. Handle can be adversely affected during judging or grading processes by sand or dirt in the fleece which might wash out once the fleece is processed.
|
Alpaca Fleece Quality |
Length (Inches) |
Microns |
Use |
| Very fine fleece – baby fleece or young adults with exceptional coats | 3 to 6 | Less than 20 | Yarn – eligible for any weight yarn including lace. Fashion industry fabrics. Can be worn next to skin. |
| Fine Fleece – young or high quality adult fleeces | 3 to 6 | 21 to 23 | Yarn – can be worn next to skin. |
| Good fleece, little to no hair – most adult blankets | 3 to 4 | 24 to 28 | Yarn or socks, felting for hats or things worn next to the skin. |
| Coarse fleeces – lower quality animals, non-blanket fleece | 3 to 4 | 29 to 33 | Rough yarns or felting for outer layer clothing only. |
| Very coarse or hairy fleeces - | 3 to 4 | 33 to 35 | Rug yarn, decorative felting not to be worn, comforter stuffing, pillow stuffing. |
| Any fleece (not too hairy) | 2 to 3 | Any | Felting, comforter stuffing. |
| Any fleece less than 2 inches Hairy or very dirty fleece |
Any length | Any quality including over 35 microns | Garden mulch or compost, bird house lining. |
At shearing time, if some portion of the fleece is going to be compost later, it is compost now. Go ahead and compost it right away. No point in bagging it up and looking at it again later. The fewer pounds of fleece you have to touch and the fewer decisions you have to make later the better… and of course that has to be balanced against making the most of the shearing harvest. Experience skirting will teach you what to keep at shearing and what to let go of. I used to keep too much, now when I open bags from shearing it is all pretty useful fiber.
It is very important to shear the animals every year both for their comfort and so that the fleece is a manageable length. Spring babies may grow a very long fleece before their first shearing. Most mills cannot handle fleece longer than 6 inches. Some have the capability of chopping long fleece in half before processing and others have French comb attachments for their equipment which do allow them to handle longer fleece lengths. Research the question thoroughly before sending very long baby fleeces off to a mill. Crafters who card and spin fleece by hand may be very happy to get a long fleece.
In general the younger the animal the finer their fleece will be. The baby fleece at their first shearing is typically very fine but probably will not have the full crimp characteristics of the second and third shearing. Gelding males will tend to keep a nicer fleece longer. Breeding female’s fleeces deteriorate the fastest due to the demands that being pregnant put on their bodies.
As alpacas age, they will typically grow less staple length so the coat gets gradually shorter and shorter. The fleece will also typically get slightly coarser each year. A high quality animal can maintain a decent staple length and good fleece quality for the majority of their lifetime, but a very old animal’s fleece likely won’t be good for much.
Fat alpacas or alpacas receiving a higher level of nutrition than they require will have higher micron counts and correspondingly coarser fleeces. It is important not to starve alpacas to try to get a finer fleece, but on the other hand this is a motivation to keep them in fit and healthy condition rather than let them get overweight.
All alpacas grow some hair, typically on their legs, bellies and chest. Higher quality animals will grow less hair. Lower quality animals may grow hair mixed in all through their blankets. One indicator of how hairy an alpaca is their hairdo! If their top knot is floppy, and sparse, likely more hair throughout the body fleece. If they have a fluffy pompadour, likely less hair and more high quality fleece all over the animal. You can also sometimes see a halo of hair poking out of even a fluffy animal’s hair-do, which is another indicator of hair throughout the fleece. Remember hair-dos can be cut and styled and lose a hair halo in the process. Trimming their hair-dos is called blocking.
In the end you will actually have to inspect each individual animal’s fleece. I have one alpaca girl who grows a remarkably lovely fleece despite having a floppy hair-do, being a little older and having had several babies, but she is the exception. The hair-do rule holds the vast majority of the time.
There are links to get you hooked up with fleece testing labs and some mini-mills on the Links page of this site.
Alpaca fleece is wonderful stuff. There are many ways to use it to look fashionable, stay warm, enjoy crafting, decorate your home, or even to improve garden soil. Check out some products made of alpaca!
What Do You Do With Your Alpaca Fleece?
This is a video interview with Lillith Avalon where she talks about what she does with her fleece and the advantages of using a mill to do processing.
If you are interested in what we do with our fleece after shearing and skirting the fleece, or how much fleece it takes to make a pair of socks, then check this out!
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Fiber cooperatives are another option for having fiber processed. In this case you submit your fiber and the coop determines its quality and how they can use it. Your fiber is processed along with fleece submitted by other coop members. You pay a fee to go with the fleece towards processing and/or product. The coop will grant you credit for a certain amount of product to be checked out from the coop based on your fleece contribution, and you can then sell the product yourself. A coop will have selected what products they are going to produce in a given season so choices may be limited. If you only have a small amount of fiber or you have a wide variety of colors and quality a coop could be a really good choice for getting your fiber processed.
Fiber processing mills and fiber cooperatives:
- Zeilinger Wool Company - Zeilinger Wool Co. processor of sheep wool, angora goat hair (mohair), rabbit hair (angora), llama, alpaca, dog hair, and other exotic animal fibers. We can turn your own fibers, such as wool, into comforters, mattress pads, bed pillows, quilts, batting f
- A Simpler Time - A Simpler Time Mill is a Mini Mill that processes alpaca fur, alpaca fiber, alpaca wool, cashmere, silk, mohair, & llama.
- The Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America - The Alpaca Fiber Cooperative of North America, Inc. (AFCNA) is an agricultural cooperative formed and wholly owned by North American alpaca fiber producers. To become an AFCNA shareholder, you must be an alpaca owner and purchase one share of voting commo
- North American Fiber Producers (NAAFP) - NAAFP is an agriculture cooperative that was created to establish the highest level of quality alpaca products from fiber produced and processed in North America by alpaca fiber producers who have their fiber sorted by a certified fiber sorter, using the
I Am An Apprentice!
Just returned from an amazing 5 day class learning to sort alpaca fiber according to the Certified Sorter system. I passed my test and I am officially an Apprentice!
Over the next two to three years I will be practicing my skills and adding to my knowledge about sorting and using alpaca fiber. Then I can test to be a Certified Sorter. I am very excited about the work and learning coming up for me over the next couple of years.
So now a disclaimer… I’ve posted a fair amount about sorting and how to use alpaca fiber here on my web site before now. It was all the best of my knowledge at the time. If you are doing a simple ‘farm sort’, that information will still be very useful to you. I don’t think any of what I offered here in the past is wrong, there is just so much more to know. I will be refining my practice and knowledge a lot over the coming months and will share some with you in posts here.
I will be formulating a page about my sorting services here on the site soon. I need to collect some supplies and think through a few things.
Meantime if you are interested in learning more about Certified Sorting, or having me sort your alpaca fleeces for you, please get in touch! Use the Contact form on this site.