Thank you to those who donated wool! We reached our goal of 200 lbs and more.
Wool locks of double coated breeds illustrating staple length. These breeds usually felt well. All of these locks are acceptable.
Guidelines for donated wool
The fleece does not need to be washed but it should not have a lot of vegetable matter (VM). VM includes burs, sticks, hay and chaff. It should also not contain a lot of manure. If possible, staple length should be less than 3 ½” but some breeds' wool with longer staple length are still useful for this project. Staple length is the length of the individual wool lock in the fleece measured from the cut (or sheared) end to the tip. Measure this like you would a strand of hair cut from your own head.
Wool with high luster as opposed to high crimp is best. Any breed lambs wool is also useful. The luster wool breeds should have about 6 months growth in order to be short enough. Let us know if you are not sure if your sheep wool will work and we’ll help you figure out what you have.
Please contact us for more information.
How Your Wool Will Be Used
Your donated wool will be added to a pool of different local wool fibers. The wool will be sorted and processed into batts (sheets of wool fibers) that will be felted during the workshop into hard-wearing felts used to cover and insulate a traditional Mongolian Yurt. The outer layer of felt will feature a tapestry design (like a drawing) showing the process of shearing a sheep, processing the wool and creating the felts and yurt. The interior side of these felts (visible when stepping inside the yurt) will have a tapestry design map of Minnesota where people who donated wool can have their initials and a marking on the map showing their location.
The fleece does not need to be washed but it should not have a lot of vegetable matter (VM). VM includes burs, sticks, hay and chaff. It should also not contain a lot of manure. If possible, staple length should be less than 3 ½” but some breeds' wool with longer staple length are still useful for this project. Staple length is the length of the individual wool lock in the fleece measured from the cut (or sheared) end to the tip. Measure this like you would a strand of hair cut from your own head.
Wool with high luster as opposed to high crimp is best. Any breed lambs wool is also useful. The luster wool breeds should have about 6 months growth in order to be short enough. Let us know if you are not sure if your sheep wool will work and we’ll help you figure out what you have.
Please contact us for more information.
How Your Wool Will Be Used
Your donated wool will be added to a pool of different local wool fibers. The wool will be sorted and processed into batts (sheets of wool fibers) that will be felted during the workshop into hard-wearing felts used to cover and insulate a traditional Mongolian Yurt. The outer layer of felt will feature a tapestry design (like a drawing) showing the process of shearing a sheep, processing the wool and creating the felts and yurt. The interior side of these felts (visible when stepping inside the yurt) will have a tapestry design map of Minnesota where people who donated wool can have their initials and a marking on the map showing their location.