I'm getting started spinning, and I was wondering if anybody raised sheep or rabbits and could either send me(of course I would pay for it) some wool/fur, or could tell me experiences with spinning and your favorite materials to work with. Thanks! I've gone over just about every website I could find, read books, etc. Thanks! -Sarah
Hopefully you can find someone close. I'll be shearing the first week of March; but currently I'm sending all my wool here: http://www.peisland.com/wool/ It gets and F for carbon miles; but an A that I can get my own wool spun into blankets and yarn and sent back to me. When you factor in shipping, it is not cheap. But I've been able to sell every scrap I've had processed and have profited. I am probably one of maybe 15 people in the whole US who make money of wool (ok, that's hyperbole). Must people are lucky to fetch $0.25 per pound for raw wool.
I am one of the youth leaders for my county 4H, and was thinking about contacting groups to see if the sheep members could collect their wool(because I know they don't do anything with it) and give it to me. I'm the leader of a county wide knitting project, we knit scarves and blankets for the homeless shelter. I thought that I could clean it, spin it, and knit it into scarves. That way we don't have to spend more $$ on yarn, we get practice spinning, and the sheep members get to put down their sheering as community service time. But that's not until June.
Don't know if you are interested or not, but I have a black Pygora buck I will be shearing (more likely just shaving if my horse clipper can take it ) this spring, and you are more then welcome to his fiber. I have no use for it and no idea how to spin. I'm not sure of the quality I've been reading and it looks like he has type "B" fiber. You can read about Pygora fiber types here. I would send it out for free, unclean since I have no idea how to clean it and wouldn't want to ruin it and only ask that you either knit/crochet me a little hat or send some of his yarn so I can have someone else make one for me. The only issue is he's a buck, so he has a rather unpleasant scent about him and not sure how easy that is to wash out. But if you are interested, let me know. Ps...I do know it is very, very soft.