Custom Wool Processing

We are a family-owned spinnery located in the hills of Vermont Township in Dane County, Wisconsin. We have a picker, a four breaker 60 inch Davis and Furber woolen card, and a Whitin spinning frame to match.  For information on how wool is processed into yarn, go here.  We do not produce quilt batts, but will be happy to refer you to other close-by businesses that specialize in batts. 

WASHING
We have limited washing facilities and therefore encourage people to wash their own wool. Instructions can be found here.

For those of you who do not want to wash your own wool, we can wash it here. We use hot water and a detergent that is gentle on the wool and do NOT use an acid bath as is used in some scouring processes. You can save money by removing any matted wool or wool containing manure tags before shipping it to us to process. This reduces both your shipping and washing costs. Wool can lose up to half of its weight during the washing process, so please consider this when sending grease wool for a project.

The charge for washing is $7.00/pound grease weight as received. If you have washed the wool yourself but it is at all sticky, then we must rewash it before carding. The rewash fee is $8.00/lb because it will be lighter weight but take as much work. If you have washed your own wool but are not sure if is clean enough, send us a small sample in an envelope. We do not offer washing service for wool that is not going to be carded here. We do not wash llama or angora or other exotic fibers (they usually do not need it for carding). Washing or rewashing merino type wool is $7.25/lb.


CARDING FOR ROVING
You will always get your own wool back. Each batch of wool is handled separately unless you specify blending. For roving, we can not card wool longer than 6 inches.

During the carding process, there will be some loss of material, especially if there is a lot of vegetable matter in the wool. This loss is generally about 10% by weight. Losses may be greater if you send fibers that are less than 3 inches long or straight fibers such as Lincoln, Border Leicester, Romney, or mohair.

The overall process of carding into roving for hand spinners removes much but not all of the vegetable matter present in the wool. You will be much happier with the final product if you remove any burrs from your wool before you send it for processing. When carding for yarn, the wool is carded again after passing through a burr crusher and most but not all of the remaining vegetable matter is removed.

During the carding process, we apply a light spinning oil to the wool. This lubricates the wool fibers, reducing the breakage that can occur during the carding step. It can be readily removed using hot water (120 F) and laundry detergent.

The carding equipment is very thorough about blending colors. If you need to keep colors distinct for roving, please give us a call and discuss it with us before shipping.

The minimum amount we can card is 2 pounds based on the clean, washed weight. The carding fee, based on the weight of the clean wool per bag or separate lot as it is received is:
2 to 5 pounds.....$12.75/lb
Over 5 pounds...$12.25/lb

Exotic Fibers: The charge for carding fiber blends is an additional $2.00/lb because of the extra time required for picking and carding. We can not card 100% exotic fibers. We can card mohair, llama, and alpaca blends containing at least 50% sheep's wool for hand spinning but they may not hold together for roving and consequently may be in the form of a loose batt. We can card up to 25% silk, cotton, dog hair, or camel as long as the staple length is not over 6 inches.


CUSTOM SPINNING
Our spinning equipment is capable of spinning a wide variety of weights, twists and plies of yarns to suit both hand knitters and weavers. Because the goal of this service is to provide custom spinning, we encourage you to ask if you want something special done with your wool. Feel free to contact us for a sample card of the weights and plys we can spin.

Spinning into yarn is most economical if done in lots of 40 pounds of clean (washed) wool or more. If grease wool is sent, we recommend sending at least 80 pounds because the wool can lose as much as 50% of it's weight during washing. We can spin batches as small as 20 pounds (clean weight) but must charge a minimum of $750.00 for the carding and spinning steps because much of our time is spent on machine set up. The $750.00 minimum does not include wool washing or any optional services.

Yarn batches of 40 pounds or more can be split in half (approximately) and spun into two different weights of yarn for an additional fee of $50.00 for gear changes, but the two weights are otherwise considered one spin batch and are not each charged the $750.00 minimum.

Carding in preparation for spinning yarn from 100% wool is $12.00/lb based on the washed weight of the wool. We cannot spin wool longer than 5 inches stretched out even though we can card wool up to 6 inches long for roving. If you are in doubt about the 5 inch length, please measure. Also, we cannot spin slippery wools without adding crimpy wool to hold it together. Slippery wools include Romney, Lincoln, Border Leicester, Cotswold, Coopworth and other luster wools.

For spinning, we cannot card wool shorter than 2.5 inches or longer than 5 inches stretched out even though we can do 6 inches for roving that we don't spin.

In addition to the losses in weight that occur during the carding process, there is an additional loss during the spinning process (generally 10%). Some of the spinning losses can be recovered and will be returned in the form of roving. In general, if 50 pounds of washed wool are carded and spun, the result will be about 40 pounds of yarn and 3 pounds of roving. This varies with the type of wool and the amount of vegetable matter in the wool. Luster wools will have a lower yield.

In addition to the carding fee, the prices for spinning are as follows:
Single ply. . . . .$13.50
Two ply . . . . . .$15.00
Three ply . . . . .$16.00

Spinning prices are based on the finished weight of the yarn returned to you on paper cones and apply to your choice of bulky, worsted, or sport weight yarns. Spinning yarn with singles finer than 3500 yards/lb (2-ply 1750 yds/lb, fingering weight or lighter) is an additional $5.00/lb

OPTIONAL SERVICES
The fees above include winding the yarn onto paper cones for convenient shipping and storage. The yarn returned on cones still has the spinning oil on it which is desirable for use on knitting machines and weaving. It can be skeined which is necessary for washing and dyeing. The washing removes the spinning oil and allows the yarn to regain its natural loft. You can do this washing step yourself, or we can do it for you.

Skeining into approximately 4 ounce skeins is $3.00/lb
Washing skeins to remove spinning oil is $4.25/lb

Spinning yarn from exotic fiber blends requires picking the blends twice and additional care in the carding steps. Because of this, we must charge an additional $3.25/lb for carding in preparation for spinning into yarn from these blends (mohair, silk, llama, camel and cotton, etc.). We can blend mohair up to 33% of the total weight but cannot go this high if the wool consists of luster wools such as Romney, Border Leicester, Lincoln, Coopworth, Cotswold, etc.
The other exotic fibers can not be greater than 25% of the blend.

We can not spin yarn from luster wools without adding crimpy wool to hold it together. It may be necessary to add as much as 33% of the total weight to hold it together. If you are in doubt, send samples first.

If you have exotic fibers but not enough wool for yarn, we can supply the wool. The price is currently $12.00/lb of washed wool but is subject to change depending on the market. We have both white and natural colored wool available. The white is Merino and the colored is Corriedale.

We can also provide dyed wool for $19.00/lb for blending with your own wool to make heather yarn in the following colors: red, gold, magenta, dark blue, dark green, purple and turquoise.

SHIPPING
Pack wool in cardboard cartons and enclose instructions as follows:

1. Name/ address/ phone number/ email
2. Number of boxes in shipment
3. What you want done (roving or spinning, desired weight and ply number, optional services requested)

If instructions are not included in every box, please write “Instructions Enclosed” on the outside of the box that contains the instructions.
Do not send money with your wool. When processing is complete, we will send you a bill for the cost of the processing and the return shipment. After we receive your payment, we will send you your wool.

We reserve the right to return wool at your expense without processing if we do not feel that we can process it suitably, for instance if the fiber is too long or matted.

OTHER SERVICE CHARGES
Our storage facilities are small and were not designed for use as long term storage of materials. Because of this, a minimum storage fee of $25.00 per month will be charged if we have to store your fibers for more than 30 days because of any of the following reasons:
1) You do not provide instructions.
2) There were not enough fibers to proceed with the processing and we must wait for more to be sent.
3) For people wishing to pick up their finished product, if it is not picked up within 30 days of date on invoice.
4) For people that we request prepayment before finished product is shipped, if payment is not received within 30 days of date on invoice.

Additional storage fees may be charged for storing more than 100 pounds of fibers.

For accounts not paid within 30 days of date on invoice, there will be a late payment fee of 1.5% per month added to the amount due.

Items will be considered abandoned and become property of Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill if not paid for or picked up within 120 days of invoicing.

Prices are subject to change without notice.

3776  Forshaug Rd, Mount Horeb WI 53572, 608-437-3762

Please direct comments or questions to: Anne@blackberry-ridge.com