One of the best ways to determine which type of fleece or which fiber is best for your project is to keep a Spinning Study Notebook. It’s easy to create a study notebook, every time you get a new fleece or fiber just plan on doing a bit of sampling and making a few notes before starting to spin for your project. Then place the samples and notes in a binder and before you know it, you’ll have your own reference book to help with planning future purchases and projects.

Here is a list of notes and suggestions for information you may want to make as you explore a new type of fiber or the fleece from a new source.

General Information:
1. A picture of the fiber animal or fiber plant. If you’re spinning a man-made fiber then perhaps a picture of a stage in the manufacturing process would be nice to add.
2. A few historical notes on the fiber are also a nice addition.

Fiber Characteristics (for wool, change as needed for other fibers):
1. The type of fleece: fine, down, luster long wool, other.
2. Average fleece weigh
3. Average staple length and notes on the appearance of the staple.
4. Count: Micron, Bradford or Blood.
5. Crimp: it’s appearance, evenness, and number of crimps per inch (cpi).
6. Note any faults you find in the fleece. Faulty locks can be set aside and used to create a notebook of fleece faults, if you wish.
7. Note the cleanliness of the fleece: Does it have a lot of vm and dirt or is it nice and clean. Also note the source of the fleece as you may or may not wish to buy from this vendor again.
8. Notes on the handle of the fleece: this is how the fleece feels to you and is subjective. Does it feel greasy? Crisp? Coarse or soft? Smooth and silky? Elastic? Lofty?
9. Note the weight of the grease sample you plan to wash; as this figure is needed for determining how much grease fleece you need for your project.

If you’re starting with commercially prepared fibers then you can skip much of this and only make notes on the items which can be determined from a small sample of your fiber.
You also get to skip over the washing and processing notations and jump right to spinning!



Washing:
You may want to sample different washing methods to see which gives the best results for your fiber. Keeping good notes on the washing process allows you to go back and wash the amount of fleece needed for your project exactly as you washed the fleece for your sample.

1. Note the temperature of the wash water and the quantity of water used.
2. Note the amount of soap or detergent and any additives (such as washing soda or vinegar) used.
3. Note the timing and number of the soaks and rinses.
4. Nice, but not necessary: note the pH level of the soaks and rinses. Fibers may be damaged if the pH level is too high.
5. Note the weight of the fiber after washing.

Processing:
1. Note the processing equipment used: Picker cards, combs, flick card. If you use
a drum carder, note how the batts were prepared for spinning. With combs, note the size of the hole you use to pull top with your diz.
2. Note any additives used in processing, such as misting with a water/oil mixture
for combing.
3. Note the weight of the fibers after processing.

Spinning:
Ah, the fun part!

1. Note the type of wheel you spin your samples on and the ratio you use.
2. Note the type of drafting used and the length of the draft.
3. Note twist direction of both singles and plied yarns.
4. Note twist per inch for both singles and plied yarns.
5. Note the angle of the twist.

You can make this section much more detailed by spinning samples using different drafting methods, trying different amounts of twist and different twist angles, or by trying different numbers of plies. Another option here is trying some types of novelty yarns.
Think outside the box and get creative.

Finishing:

1. Keep notes on exactly how you finished your yarn and the soap or detergent and any additives used.
2. Note the timing of the soaks and rinses.
3. Note anything done to the yarn during finishing: snapping, plunging, etc.
4. Note the drying method: hung, weighted, laid flat, wound onto a yarn blocker.

Samples:
It’s always nice to have small samples attached to your notes. These may include: A lock of the grease fleece or raw fiber or a piece of the unspun commercially processed fiber; a lock of the washed fleece; a small piece of your processed fleece; samples of the singles and plied yarns you’ve spun; and a small knit, crocheted, or woven sample to show how it will look made up into a project. Small snack sized Zip Lock bags work well for containing samples and the bags are easy to staple to the pages in your notebook.