Skirting is an important part of preparing a fleece for processing or for sale and is the process of removing “junk” wool, stains, second cuts, and loose vegetable matter from the wool.

The skirting process is usually done by the shepherd so most handspinners will never have to perform this task. However, if the shepherd is not a spinner or does not normally sell individual fleeces then the spinner can expect to receive either a fleece that has not been skirted for handspinning or a totally unskirted fleece.

The skirting process begins after the fleece is shorn and requires a special skirting table with an open mesh top. The table must be large enough to lay the entire fleece out flat.
The fleece is laid on the table cut side down, tips up and the head and tail ends identified.

The first step is to work around the fleece giving each part a light shaking. This allows the bulk of any second cuts to fall through the mesh. Second cuts are considered a fault in handspinning fleeces and, unless removed from the fleece, they will cause neps in carded wool. They are caused by the shearer making a second pass over a section of the sheep during shearing to give the shorn animal a neater appearance.

The next step is to actually skirt the fleece: Pick a starting point, such as the tail, and work all the way around the fleece removing from 2 to 4 inches of wool all the way around. Two inches would be a light skirting, four inches a heavy skirting – exactly how light or heavy of skirting is needed depends entirely on the cleanliness and quality of the fleece. Remove any tags (dung or stained wool) at the tail, skirt away the lower leg wool and evaluate the britch (upper leg) wool for kemp (hair fibers) and skirt those of. Kemp fibers may be saved and used for tweedy yarns as these fibers take dyes differently from wool fibers. Then skirt away any belly wool if the shearer has not tossed this aside when shearing - some shearers will do this, some won’t. Next, skirt away the front leg wool and the head wool. Then work down the other side the same way, back to the tail.

Now, look at the fleece. Are their any stains? If so, skirt away those areas. If a stain is in the middle of the fleece, hold the fleece down around the stained area with one hand while removing the bad area with the other hand. This keeps the locks intact in the good areas. Then look for areas with a lot of contamination from vegetable matter (VM) and skirt those areas away.

Finally, check the fleece for tippiness and for wool breaks. Tippiness is caused mainly by weathering and is most likely to occur along the spine. Pull a small lock no thicker than a pencil and hold it by the butt (cut) end. Then grasp the tip between the nails of your thumb and index fingers and give it a little tug. If the tip broke off, then the fleece is tippy. Skirt the tippy area away – the tips will break off when the fleece is carded and form neps in the carded preparation. The other way to deal with tippy fleece is to take a scissors and cut the tips off of the locks before scouring the fleece.

Wool breaks are also easy to detect. Look at a lock of the fleece – is there an area in the staple length that looks thinner? This indicates a possible break at this point. Take a small lock of fleece and firmly grasp it by the cut end with one hand and the tip end in the other. Give it a tug. Does it come apart? If so, there is a wool break. To confirm that there is a break, take a thin lock, maybe half the diameter of a pencil, grasp it in both hands, hold it up to your ear and pull. Do you hear crackling or ripping sound? If so, that’s a wool break. This would not be a good, sound fleece. Fleeces with wool breaks may be saved if the break is close to either the tip or the butt end and the staple length is long enough to cut the fleece above or below the break line.

Once the fleece is skirted, it’s ready to roll for storage. To roll the fleece, first fold both sides in to the spine. Pick off any remaining second cuts. Then go the to tail end and roll the fleece toward the head end just like a jelly roll. Don’t forget to pick off any second cuts. Once it’s rolled, take the neck band and wrap it around the roll and tuck it under to secure the roll of fleece.