These days spinners have many different opportunities to obtain fleeces. We can buy from farms, from vendors at their shops, buy at trade shows, or buy over the internet. Sometimes, we’re offered free fleeces from local farmers or by friends who know someone who has sheep and wants to get rid of the wool. Fleece is readily available. Unfortunately, not everyone trying to sell or give fleeces away knows if the fleece is any good for hand spinners or not so it is up to the buyer or recipient to evaluate each fleece for quality and suitability.

The first step in evaluating a fleece is to open it up. Fleeces are always rolled in a standard way, tip side turned to the inside. Knowing how they are rolled makes them easy to unroll for inspection:
1. The fleece is laid out tp side up.
2. Each side is folded to the middle.
3. The fleece is rolled from the tail end to the head end and the neck band (left at shearing) is wrapped around to hold the roll together.
So, to unroll, find where the neck band is tucked under itself, unroll it, and fold the sides out from the center. Knowing where the head and tail ends are helps to evaluate the skirting of the fleece and know where to look for the best and worst quality of the fibers on that fleece.

Smell the fleece. It should smell like a sheep. If it smells moldy, mildewy, or sour then it’s not a good fleece.

Next, check to see how well the fleece is skirted. Look at the tail end, the wool should be free of any tags (dung). Check the arm pit areas - any dirt encrusted areas should have been skirted away. (Note: if there are clumpy areas of dirty locks here, those are suint (sheep sweat) and dirt - not dung tags). Check to see that leg wool, belly wool, and head wool has been removed. Check the fleece for vegetable matter (VM), particularly at the head end and along the spine. A badly VM contaminated fleece is not worth the effort spent trying to clean it.

Look for stains and any discolored areas. While some stains will wash out, others won’t and may indicate weak spots in the fleece. Then test the fleece for strength and tippiness.

To check for strength:
1. Remove a small lock of the fleece. The correct way to do this is to use your non-dominate hand, making a circle with your thumb and index finger. Place your hand on the fleece with the lock you wish to test inside the circle. With your dominate hand, gently remove a small lock from the fleece.
2. Look at the lock. It should look uniform. Are there any thin spots in the length? If so, that may be a weak spot. Grasping each end firmly, hold the lock up by your ear and give it a sharp tug. A crackling, ripping sound indicates a weakness or a fleece break. A sound like that of plucking a string instrument means the fleece is sound.

To check for tippiness: Hold a staple length in one hand and with the other grasp just the tip between the nails of your thumb and index finger. Tug on the tip. Does it come off? If so, the fleece is tippy (has damaged tips). If not, the tips are sound. This is an important test because damaged tips will break off of the staple length when the fleece is carded and cause little neps in the processed wool.

Check strength and tippiness at different locations to see that it is uniform throughout the entire
fleece.

The look for second cuts. These are short fibers cause by the shearer going over the sheep more than once to leave the animal looking nice and even after it’s shorn. Any second cuts will need to be removed or they will cause neps when carding. While they can usually be shaken out of the fleece before washing, they also reduce the staple length in that area of the fleece.

Look at the staple length, the crimp pattern, and the color of the wool. Does it vary or is it uniform? There is normally a variance in the quality of the fibers from one part of a fleece to the next, so expect some differences. Only you an determine if a particular fleece is suitable for your project.