Making Money With Wool
It’s not like spinning straw into gold – but it does work! We have been raising sheep and wool and processing and marketing the same for many years.To encourage the development of quality wool in the United States, Cestari, Ltd. provides custom processing of wool and natural fibers for small, medium and large wool producers at prices that are the lowest in the Direct Farm Market Industry. Some parts of the wool processing are not done at our farm, however all processing and handling is of the highest quality in the wool industry and the integrity of your own wool and fiber is guaranteed.
Specifications:
Minimum Quantity: 500 lbs. of clean and washed wool with staple length of 2”
to 5.5” of moth-free wool. Discard tags or belly type wool. The cleaner your wool, the cleaner the end product will be. You do not, and we recommend that you do not, put covers on the sheep. It’s a waste of time and not really good for either the sheep or the wool. Keep burrs and thistles out of the pastures. Clean pastures produce clean fleeces.
There are more than 600 different breeds of sheep in the world producing wool for a variety of purposes. Coarser wools make fine rugs and carpets, while fine wools are excellent for garment wear.
WASHING INSTRUCTIONS: If you are going to wash your own fleeces: Wash your wool in hot water using a good soap (if you wish to retain most of the lanolin, or washing detergent if you wish to remove a quantity of the lanolin. We recommend commercial wool scouring and can refer you to a wool scourer if you give us a call or e-mail.
Lanolin is the greasy substance produced by the sheep in the wool and acts as a lubricant to shed water and help heal skin injuries. It is best to keep just a small amount of lanolin. Too much lanolin in a fleece gums up the equipment, and it is too greasy for the general public to deal with.
Packing Instructions after washing, dry it out. Do not put wet or damp wool in any bag or container as it will cause the wool to mold or mildew. Whether clean or unwashed, wool must be packed as tightly as possible in clear heavy-duty plastic shipping bags, or burlap bags. Please – no plastic grain bags! Use the plastic type now approved by the International Wool Industry.
PRICES
BLENDING & CARDING
Turning wool into roving – pencil or round - $3.00 per finished pound from clean, scoured wool. There is a $ 1.00 per pound surcharge for Alpaca.
SINGLE PLY SPUNNED WOOL
Made into 3 pound cones - $2.00 per finished pound.
CONVERTING SINGLE PLY INTO 2 OR 3 PLY YARN
3 lb. or larger cones - $1.00 per finished pound.
Put into Pull Skeins – $1.25 per finished pound (in 4 oz., 6 oz. or 8 oz.
skeins).
or
Put into hand hanks $2.50 per finished pound (in 4 oz., 6 oz., or 8 oz.
skeins)
DYEING
If you wish to add color to a blend, we can either have your own wool dyed (minimum of 250 lbs.) or we will sell you some of our dyed stock or Natural Dark Gray wool to assist in achieving your desired final blended color.
Dyed stock costs $10.00 per pound of dyed wool Washed Natural Dark Gray costs $7.50 per pound. You may use a percentage of this stock blended with your own wool. We are happy to work with you in achieving your goals.
Shipping Instructions
Depending on quantity, contact either UPS or other common carriers to arrange delivery to our farm. Under separate cover, mail your wool processing instructions, together with 50% of the estimated charges. Put an extra copy of the instructions in the container marked #1. Advise us as to what the intended end product will be, e.g. sweaters, rugs, etc. Once your wool arrives, we will begin processing. Be sure to ship clean, washed wool.
If you are scouring your own wool, please send us a representative sample so that we can determine if enough of the lanolin has been removed that we can process it. You can expect yields of 50% – 55% from greasy to finished yarn, more or less depending on the cleanliness and quality of the wool.
Sheep that have been well nourished will have strong, healthy fleeces, and will give higher yields. Our sheep herds consistently yield 60% from greasy to finished yarn.
We are also buyers of good wool, paying quality prices for quality wool.
Please email or call us for additional information, or if you have any questions. Truly, there is money in wool if direct marketed properly.
Selling your own product is really a joy!