| THE BROWN SHEEP MILL END ROVINGS OFFERED BY THE SHEEP SHED STUDIO ENCAMPMENT, WYOMING Carl and Carol Lee decided to take on this business in January of 2006. Our goal was to get a spinning and felting fiber out to the fiber folk as reasonably as possible. We are buying the fiber from The Brown Sheep Company of Mitchell, Nebraska, purchasing the fibers and rovings that for whatever reason did not go through their machines into the beautiful lines of yarns that they are famous for. We hope to continue this business for many years to come. Each load picked up at the mill is Christmas packages all over again. We never know what will be in the big boxes or bales until we start moving the fiber into the big plastic bags. Moving this fiber in quantity will allow us to keep the prices low. This is marvelous fiber to work with, we hope you will give it a try and come back for more. QUESTIONS??? What is a Spinning Bell? A spinning bell is a dome shaped "cap" of fiber that reminds one of a silk "cap". It is made up of layers of fibers, often pencil rovings. You can remove layers and pull or diz into rovings for spinning. You can felt the "bell" and make a bowl or possibly a poncho, allowing for a hole for your head. There is much really nice fiber in these "bells" but they do take a bit more work than the rovings. WHAT IS IN THE GRAB BAGS? The grab bags consist of anything that does not go into the rovings or the spinning bells. This might be large pieces of carded fibers, similar to a batt, or pieces of a batt. It might be pieces that are cut from the machines, it might be short pieces of rovings, or handfuls of fibers. It might be all one color, mostly white or gray, or it might consist of many colors. It is all clean fiber ready to blend, card or spin like it is. WHAT ARE THE ROVINGS? The rovings are pieces of fiber, maybe blended, carded, some pin drafted fiber. Many of the colors you saw on the Mill End Page are simply different stages of the processing of the fibers. It begins with thick stripes, then this is blended and blended again for the different striping effects. Some of these rovings may be in one long piece for an entire pound. Some may be in wonderful thick two foot long pieces. Some may be in foot long pieces. They are so easy to spin and make such lovely yarns. They may have mohair or silk in them. This glistens so beautifully. We try to put the superwash by itself when we can identify it. We do not get a lot of superwash, so it generally gets sent out only on a special order, or taken to a show. HOW CAN I ORDER? You can order via Paypal or credit card via Paypal from the Mill Ends Rovings Page. It is set up for click and order. With this method, your order will be sent out the day it is received if we get it before 2 PM, Mountain time. If it comes in later, it goes out the following day. You can order via personal check or money order directly from us. We need the amount you wish to order and your zipcode and we will figure the totals of the order plus shipping and handling and email the amount to you. When we receive the check or money order we will ship your order to you. Checks or money orders can be mailed to: The Sheep Shed Studio 421 Lomax, Box 731 Encampment, Wyoming 82325 WE DO NOT SHIP ON SATURDAY OR SUNDAY. Our small town postoffice is only open for 1/2 hour on Saturday, and is not a good time to try to mail a package. Please email us if you have any additional questions. Check back often, we will add new pictures and new question and answers. |
| We take the fiber from the big boxes at the mill and fill these big bags to haul to our home. We can haul 2000 lb +- in our pickup and llama trailer. Storing it is a challenge. |
| Carol Lee is sorting bags of fiber for Grab Bags. It is an absolute delight to open a bag of this fiber and play.......oops!...sort it for shipment, or to take up to the studio for spinning. |
| Carl Lee is the main order filler. He sorts many bags each day, enjoying the feel and delight of the fibers. He also finds those special rovings that go into some of the rugs he weaves. |
| Carol Lee is the major box packer. She puts everything she has into getting as much fiber into the boxes as she can. Do keep this in mind when you cut the tape on the box. It is going to expand. |
| FLEECEWOVEN RUGS Some of these rovings are excellent for weaving fleecewoven rugs. To learn the process, I have written a book that can be found on the website. It can be ordered via paypal, check or money order. |
| Fiber such as this, in long silky strands is wonderful for weaving the fleecewoven rug. Carl took some immediately up to our weaving studio and started a rug. I will do a bit of needlefelting on it and it will then be ready for sale. |
| These very fat, silky fibers are not good for fleeceweaving, but spread out and felted make a beautiful soft felt, and they just can't be beat for spinning fibers. |
| LET'S TALK SHIPPING!! Q and A The amount of fiber you buy is not what the cost of shipping is charged on. The weight of the box when it crosses the post office scale, plus the price of the box, the bags, and the tape for packaging is also included. After losing over $75.00 in shipping costs the first two weeks in business, I hired a company to figure the shipping costs. Sometimes they are a bit high, and sometimes they are a bit low....then I pay some of the costs. If there is enough money to ship priority, we try to ship priority. We add insurance on larger orders, and we add Delivery Confirmation on all orders to be able to track and find order that might go astray. Shipping charges are figured on weight, number of boxes needed for that weight, supplies needed to ship and the zone you live in. The side of the zone you live in can make a difference in the price of the shipping for you. We do not charge you for our time, either in packing or delivering mega boxes to the post office five days a week. No matter how hard we try we cannot make everyone happy with the shipping charges. Shipping is expensive. We hope that the lower fiber prices can help make you happier with the total costs of your order. |