Batch 9

Please click for the page listing all WeatherWool Fabric Batches.

For Batch 9, I've decided a timeline, with latest entries on top, would be interesting. A little bit of a different approach than on pages dedicated to previous batches. The timeline appears below the composition of Batch 9 (the Ranches from which the greasy was sourced).

 

• Innes Ranch ... Wyoming .. our first wool from Wyoming! And the largest single clip we have ever purchased ... 18,420 pounds (8354 kg), representing 41.3% of Batch 9
• Cravens Ranch ... New Mexico. Our first time working with the Cravens. We'll get a page up for the Cravens Ranch as soon as Mark gets me some photos ... 13,055 pounds (5921 kg), 29.1%
• Jones Ranch ... New Mexico ... 6266 pounds (2842 kg), 14.1%
• Corn Ranch ... New Mexico ... Mike Corn, the Corn Ranches and Roswell Wool have been key to WeatherWool since 2010! ... 5239 pounds (2376 kg), 11.8%
• PM Ranch ... Minnesota, owned by Advisor Bob Padula, has been part of every WeatherWool Fabric Batch! Bob has advised us since the beginning. If we had not ever met Padula, there might never have made anything ... 854 pounds (387 kg), 1.9%
• Jewell Ranch ... Colorado. We have worked with John and GeorgeAnn Jewell previously. They are mainly breeders, and produce some of the most-desired fiber and stock in the world. Of all the clips in Batch 9, Jewell is the longest, strongest (tie with Innes), finest and cleanest. We would have thought this was impossible!! No surprise, the Jewell clip is also the most expensive in Batch 9 ... 838 pounds (380 kg), 1.9%

 

11 September 2023 ... Dyeing and Spinning
Some of our top has been shipped for Tintoria to be dyed True Black or Classic Brown. I don't have an ETA from Tintoria. Some of our top has been shipped to Kentwool Yarn to be spun into worsted warp that will be used in all our Fabrics. And the rest of our top has been shipped to American Woolen for spinning into woolen weft for Lynx Pattern and (we hope!) Denim and even (we hope!!) a little bit of what we are calling Utility Fabric. We're hoping to use the Utility Fabric to make pockets. If this works, then even all our products will be made with fiber sourced ourselves, and all our garments will use only Fabrics made by us ... and all our Fabrics are 100% wool.

Worsted spinning and woolen spinning are substantially different.

19 August 2023 ... Scarf for Bob Innes
Bob has been on his Family Ranch, established in 1870, for all of his 71 years. For decades, Bob has been asking for feedback from the people who purchase his fiber. He's not gotten any feedback except from us. And now, although just a small thing, Bob has a Scarf made with his own fiber.

24 July 2023 ... Production Losses
I just put up a new page -- Production Losses -- showing the loss (by weight) of material beginning with greasy (raw) wool and moving through finished Fabric, ready for the tailors

23 July 2023
We have been shipping Shemaghs and Scarves made from Natural White (Cream) Batch 9 Fabric. Feels good to write that!

7 July 2023 ... (sorry for getting behind here!)
We have made the first rolls of Batch 9 Fabric in Natural White (cream color) in both FullWeight and MidWeight Fabrics. It looks and feels great. And we'll make more. We're using these first yards for Anoraks, CPOs and Shemaghs. I need to get the Natural White added to those product pages ... but we need to update our Color Palette ... and that effort has led to some renaming of our colors. Did not expect that!

30 May 2023
The first test pieces of Batch 9 Fabric, both MidWeight and FullWeight, are scheduled to ship from MTL to American Woolen for finishing. There will hopefully also be enough leftover yarn for American Woolen to make some WeatherWool Denim for us to examine and test. This would be the first new WeatherWool Fabric since MidWeight in about 2015. It's just an idea at this point, but I'm really looking forward to it.

12 May 2023
Both warp and weft yarns for first small test batches of FullWeight and MidWeight Fabric should arrive at MTL within a week, and first pieces of griege Fabric completed by end of May.

24 April 2023
Kentwool has completed spinning a tiny batch of warp fiber. The warp and weft for Batch 9 testing will be at MTL shortly, and they will weave a small amount of FullWeight and MidWeight undyed Fabric that we will use for testing.

24 April 2023
The spinning of the warp yarn for the first test pieces won't be completed for another three or four weeks. And this is just the testing. We have a very long way to go before Batch 9 becomes Fabric. It seems unlikely we will have Batch 9 garments until late 2023, at best.

7 April 2023
One bale (about 550 pounds / 250 kg) of clean top has been sent to American Woolen to spin into weft, and one bale has been sent to Kentwool to spin into warp. We are skipping dyeing for this first little bit. I'm going to have a LOT more to say about processing of Batch 9 as time goes by.

8 March 2023
Scouring and combing complete. Chargeurs provided some detailed information about processing and results, much of which was new (and still somewhat mysterious) to me. I'll post that information eventually, but I need to understand it better. Chargeurs tells us that we now have 21,466 pounds (9735 kg) of 21 Micron Top, conditioned at 15%, for a yield of 48% (greasy weight 44,582 pounds / 20,219 kg). The "15%" refers to moisture, and I don't understand that yet.

17 Feb 2023:
Scouring scheduled to begin 27 Feb

6 Feb 2023:
Batch 9 is on its way to Chargeurs and scouring should begin end of February.

April 2022 until Feb 2023:
All of Batch 9 sitting in warehouses until time to scour!

21 July 2022:
We finished putting together all the clips for Batch 9, our largest Batch yet. The Innes Clip (see below) was the last and biggest piece of the puzzle. Debby and I actually spent half a day at the Innes Ranch before we could commit to the purchase, because we were still awaiting test results.

At 44,582 pounds (20,219 kg) of greasy (raw) wool, Batch 9 is large enough to enable us to do some things that have been on my mind but were not previously possible.

April until July, 2022:
Batch 9 was put together for us by Advisor Mike Corn at Roswell Wool in Roswell, New Mexico. Mike put together most of Batch 8 in April and May of 2022, but it took until July to accumulate all of it. The Innes Clip (described below) was the largest and last component to be added to Batch 9.

The greasy will stay with Mike until early February, when it will be trucked to Chargeurs in South Carolina for scouring.

Here is a list of the ranches that are represented in Batch 9, listed in order of clip size:

As of 6 February 2023, Batch 9 began its journey from the warehouses in Texas (Bollman) and New Mexico (Roswell Wool).

 

Page initiated in April of 2022 --- Ralph