Judy and Morgan began their ranch from the fiber side of alpacas!  They have been working with fiber for over a decade making products from their own animals. They have been sorting and grading fiber since they started their apprenticeship program with SGC in 2016.  They have been certified since 2019.

As certified Master Classers with SGC through SUNY Cobleskill, we want to help you get your fiber into production!  We believe that all grades of fiber have a use, but that fiber has to be put into production and not left sitting around!

As a certified team, we will sort, grade and class your fiber, and get it ready to start making money for you and/or your farm!

We have worked with many farms over the years and helped get their fiber from bags in storage into production and making money for them.

Why Sort Your Fiber?

Not every fiber produced by living animals is the same.  Different parts of the body and even the blanket itself can vary in micron.  Sorting fiber keeps quality control in items produced in the industry, giving predictable and repeatable results.

Sorting fiber results in uniform grades.  Uniformity in grades results in reduced pilling, increased durability, better handle, higher yield from processing, superior products, more uses for all grades, and increased profitability for fiber producing farms.

What to expect:

We can sort ALL types of fiber from fleece producing animals.

 

We will be in contact prior to the sort to go over pre-sort documents with you.  Some of the questions we will want to know include:

*What do you want to accomplish with your fiber?

*Do you currently do anything with your fiber?

*Do you have a retail outlet for your yarns or products?

We will make sure we fully understand what your goals are so we can help you achieve them.

We will sort your fiber in an accurate and efficient manner.

We will follow up with you with post-sort education.

We will make sure to answer all your questions!

We will make sure that you fully understand how to read the inventory sheet and sort records.

We keep an inventory sheet for the entire farm so that you know at a glance how much total weight of fiber based on grade, length and color your farm produced.

*We can make individual sort records for each animal in addition.

 

You can bring your fiber to our location OR we will come to your location!  If we come to you, all bags of fiber must be in the same location.  We bring our own materials but we will need access to electricity and a bathroom.  We bring a free standing sort table, lights, bags, paperwork, and our own food and drink!  We will need a large area with adequate ventilation and coverage.  The amount of time we will be there depends on how much fiber you have and how you would like it sorted.

We can be there for shearing day!  If you would like us to be present during your shearing to skirt, sort, grade and separate the fiber all on the same day so that it is completely done at once for you, contact us for scheduling!  This would mean that at the end of your shearing day, your fiber will be completely ready for processing!

Fiber is separated and sorted to grade, length and color.  A grade is a range of 3 microns.  A micron is a unit of measurement for fiber diameter.

Grade 1 (<20 micron) – Next to skin, very gently used items

Grade 2 (20-22.9 micron) – Next to skin, gently used items

Grade 3 (23-25.9 micron) – Next to skin, most versatile, durable

Grade 4 (26-28.9 micron) – Not next to skin of neck or head, wearable, durable

Grade 5 (29-32 micron) – Durable.  Great for household items and items that are not right next to the skin.

Grade 6 (32.1-35 micron) – Most durable.  Household items and felt and items that are not next to skin.

Mixed Grade (legs, belly, chest, tender, too long/short) – Used in non-standard applications