We are moving toward a breeding goal of long, fine wooled brown fleeces with a very strong Merino influence. The sheep are coated all year to keep the tips from fading in the Montana sun and keep those fleeces clean for hand spinners use. We have been washing, carding and or combing our own fiber for sale as well as our own use. All done by hand, including the dehairing of the llama fiber the product produced, roving or handspun yarn, is a high quality product. Given the attention to detail we can sometimes make use of a fleece that may otherwise be seen as too dirty or contain too much organic matter and old fibers to put through a mechanical carder.
Nothing removes the useless stuff from a fleece as well as handcombing the fiber.