New buyer for 2018 Wool Pool

Save the date! Bartlett Yarns will be buying wool on Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.at the Vet Tech Barn at the VTC Dairy Farm on Water Street in Randolph Center.

It’s a little later in the year than usual, but the Vermont Sheep and Goat Association and Bartlett Yarns worked out a way for our producers to sell wool a little differently than with our previous buyer. The main differences are Bartlett will be buying black-faced and colored fleeces as well as white wool, and they are accepting other animal fibers like alpaca and mohair.

    Hugo Smith, 2, trying to give the thumbs-up to all the wool brought in at the 2017 wool pool in Randolph.”     

Bartlett Yarns will be buying wool at $0.58/lb. They will also consider alpaca, llama, mohair and angora. For pricing and fiber quality questions, or if you have more that 250 lbs. of fiber to sell, contact Lindsey at (207) 683-2251. If you would like to sell your fiber at the wool pool, contact Mary Lake of the VSGA to let her know how much you will be bringing. Mary can be reached at (802) 338-2250 or mary.m.lake@gmail.com.

With this new buyer comes some changes. Click here to read the flier from Bartlett Yarns. Bartlett Yarns asks that producers label all bags, both inside and outside with your name, address, phone number and email address. Wool should be sorted as follows: White Face; Black Face/White Wool; and Colored. And, wool from the following breeds is not accepted: Barbados Blackbelly, California Red, Icelandic, Karakul, Katahdin, Navajo Churo, Romanov, and St. Crois.

Bartlett Yarns will also not accept bellie wool, tags, wet, moldy, mildewy wool. Wool which is infested with insects or insect eggs or that smells of mothballs is not accepted.
Skirting fleeces is highly recommended if not required to insure the removal of manure tags, vegetable contamination, paint, polyproylene twine, jute, burlap, plastic thread from feed bags, baler twine, etc. In addition, contamination lowers the yield or useful quality of the wool clip. Bartlett Yarns cannot accept wool which includes burdock or cockleburs, paint, dirt, chaff or shavings.

As always, fiber should be packed so that it can “breathe.” Plastic bags used to store wool should be left untied so they do not harbor moisture and mold. And, fiber should be stored where bugs and animals will not infest it.

The wool pool can be a great way to sell fiber quickly and easily. Another great venue for high quality and/or unique hand-spinning or crafting fleeces is the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival Fleece Show and Sale. Click here to learn more about the show and sale.