Fleece enhancements include washing, artificially enhancing or trimming and blocking.  Moth and pest control are not considered an enhancement and might include cedar blocks, dryer sheets or fiber sachets.

Recipe for fiber sachet

• 6 T Lavender - dried (or Pennyroyal, tansy or red cedar chips)
• 2 T Chammomile flowers
• 1 T crumbled bay leaves
• 1 T ground cloves
• 2 crushed cinnamon sticks (or 3 T ground cinnamon)
• 1 tsp orris root powder
• 1 T salt

Store in an airtight container, shaking once a day for a week.  Use 2 tsp for each sachet.

Shorn fleece competitions are becoming more popular and are a great way to put your fleece in front of a judge without the stress on your animals. They are easy to enter when you can send your fleece to be shown without attending the event. The disadvantage of that is you will not have the benefit of hearing the judge's comments. Entering fleece competitions also requires changes in your marketing strategy if you hope to contact buyers at the events by allowing them to see your animals.

Skirting a fleece properly is critical to the end result. A poor quality fleece cannot win a blue ribbon, but a great fleece that is not properly skirted can lose valuable points in the competition. The fleece is compared against the highest standard and quality fleece that could be produced - the ideal fleece that could have a perfect score of 100. Your fleece is not judged against others and it is judged anonymously. What can you do to have the distinct advantage over others?

Your skirting table can take on many configurations - but it needs to work for you. Talk to people about their table and what they do and do not like. Basic features should include:

• Workable height that allows you to skirt the fleece without stress on your back;
• Placed in a space large enough so you can move around the table with ease;
• Easy to clean between turns and between fleeces.

When you shear your animals, ask the shearer to remove the blanket as a "show blanket". Even if you dont plan to enter, it is good practice to use blankets that you can practice with until you are comfortable identifying the characteristics of fibers that need to be skirted.

The AOBA Show Rules book is your guide for skirting properly. Fleece judging rules are based on what the mills can use in production. The rules including those for length requirement and second cuts are determined because of problems it would cause in production. Distribution of 100 points varies for Huacaya and Suri but is based on the following characteristics:

• Fineness and Handle
• Uniformity of micron, length and color
• Character and Style
• Brightness (Huacaya) or luster (Suri)
• Lack of medulation
• Lack of impurities/stains/fleece damage
• Clean Fleece annualized weight

4. Improve your score.

Skirt your fleece considering where you might gain or lose points.  For example, if you have 5.2 lbs. Huacaya fleece with secnd cuts, debris removed = 19 points.  IF you skirt 1.2 lbs. off, fleece might only lose 4 points for weight and gain in other areas:

• Remove shorter neck fiber and inconsistent apron, arm pit and belly fibers - gain 4 to 6 points for uniformity of micron AND length AND result in more consistent crimp = additional 2 to 4 points!  Minus 4 points (weight after skirted an additional 1.2 lbs.)  Plus 6 to 10 points (uniformity of micron, length and consistency of crimp) = an additional 2 to 6 points!

Continue to improve score

• Remove colored spots and save 2 to 4 points
• Remove major medulation and save 2 to 3 points
• Remove back top line of impurities and save 2 to 3 points.  Minus 4 points (weight after skirted an additional 1.2 lbs.)  Plus 12 to 20 points in other areas = WINNING FLEECE!

After all characteristics are tallied, a pretty fleece wiht great character and very little fleece might not win, a very heavy fleece with no style might not win. 

Proper skirting of your fleece is critical!