Washing Fleece

Yesterday was my first fleece washing day.
I started with Smiley's fleece.

Her fleece was easy to separate into white and black with a little left as a gray mixture. 

It's soft and crimpy.  I think that's good but I don't really know.

I've never done this before and I haven't wanted to ruin it, so I have been putting it off.  But next week I am going for my second spinning lesson and she told me to bring some washed fleece along so I could spin yarn from my own sheep.  So, you see, it had to be done!

The instructions from The Joy of Handspinning seem easy enough.  I guess the trick is to not aggravate agitate the fleece at all.  If you do, you will have felt!

 

First you have to have HOT water.  Add enough Dawn detergent to make the water seem slippery. 

Place wool in mesh laundry bags. 

Submerge in hot soapy water and let it soak for 30 minutes.

Drain (nasty, greasy) water and re-fill sink with same temperature water. Try not to handle the fleece too much (how much is too much, though?) And don't run water over fleece! Dunk fleece to rinse.

Rinse. Drain. Refill. Repeat.  I don't know, Is that enough rinsing?   (I did three.) 

Add a couple tablespoons of vinegar to last rinse. 

Lay out to dry on towels.  Don't ring it... squeeze it... mess with it.  (This is really hard for me!)

I don't know.  Seems a lot cleaner.  Still some vegetable matter (grass & hay) in there but I assume it will come out in carding. 

It should be fun to spin some of our own wool.

Smiley's wool makes me smile!