Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Fleece in a bag


Fleece in a bag
Originally uploaded by thechickswithsticks.

This is the start of how I washed my fleece tonight.

Hubby was out, the kids were sleeping and this fleece needed washing.



"Elsie" is the name of the sheep the fleece came from.
Here's a link to a picture of her on the farm.

So I gathered all my materials:


Bagged up the fleece:

*the only part that I didn't put in the bags is that little bit of fluff in the front. It's, um "tags" from the fleece (poopies) that I didn't' think I needed.

So, I filled the washer with HOT water, put some Dawn in (not to make bubbles, just to clean) and let it soak for 45 minutes.
Drained/spun dry, took the bags out and filled the washer again.
*you don't' want to have the fleece in the washer with water pouring on it, or it can felt*

Another soak for 30 minutes and it looked like this:

It's hard to see, but the water is only a little bit murky.
Drain/spin.

A rinse in HOT water with about a 1/2-1 cup of vinegar.
Spin dry
1 more rinse and now I'm done!!

I've left it hanging up down stairs as it was rainy here today and I don't' want the fleece to get rained on.
It actually smells just like wool now--the barnyard stink has been washed away--well, it's in my washing machine, but that's to deal with tomorrow.

I will post a picture when it's drying and when it's dry.
It's soft already.

There is still a bit of VM (Vegetable matter) in it so I will have to do some picking.

I have spinning day tomorrow and I'll ask about processing it.
(I know that I can get hand carders and I can use dog combs, but i want to get some advice)

So, more progress pictures to come.

Oh, and I finished spinning the "biffle" (Dyed BFL) and have started on some Alpaca that I got from a lady at the Spinning Guild--I might spin it tomorrow to let her see.

I'm off to bed--it's WAY too late...

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