Fleece cleaning

So after a very hot work out at the gym and a coffee at Waterstones I came home to wash my fleece.  As I said earlier it is unbelievably hot today so getting it dry should not be a problem.

I have never bought or washed fleece before and a few weeks ago I went to Cotswold Farm Park for a day out.  It just so happened that they had a sheep shearing demonstration going on and they were selling the fleeces that they sheared.  I decided I'd like the Castlemilk Moorit fleece as it was brown.  I am sure there are far more technical ways of choosing a fleece, but as yet I don't know them.  Trial and error is an interesting way to learn.  Also it was very cheap, £3 for a potato sack of fleece.  When I got home I read about and watched many videos on how to wash a fleece, I decided to go for the hand wash method as it is less likely to felt.

So first of all here is the unwashed 'raw' fleece.  It is extremely greasy which is why I kept a bit to make a pin cushion.  Apparently the lanolin will keep needles and pins in good condition.  Not only is it full of lanolin it also just has lots and lots of dirt in it, so it's got to come out.

 To stop the fleece from taking over the bath I put it in a washing net.  I filled the bath with hot, hot, HOT water and just a little detergent.  I placed the bag in the bath and then I just left it.  Within seconds the water was changing colour to a lovely shade of mud.

 I left the fleece in the water for 10 minutes and then changed the water.  This is what came out after the first soak!

 This after the second soak.

 This was it during the third soak with no detergent.  Each time it was soaked in the hottest water possible and just left there, no agitation, no scrubbing.

Then I put it outside to dry (still in the net bag) sopping wet and then went off to wash another bag load.

It has reached 30 degrees C here today so the fleece did not take long to dry.

The next thing to do will be to card the fleece, which I'll do when I get my carders this week.