Purl, Interrupted

developments

I've gotten so much helpful advice from the folks at Spindlers. Finally decided to take the plunge and wash one of my new fleeces -- a white shetland-cross lamb. In retrospect, I should've started with one that was skirted (some of mine are, some not). I think I definitely didn't do enough sorting/skirting (e.g. much at all!) before starting to wash it. Nonetheless, I think it turned out pretty well. It's still drying, so I won't really know until I have the chance to spin it, but here's what I did:

(Sadly, I didn't take photos, which I will do next time. I think I was too nervous!)

I sorted the fleece into mesh laundry bags, and, with about half of what I had, ran it through 3 or 4 soaks in soapy lukewarm water. I used Seventh Generation lavendar dish soap. Smells purty.

My only real problem was that as it turns out, one of my washer settings doesn't give you warm water even when it's set on warm, so the very first rinse was just cold water. I was worried I'd have a felting problem, so once I took it out of the first soak I waited a little while for the temp to normalize before doing the second soak. (As I said, the fleece is still wet so it's hard to tell, but I'm pretty sure it didn't felt.)

After the initial problem with the water temps I figured out the washer a little better. I also discovered I could cut my time in two by using the sink next to the washer to do a soak while the washer was draining/filling back up. So I did three clear water soaks to rinse the soap out, and by the end the soaking water was pretty much clear.

I repeated this all with the other 1/2 of the fleece, and spread it all out to dry on big rubbermaid container lids.

I did this all at night so left it out to dry in the living room overnight. When I got home from work today I set it out in the sun for a while, but then it got too windy so I took it back inside (good thing, too, since then it started to pour!). It's still al ittle damp so I'm going to ask Mr. Purl,Interrupted to set it out in the sun tomorrow.

Anyway, it looks a lot better (and brighter) than it did when I started. Because I didn't clean it well enough up front there are still a few sections that have little bits of grass and stuff in them. Hoping it'll come out when I comb it.

Speaking of combing, I bought a dog comb at the pet store to try flicking open the ends of the fleece. I tried this with one of the skirted white shetland purebred fleeces and it seemed to work well, although of course your finish product looks like big balls of hair instead of, say, roving. Again, I'll have to wait til Suzie gets here and see whether it spins.

I've gotten so much conflicting advice about carding/combing. One person on Spindlers recommended getting a hackle as a good way to process fiber without killing your joints. Then I can do color blending, too..... But I really still want a drum carder. Hmmmm.

Posted by cmandala at July 27, 2005 10:56 PM