So... a few people have been asking me about preparing fleece, and how I do it. There's loads written about this subject and there's loads of ways of doing it, but here's mine. I recently came by a whole Texel fleece via a friend who got it at The Threshing Barn down in Leek. It was a nice fleece, clean and tidy without loads of straw (or worse) in it, but very very greasy.
It's a good idea to spread out a new fleece and inspect it as soon as you get it, then you can decide how to store it before you get round to preparation. Air and dryness are critical, paper or net bags inside a loose open cardboard box is how I keep mine. In the shed, I should add, because raw fleece can be a bit pongy. I like the smell of sheep but it's not to everyone's taste!
This shows a few individual locks in the state they would have been the day the sheep was shorn. Not exactly snow white, and the tips are quite matted up. This time, I decided to use rain water for an initial soak since this Summer has brought a plentiful supply so far. We collect ours in two big butts from the shed roof. Two soaks overnight with rinses in between and the water was still filthy. The fleece was improving, but I decided to get a bit more aggressive. Some people use a fermented method, i.e. leaving the fleece in the first water for several days and using natural bacteria to break down the lanolin and yicky stuff. I'm tempted to try this when I've got a fleece I'm not too bothered about, but for this one I stuck to my usual method but on a much grander scale.
Up to now I've washed bits of fleece in an old tray, wrapping the locks in an old pillow case, adding lots of hot water and a bit of detergent and leaving it to soak for a short while, then rinsing in hot water. Thermal shock and agitation are the causes of felting, so as long as the fibre is allowed to get hot and stay hot without being stirred, rubbed or wrung, it'll be fine in very hot water. You need to use ultra hot water if you want to dissolve the lanolin and spin non-greasy fleece, so hot that you have to wear gloves. Actually it's a good idea to wear gloves anyway because sheep-dip isn't particularly healthy for humans and there might be residues in the fleece.
Sorry about these two rubbishy pictures, they're from just before the old camera died but you get the idea. The two-colour fleece is exactly how it would have been on its owner, a Jacob. I'm knitting some of that fleece up into a pair of stripey (stripy?) socks at the moment. Who needs dyeing when there are such funky sheep around?
So, using two big garden trugs and pouring the old water down the outside grid, I could get to grips with the whole Texel fleece in one go. Lots and lots of hot water, and about half a teaspoon of Fairy Liquid (other detergents are available but I actually do think this one works best) and a hot soak. I put the second trug over the top to make a lid to keep the heat in, and the curious cat out.
After three goes like that, the fleece was substantially cleaner and I rigged up a drying system in the ginnel using an old cot cat-net.
It took forever to dry, and in the end I resorted to splitting it into net storage bags and arranging them around the house to dry. At the moment I've carded about a fifth of it and have started spinning some. It's still very greasy but that's actually making it lovely to spin. The plan will be to hot-wash the skeins before knitting it up. I'm tempted to dye some as well, since there's so much of it, but I've got to be good and get the next couple of patterns released to Ravelry before I do. Here's a sneaky peek at one...
