This Leicester Longwool fleece is lovely – but did suffer from yolk as you can see in the raw lock. Felting requires moisture, heat, and agitation of the wool. Anyway, the procedure: 1. Hi Heather. January 2018 Submerge mohair and make sure it is completely saturated under the water and loosely floating within the water. It does not damage the fleece, though it does tint it yellow, and can be overdyed. For really greasy fleece I repeat this step again. Actually for most fleeces, the water does not have to be that hot, and th. Leave the washed or teased fleece to dry in warm airy space or in sunlight if not too windy. November 2018 Pieces of wool can be placed in mesh laundry bags to prevent them from breaking apart. Raw Wool. Do not mess with the fiber or agitate it after it’s wet. Overnight Soak. I am now using Unicorn Power Scour because the water doesn't have to be any hotter than 140 degrees and it doesn't completely strip the wool of its natural protection, leaving it softer and silkier.Depending on how dirty and greasy the wool is, I may wash it 2-3 times. April 2016 Believe me the water will be brown. I've not used as much Targhee as I'd like, but this year, wanting something not quite so fine as Cormo and being perennially curious about fleece, I tried  the Debouillet /Targhee X. September 2015 If your fleece has a lot of vegetable matter, it will need additional processing (picking, carding) to become fully clean. Remove from the water, squeeze gently – do not wring. We recommend skirting your wool, removing tags, and vegetable matter. Up to 1 lb raw fleece per batch at a time (suggested), Unicorn Power Scour (or similar wool-formulated detergent), Large tub or basin to fit in kitchen sink (recommended), Mesh bags or extra large strainer (optional), Sink drain filter to catch runaway fiber (optional). Believe me the water will be brown. Just need to find it. This looks like a do-able, reasonable method for me! :) In Part 1 of this guide to processing raw fleece at home, we looked at how to tackle a mound of satisfyingly sheepy raw wool- from sorting to cleaning to drying. October 2017 Scour your Raw Fleece 1. As you can see, the breed selection has grown since then and I've made some lovely yarn with Polworth and a couple of massive and open Debouillet fleeces too. November 2015 Here are two ways that fleece can be cleaned: 1. All images and content © 2020 222 Handspun. One wash in Power Scour Two washes in Power Scour 2 Washes and 2 rinses. Processing Wool: Step one, Cleaning raw sheep's fleece The total skirting and washing process takes me about 6 hours for a large fleece like this one. I use a generous amount (around 2 Tbl of Power Scour per lb of fleece) because I have hard water. Once dry, however,  it is simply lovely -- open, clean, easy to work with, never harsh or ';stripped'  feeling, which can happen with some detergents. Leaving the grease in the wool will make it difficult to dye later, and the grease can also ruin the carding cloth on a drumcarder. Put a dollop of scouring fluid in a container. Once washing and preparing the fleece ceases to seem like a big deal, you  are free to explore obscure breeds and crosses and fine out how the qualities of the fleece may effect your work--be it knitting or needlework or tapestry, or ... Oops -- And one more thing: though I am super happy to clean dirt and mud from fleeces, esp range fleeces like these,  I draw the line at gloppy manure tags, burrs and excessive Vegetable Matter. Things To Wear Hand Spinning It's pretty good here in the summer on a warm sunny day, but those aren't always predictable. I have used many different products for washing raw fleeces over the years. As you can see, these are range sheep -- no fleece covers, no pampering, but rather a life on the Montana Prairie that leads to some seriously lovely fine fleeces. So for my bathful I calculated 80ml, about the same quantity that I'd have used of Power Scour. Dip the fleece into the soapy water carefully, don't agitate it too much and then let it drain without squeezing it too much. April 2018 After the Dawn-washed fleece was dry, I set out to wash the remaining half of the fleece in Kookaburra Woolscour. Yolk on the other hand is wool grease that may discolor to yellow. Tips and Tutorials Elysa Darling October 10, 2018 raw fleece, scouring, wool, fiber, fiber prep, washing wool, Unicorn Power Scour, demo, demonstration, tutorial, how-to, Scour raw fleece Comment. Then the strips go into a washtub with VERY hot water (hot tap water with a kettle of boiling water poured in) with a huge bunch of Dawn dish liquid mixed in. If your fleece is very, very, very dirty you can always soak it overnight in cool water before washing. Freshly washed fleece on a trivet over my gas heater for quick drying because I can hardly wait to get my hands on it! Jan 4, 2015 - Cleaning wool for needlefelting is time consuming, but well worth the effort as you can prepare your wool the exact way you want it, and you may be able to save a couple bucks along the way. Die hard weavers and knitters sometimes prepare and process their own raw wool fleece to make yarn. But this stuff works so much better! December 2015 Digital thermometer (not for food). Books Good luck with the the exhibition! Squeeze bags of fleece again, unroll and immerse in fresh hot scour water. Do not squish the fleece or attempt to wring the water out. September 2020 Close the lid and let the fleece soak for about 45 minutes. Follow these instructions to avoid felting your wool. You can add hotter water, but not colder water to wet wool. I’m happiest choosing the fiber prep based on my mood and the project: commercial top sometimes, raw fleece other times. Putting it in net bags will help. You don’t need a lot of suds to get it clean, so don’t worry about that. 5 gal+ buckets. But here are some photos of the raw fleece, e Kookaburra container doesn't talk about the temp of the water, but. 8. Raw Fleece Processing Step Two: Washing Washing bins filled with hot water, Unicorn Power Scour and fleece filled laundry bags. A major proportion of the wools requiring carbonising are from Australia and South Africa. I've avoided Kookaburra in the past because I'd heard the scent was fairly strong (I have asthma, and a lot of fragrances cause problems for me) but I just looked at their site and it seems they do have an unscented one now. July 2017 Add 1 TSP of Soap and sit 10 more minutes. Skirt edges of fleece by removing large tangles and heavily soiled fleece. Rinse The Wool. If it thunks or you hear tearing, that is tender and should be avoided. This will wash out when you scour the fleece. September 2016 For fleece with a very high grease/lanolin content you may want to ad into that first soap soak 2/3 cup of soda ash to the wash load. Textile Tools Continue to rinse and repeat until the water runs clear. I agree that in some fleeces, a little grease in the locks feels good, but it drives me nuts when working with very find fleeces which only seem to get stiff and hard to work with. Spin the water out of fleece. Cellulosic Experiments Fill a bath or large bowl with hot water (not boiling) . Wool grease can develop a distinctive smell and gum up modern spinning equipment that is made for clean wool. To scour wool, fill a bowl with warm water (between 50 and 60 C), add some soap or washing up liquid and leave the wool to soak for two hours or overnight. Add 1 - 3 tablespoons of salt to the water. I soak the wool in the hot water and scour for at least 15 minutes. For alpaca and non-greasy fleece you can use less than the initial soak (about half). Just bought kookaburra at NorthEast Fiber in Williston VT. Haven't used it yet so appreciate your comments, Sarah. Tapestry Washing fleece has often been put off because of the multiple buckets and rinses. If your wool or yarn feels exceptionally greasy or dirty, use up to 5% WOF. Sarah, you 've peaked my curiosity out on the boiling water and add water... Re-Discovery of post cards you sent many years ago while searching for knitting how to scour raw fleece with Hannah centrifugal laundry to! 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