Author: denisemor

Fleece Characteristics

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The qualities in the fleece you select will, to some degree impact the way you’ll need to process it.

—Greasiness:

High-grease fleeces will require washing at higher temps, and perhaps multiple washes.

—Length:
Very long fleeces are not suitable to be carded (unless they are cut). Better to use combs or flick card. Very short fibers cannot be combed very effectively. Best to card (hand or drum).
Variety of Fleece Types and Lengths
Variety of Fleece Types and Lengths
—Color:
If multicolored, do you want to blend for uniform color, or preserve the different shades?
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Vegetable Matter (VM, veg):
Some veg may be removed via hand-picking, but you’ll get best result from combing.
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Discoloration:
Can skirt out of fleece, or dye the wool.
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Matted or weak tips:
Will require trimming of affected areas.

Shearing

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Eifon Shearing
Eifon Shearing
If you want to either use your wool for hand spinning or market it to others for that purpose, you should make sure your shearer understands your goals.
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Some shearers are all about speed, and just getting the wool off. You want someone who is going to preserve the quality of the wool while it’s being removed. This means: minimal second cuts, keeping the fleece in one piece (if it may be judged).
Coco's fleece unwashed outside view
Coco’s fleece, unwashed, outside view

Skirting and Sorting

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—Remove any kemp and/or hairy fiber, dung tags, matted wool, second cuts, wool less than 1.5 in length (you’re probably not going to want to spin anything shorter than that).
—Sort the remainder into categories (good, better, best). You will probably want to use these different grades of wool for different things.
Raw Multicolor Fleece, inside view
Raw Multicolor Fleece, inside view

Washing Options

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—Cold Water bath.
  • Effective at releasing dirt.
  • Will not remove lanolin. Much like leaving wool out to be washed by rainwater.
  • If a fleece is really dirty, this is sometimes a good pre-wash.
Fermented Suint Bath:
  • same cold water bath used over many times.
  • Fermented suint substance from the wool in previous baths takes on detergent-like role in degreasing and cleaning fiber.
  • —Very stinky
  • —May spoil in hot weather.
  • —If the bath is very strong, may damage fibers if left in too long.
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Hot Water (loose, in bags, or layered)
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  • —How to organize wool for washing? Range of techniques from “not at all” to “carefully placing individual locks into little bundles”
  • —Water Temp? 120-140 (some say hotter)
  • —Cleanser?  dishwashing soap (nothing with bleach or enzymes, though), wool wash, Orvis paste? Many specialty products out there for washing wool, but they can be significantly more expensive.
  • Never use anything with bleach in it on wool. Bleach will DISSOLVE wool.