[Fleecewife]

I would wash it in plain cold water, preferably rain water, so most of the muck comes out but none of the lanolin. I just dunk it gently in a large container of water, leave it to soak for 10 mins, then haul it back out, squeeze and leave to dry outside on a mesh rack.  The drawback is that after just a cold wash your wheel can get a bit greasy, but easy enough to clean.  But if your sheep are clean anyway then no need to wash.  How you prep the fleece after that depends on the breed and how open the fleece is.  There's an Ashford video where they bring in a new fleece, dump it in a pile and start spinning    I've so rarely had a whole fleece I could do that with, although some of my fleeces have parts which are lovely and open and can be spun immediately.

I love smelling like a sheep when it rains   

[SallyintNorth]

A lot of Shetland fleece is perfectly usable without using soap; there's not so much grease it causes any problems.  Some breeds have greasier fleece, and it can cause issues with carding.  (As well as making the drum carder rather mucky.  Don't card greasy fleece on a drum carder you also use for glitter...  )

One thing I have found is that, as it requires very hot (too hot for your hand) water to really shift grease, you can wash fleece with some soap (I use Ecover washing-up liquid) in not-quite-hand-hot water, which cleans up any dirt that remains after the cold soak (which I always do first, whether I'll be washing with soap or not) but leaves most if not all the grease in place.

(The above is not true if you use Power Scour, by the way; it can shift the grease at lower temperatures.)

And another tip is to process your greasy fleece in the warm - either on a warm summer's day, or next to the fire on a winter's day.  If it's cold, the grease can be a bit solid, and make it quite difficult to work the fleece.

If you're making something you want to be waterproof, you would also wash the yarn with only a little soap and not too hot.  Otherwise, wash the yarn in very hot very soapy water to remove the grease at this stage - I love the way the yarn blooms and whitens when you wash the grease out!  It helps to make a very soft lofty yarn, but you do need quite a bit of soap and extremely hot water to get all the grease to dissolve and leave the yarn.


At Shetland Wool Week, Deborah Grey was doing workshops on fleece prep and spindle spinning.  She'd selected the fleeces from Jamieson & Smiths, and was using them straight from the warehouse.  They were lovely

[Dans]

wow. That is wonderful Sally. I'm still getting to grips with spinning but would love to one day have a jumper from wool I have worked myself. Well done!

Dans

[Mad Goatwoman of Madeley]

When my ex and I had our spinning and weaving workshop, he always used unwashed fleece for spinning. It would be washed once plied and then I would weave or knit it, then the garment would be washed. I always used warm water with a couple of squirts of washing up liquid, rinsed well in warm water and used the washing machine to spin most of the water out. Skeins would be hung and weighted, garments would go on the line, folded over it for big jumpers.


The garments still held a degree of waterproofing, a good selling point when people came in off the nearby golf course on a wet, wet day.


Now I'm spinning, I plan on doing the same unless I decide to dye anything.

[madcat]

That is a wonderful warm cosy looking jumper, congratulations for making such a lovely item .

The biggest thing I've made so far is a bag. I'm tentatively spinning with a jumper in mind but it will take me some time yet

[SallyintNorth]

That is a wonderful warm cosy looking jumper, congratulations for making such a lovely item .

The biggest thing I've made so far is a bag. I'm tentatively spinning with a jumper in mind but it will take me some time yet

Thanks madcat.  This one took me 2 and a half years, start to finish.  Mind, there was a hiatus of about a year when I didn't work on it at all, then I frogged it and finished it in a month!

Currently am knitting the next jumper, in Polwarth / Corriedale, so a much finer yarn.  The spinning took about a year (off and on, of course) and the knitting will take a while too!

[JFisherGreenlea]

Well done Sally... it looks lovely and I like the colour a lot. What's your next project with your own fleeces then??

[SallyintNorth]

Well done Sally... it looks lovely and I like the colour a lot. What's your next project with your own fleeces then??

Thanks Joanne

What to do next with my own fleeces...     May well involve a loom... 

[JFisherGreenlea]

I'd be interested in that with my fleeces too Sally. Never explored looms in detail yet for the fear of having to make more lovely purchases and my house being taken over by crafty items. I'd love to know more as really keen to explore the different ways our own lovely wool can be used. At this rate I'll never want to sell any..... may need to buy more sheep instead, lol x

[SallyintNorth]

I'd be interested in that with my fleeces too Sally. Never explored looms in detail yet for the fear of having to make more lovely purchases and my house being taken over by crafty items.

Resistance is futile.. 

I'd love to know more as really keen to explore the different ways our own lovely wool can be used. At this rate I'll never want to sell any..... may need to buy more sheep instead, lol x

I cannot speak to this; how did I suddenly have 30 wee sheep in my fleece flock?   

Of course, the other rathole is other kinds of fleece; we don't have to own all the sheep, we can swap fleeces and buy and sell fleeces...