[Sunnybank]

Hi everyone,
More advice please - how do you store fleece???
One of my shetlands decided to shed half her fleece today and i would like to know the best way to keep it,  - at the moment it is in hubbys workshop but need to sort storage soon
Many thanks

[woollyval]

Fleece must be stored in breathable sacks...mesh or paper and kept where moths cannot access it, never in bin liners! Washed and dried fleece CAN be kept in bin liners!!!

[Brucklay]

cotton pillow cases? would they be ok?

[woollyval]

Cotton pillowcases are fine...but the grease will soak through a bit!

[FiB]

Ahh!!!  .....and what if you were given some unwashed etc fleece a year ago in a bin bag and it is still sitting in your shed???   Not used it cause it looks rubbish...  what will have happened to it stored incorrectly and any top ideas for 'spoilt' fleece?  Pillowcases at the ready for my first shearing in 2 weeks eeekkk, I can hardly wait. 

[jaykay]

Another critical thing is to keep it somewhere of even temperature, otherwise the heating and cooling can felt it a bit.

[woollyval]

Old and grotty fleeces can be used for lining hanging baskets, mulching veg, keeping slugs at bay, in the bottom of the bean trench.....lots and lots of uses!

[Fleecewife]

Ahh!!!  .....and what if you were given some unwashed etc fleece a year ago in a bin bag and it is still sitting in your shed???   Not used it cause it looks rubbish...  what will have happened to it stored incorrectly and any top ideas for 'spoilt' fleece?  Pillowcases at the ready for my first shearing in 2 weeks eeekkk, I can hardly wait.

Ooh lots of things will have been going on in that bin bag  It certainly will not have improved in quality over the past year.  Unskirted fleece is the worst thing to store - all those poopy bits will contaminate the rest of the fleece.  The lanolin will have 'set' ie become hard and the wool will be compacted - completely unnapetising. If there have been any holes in the bag, then the clothes moths will have got in and their larvae will have had a great old time eating their way through the wool, hatching out and laying another generation.  If the bag has been lying on the floor you may well have nests of mice or insects in it.  If it has been stored damp, or if the bag has caused the fleece to sweat, then the wool itself will have started to rot.
If you suspect moths have got in, burn it because just opening the bag will release a cloud of moths and they will get to your new clip.
I store my fleece in new woven polypropylene sacks, tied tightly at the top, checked for any holes, then hung up in a dry barn with some air circulation, but out of the sun - sun will heat up the fleece and will also destroy woven polypropylene, which is photodegradable.  Storing on the floor is a bad move, leaving fleece in a sack which has a hole in is a bad move and as everyone has said, storing in plastic bags is a definite no-no unless you have washed the fleece.  Moth will still get to washed fleece, but you can seal it in plastic bags to keep the horrible, wretched, nuisancy things out.

[Pedwardine]

I second that Fleecewife. I use the tight weave green sacks used for packing carrots (clean obviously) etc. All hung from rafters in my barn and no moth problems in last three years.
If you don't have a barn I have wondered if those open clothes rails(self assembly jobs that have always collapsed with the weight of my apparel) would do the job.
I do have a friend who uses those storage bags that you suck all the air out of with a hoover however. She has a huge amount of fleece, quite an addict really so she has to cram quite alot in a Victorian semi! She's had no problems with rotting or moths or anything though i suspect she only does this with fleeces she's picked over for nasty bits. I wonder if the lack of air make a difference with potential beastie infestations?

[Fleecewife]

Well, if you are vacuum packing the fleece then no beasties could get in anyway, but I suspect that if you had accidentally trapped a clothes moth in the bag it would happily live on the small amount of air left long enough to do some damage.  I don't think the larvae need a lot of oxygen.  I had heard that you can kill moths by putting them in the freezer but apparently it doesn't actually work.  Maybe the microwave method does, but it would take me forever to put all the bagsful I have through my microwave 
I wouldn't store unwashed fleece for any length of time in a vacuum bag, but they are great for sending through the post, or taking through customs.  I like to have air circulating around my fleeces when they are in storage.  I have a large number of fleece sacks waiting to be dealt with - it looks as if this year will be the year  so I will know just how long fleece can be stored with my method.  Some of those fleeces have been there for ten years and are destined for rug weaving - or the bonfire if they are rubbish 
If you don't have a barn but you have a spare room and you are not too fussy about holes in the ceiling, you could hang a broom handle from two giant hooks and hang the sacks from that, as long as the sun didn't reach them, and the room was aired regularly.  But they would smell, so easiest I find to wash as many as possible before storage.

[Lyn]

Hi everyone...I know this is an old one!  But...I am due to move house and have ...probably 30 raw fleeces!  I am moving from a farm, which we have now sold, so REALLY need these fleeces!  I guess I do need to sort them...but how can I store them to maintain their condition please?  We would have a large garden shed (very large) or seemingly dry garage...any ideas please?  I do have some huge bags similar to the Wool marketing ones..but they do seem to have plastic coating....

thank you!!  Lyn.