Please let me know if I'm going to mess up this wool/fleece

I've got the raw wool from two sheep from a friend of a friend who has them as pets. This is their first shearing and she didn't want the wool. We would like to get sheep in a few years so I thought this would be a good time to try out messing around with some wool.

This won't cost me anything but my time but of course now I'm overthinking things and worried I'm going to ruin it.

Please correct me if any of this is wrong:

*Warm up water in a tub or sink until it is as hot as my hand can stand it. Dissolve a tsp of dish soap (not making any suds).

*Put a part of the fleece into a mesh bag and gently submerge it in the water and let soak for 20? minutes.

*Take it out, drain and replace the water, and soak again to rinse.

*Repeat until the water is clear.

*Hang the fleece to dry.

*Once it's dry, pick out the bits of detritus. (I watched r ranson's  video about willowing and that looks fun to try.)

And that's about as far as I've gotten in my watching YouTube and reading online. Once we've gotten that far, I figure my kids and I will give a lot of things a try and see if there is any skill we really love and want to develop. We have a drop spindle and I also want to try felting a hat and needle felting.

Anyway, how's my plan sound? Am I missing anything? Is there a time limit with raw fleece, like it's it going to "go bad"? And am I using the word fleece correctly? I know it also means when the wool is attached to a hide, right? Forgive my silly questions and TIA! 😁

The only thing I'd change is the 'hang to dry'. It won't ruin it (I'm assuming you mean hanging the bag), but will dry better if you spread it out, on a drying rack.  Hung, it will all wad up in the bottom of the bag and take forever to dry. Ok. Not *really* forever, but it will feel like it, and it will be more likely to mold/ mildew.

I'm a novice spinner, but I agree with Carla. I would also add that you may want to consider something like Unicorn Fibre Power Scour (https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B005KG7SVS/) or Orvus WA Paste (https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B004M5MGNI/) instead of dish soap - or after this initial trial with dish soap, if you decide that you want to invest in a specific product for fleece. Both these products have good reputations among spinners.

Juniper Zen wrote:I'm a novice spinner, but I agree with Carla. I would also add that you may want to consider something like Unicorn Fibre Power Scour (https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B005KG7SVS/) or Orvus WA Paste (https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B004M5MGNI/) instead of dish soap - or after this initial trial with dish soap, if you decide that you want to invest in a specific product for fleece. Both these products have good reputations among spinners.

Are those products more effective, more gentle? Does it affect the final product or just the process? Thanks!

Juniper I read the Amazon reviews and descriptions and (after getting over the sticker shock 💲💲!), they look like amazing products that I could use for other things too, like my cloth diapers, so I could get use out of them even if these are the only fleece I ever clean. Which do you prefer?

I've only cleaned two fleeces, but in my experience it took more than 1t of soap (blue Dawn) and more than one soaping. I have even had to go in with my fingers and agitate out especially greasy blobs at the risk of felting. Otherwise, my process was what you described.

I found cleaning to be long, messy work (though our new house is better set up for it, so I'll look forward to my next one) but it's incredibly fulfilling to take a fleece from sheep to sweater.

I know r ranson uses the Orvus. I use dawn, when I use this method.

And... there is another way.  Using the suint method is more water friendly, and less labor intensive - but a bit slower. I have a local friend who uses this method, with amazing results, and her wool comes out very soft, and sweet smelling (which is not what I'd expected, at all!). Suint is a fermentation method. After skirting, the whole fleece goes into a tub of rain water or well water (if you can get it very warm, but not boiling - just where you can stand it - that's great, I can't, so just used it from the hose that had been sitting in the sun) water, outside, in the heat of summer (90°s & up is best, as it will take a bit longer, at lower temps). Using municipal tap water will permanently stain the fiber. Cover it with a screen, to keep bugs out, and walk away for a week - the first time. After a week,  take the fleece out - but don't dump the stinky liquid, gently press out all the water you can, and rinse it in a fresh tub of water, using the least water you can get away with, until the water runs clean.

The reason you don't dump the first tub, is because it works as a starter for the next one, and each subsequent fleece will take a bit less time, until it will be down to 3 or 4 days, for the ferment to do its thing. This is not something you'll want to do next to your house, or a path you walk more than a few times per day, because it gets... ehhh... ripe, before it mellows. But, it doesn't get much easier or cheaper, because the lanolin actually saponifies, and becomes the 'soap' that cleans the fleece.

Carla Burke wrote:
The reason you don't dump the first tub, is because it works as a starter for the next one, and each subsequent fleece will take a bit less time, until it will be down to 3 or 4 days, for the ferment to do its thing. This is not something you'll want to do next to your house, or a path you walk more than a few times per day, because it gets... ehhh... ripe, before it mellows. But, it doesn't get much easier or cheaper, because the lanolin actually saponifies, and becomes the 'soap' that cleans the fleece.

Ok, that is really cool! 🤔 I don't have a set up where I can leave water in a tub for that long but maybe in the future. That's really interesting how that would work.

So I finally had a day free to dedicate to washing one of the fleece. It's almost midnight and I still don't feel positive that it's clean.

I have it laid out on a drying rack anyway because I'm not going to have time to even look at it for the next few days. Please can you tell me what I should do next?

I decided to start with my gray fleece; well, it's mostly gray, kind of silvery but also has midnight black strands and white strands too. There are parts that also look reddish brown but I'm not sure if that is just staining on the white part of the wool. Also I got the impression this was the first time these sheep have been sheered so does wool change color as the sheep matures? I don't have details because I was gifted the fleece through a friend of a friend. They weren't sheered until late summer which seems odd to me.

Maybe I should have started with the all white one since it looked cleaner and would have been easier to see the difference in the wool at the end- the wool looks white and the dirt looks black, simple...

Anyway, I started out by trying to skirt the fleece. All the muddy matted edge is soaking in a tote in my yard. I figured I should ignore it until I successfully clean the not so dirty stuff.

I put the rest of it into about ten mesh bags. I used my bathtub with super hot water and Unicorn Power Scour (I'll try it with my cloth diapers after I'm done with these fleece). Soaked them for twenty minutes and had a bathtub that looked like chocolate. Drained, rinsed the mud from the tub, refilled and put more soap in and soaked again. The second time it looked like a not so dirty mud puddle.

After that I started soaking and rinsing without the soap. Maybe that was my problem. Maybe I should have used soap again? But I had read some people warning against over-washing it and making it dry and brittle. I soaked it and drained out the water another five times. (It really made me wish we had a grey water system set up instead of sending all that water to the septic.)

By the last soak, eight of the ten bags had clean water coming from them. Two of them were draining slightly tinted water. I put the wool from those two bags on the bottom of the drying rack so I can possibly wash them some more later.

I'm pretty underwhelmed at how the wool looks right now. It still looks dirty and matted. There are white blobs of what I'm guessing is lanolin in the middle of the wool if I pull it apart. Does that stuff need to be completely gone?

My impression at this point are that it was much more fun to play with when it was dirty. My hands felt so soft from the lanolin and the wool stayed together. Now my hands feel all dried out (from the super hot water) and strands of wool keep sticking to my hands. I had no idea the fibers would be so long. They are almost as long as my own hair. My hair is also back and silver and white so it felt a little weird because it felt like my own hair was getting everywhere (only my hair is thicker and straighter).

All in all, an interesting experience so far. I hope I can improve the process with the next fleece. Please chime in with advice.

Here are pictures of my day:

Oh, my... yeh, you really don't want to do this, draining into a septic. Between the lanolin, the dirt, and the sheer quantity of water, it will very likely mess up the eco-balance of your system. I'd go ahead and let your fleeces dry, until you can come back to them, just spreading them thin enough to dry so they don't get the chance to mildew. In that way, it can be a very forgiving process. And, I'm not telling you just how many bath tubs worth of water I've had that looked just like that - or worse, lol. (Thankfully, our house is set up with a graywater system, and only the toilets go to the septic tank. But, processing fleeces this way costs us a LOT of propane!)

With consideration for your septic system, I'd switch to doing one at a time, in a big bucket, tote, or tub, near the garden, or just someplace out of the way. Cleaning fleece is neither a neat, easy, nor quick process, and you'll be much happier with yourself, and less frustrated with the fleece, if you don't try to rush it, but simply enjoy the process. That is likely my biggest struggle, because enjoying the process, when I'm in a hurry to see the results... well, I've not mastered it, yet - at least not with cleaning fleeces. 🙄😬

That said, I've much more experience, at this point, with washing alpaca blankets, than sheep fleeces. They don't produce lanolin, but they roll in the barnyard, much more, so it's absolutely FILTHY. I haven't even started working on my own goat's fiber, because... well, quite frankly, I'm fairly intimidated by the stuff, because the fiber is so fine. I'm still fairly new to all of this, myself, only at it for a couple years, so I'm hardly an expert, and more likely only a few steps ahead of you.

As far as using soap, I've tried rinsing first, with plain water; scouring with soap, first; and skipping the soap, in favor of the suint method. At least for sheep fleece, I prefer the suint, by far - for several reasons. Once it's rinsed clean, it remains soft, and lovely not only to touch, but for your skin's health. And, it really doesn't get much cheaper to process, by not needing soap, and uses minimal water, relative to other methods, and I'm not constantly emptying our water heater, just to literally let hundreds of gallons of expensively heated water go down the drain. I've not tried suint with other animal fibers and doubt it would work, because the lanolin (if I'm understanding the chemical process correctly) is what makes the suint do its thing.

Which drags me, kicking and screaming, back to the soap. I'm truly not remotely convinced soap needs to be used at all, or is even effective, until you can see that no further soil is coming out by merely soaking & rinsing in plain water - at least with other animals. Many folks like to spin 'in the grease', which means the lanolin hasn't been removed. I'm not sure how one goes about getting all the crud & vm out of the fleece, without also removing all or most of the lanolin, so I'm relatively sure they're simply rinsing it out the best they can, and just working with whatever is left. That would definitely be easier on our poor hands, but would also mean more intensive and frequent cleaning of any spinning equipment used to process it. I'll not likely willingly use any other method than suint, for fleece, again. I'm equally sure I'd rather use solar heated water, for any fiber I clean, going forward. Annnd... I'm pretty sure I'll use my homemade lye soap, with a 2 - 3% superfat formula (to keep from turning the fleece brittle, and still get the worst of the yuck out), for washing it, after I've rinsed off everything I can, without soap.

One other thing to keep in mind, is that getting every bit of vm out of the fiber is tedious, time consuming, and can be what drives me to the brink. I was relieved to see that others in our local fiber guild are still removing it as they spin, too. The most effective way I've seen it removed, was with a pair of combs, or a comb & hackle. It's slower than carding, and just as hard or harder on the hands, but the results are substantially finer and cleaner. I don't have a set, myself, so I used my swing picker, then the drum carder. But, those two items are not only less efficient at vm removal, and more likely to damage the fiber, they're also far more expensive than the combs or comb & hackle, and much less portable. Guess what's on my 'must buy, next' list... I'd recommend a comb & hackle first, if you've not already acquired any of these tools.

Thank you Carla for all your advice and encouragement!

Carla Burke wrote:
With consideration for your septic system, I'd switch to doing one at a time, in a big bucket, tote, or tub, near the garden, or just someplace out of the way. Cleaning fleece is neither a neat, easy, nor quick process, and you'll be much happier with yourself, and less frustrated with the fleece, if you don't try to rush it, but simply enjoy the process. That is likely my biggest struggle, because enjoying the process, when I'm in a hurry to see the results... well, I've not mastered it, yet - at least not with cleaning fleeces. 🙄😬  

Part of the reason I ended up doing it in the bathtub inside was that it was the safest and easiest way that I could get really hot water to soak the fleece in. The idea of walking back and forth from inside to outside with containers of really hot water sounded exhausting, plus it would be inevitable that I would try over a child underfoot and spill said hot water all over us.

I don't know that just doing one bag at a time would have saved me any time or made it more enjoyable. I'd still be filling a container and draining it on repeat for hours.

Carla Burke wrote:
As far as using soap, I've tried rinsing first, with plain water; scouring with soap, first; and skipping the soap, in favor of the suint method. At least for sheep fleece, I prefer the suint, by far - for several reasons. Once it's rinsed clean, it remains soft, and lovely not only to touch, but for your skin's health.  

By the end of the day, the suint method was sounding very, very attractive to me. But since it is cooling down in my area, will it work out do I have to wait until next summer to try it?

I do have the dirtiest part of that fleece soaking in water in black plastic tote in the yard. Maybe I'll just let it continue to sit there for the next week or so and try it out.

Carla Burke wrote: Many folks like to spin 'in the grease', which means the lanolin hasn't been removed.

I have never done any spinning, though I'd like to try (we have a simple drop spindle). We might use some of it to experiment with spinning but I was planning on using the fleece to make some felted crafts and hats and stuff like that. The white one we want to use to learn about dying with plants. I think we have to get it pretty clean to dye. And after that who knows what we will end up doing with it. In the long run, if we completely mess up, I'll use it as stuffing for sewing projects.

Carla Burke wrote: The most effective way I've seen it removed, was with a pair of combs, or a comb & hackle. It's slower than carding, and just as hard or harder on the hands, but the results are substantially finer and cleaner. I don't have a set, myself, so I used my swing picker, then the drum carder. But, those two items are not only less efficient at vm removal, and more likely to damage the fiber, they're also far more expensive than the combs or comb & hackle, and much less portable. Guess what's on my 'must buy, next' list... I'd recommend a comb & hackle first, if you've not already acquired any of these tools.

We don't have any tools yet. Looks like I have to watch some YouTube videos and learn about all these methods. Until this year I only had ever heard of carding. This year I learned about drum carders and willowing. And now you've told me the terms swing picker and comb and hackle. 😁 A friend of mine who spins told me there is a shop close by with a drum carders people can use but I don't know how clean i the fleece should be before I could use it. She always sends her animals' fiber to a mill to get it cleaned so she couldn't help me out with this first step.


I think my next experiment will be to put out some of the wool and pick some willow branches and let my kids try out willowing. It sounds like delightful messy chaos! If it's not very effective, oh well! Then we can try to acquire a few tools. A lot of what I'm trying to do here is to give my kids experiences that put the idea in their head that they can do anything if they want to learn by exposing them to lots of hands on experiences. Grow food, make clothes, build a home, etc.

I do seem to remember you saying something, somewhere, about your little ones being a cause for concern with the hot water, and that's understandable, of course. What I didn't think to mention, is that while the water is best, hot, it doesn't have to be scalding. Nice, dishwater hot works just fine. What I did with the suint, was start with our black garden hose, that had been sitting out in the sun. It eventually cools to the ambient temperature, so it's a process best done when the temps are hot out, but this also shows that the water doesn't have to stay crazy-hot, since suint stays outside for a week, water unchanged.

I'm not sure where you are, but here, the highest we're supposed to hit this week is in the mid 70s, so not worth trying, for me. My friend that told me about suint said she waits until the temps are supposed to be in the high 90°s (F) for a week or more. BUT!! She also wasn't doing anything solar. If you still have good sun, you could likely set up some mirrors, foil, or something to reflect the sun's heat into the black tote of water, to get & keep it hotter than the ambient air. Thank you for that idea!! I'm planning to put spigots on my tubs, for next year, to make draining easier.

I'm a felter, too. So, it does put a slightly different spin on it. Yes, dying & felting are easier, without any lubricant (in this case, lanolin) getting in the way. So, soap would become necessary, to remove it.

I would not recommend a swing picker, with the kids in the room. It's a dangerous tool, and I wear a leather apron, because a friend in our fiber guild ripped her shirt, and almost got herself a new piercing, if you know what I mean. I also found one that I can fold up, lock in place, and put safely away, if friends or family come with little ones, or if I want to travel with it. If you want to try your hand at it, I'd check in with that shop, to see if they have one you can try. Much of the equipment is very dangerous, and there are steps you may want to do without them, in between the washing and dying stages. I'd also recommend wet felting with kids, over needle felting, for the same reason.  But, you can also teach them a lot - even while you're learning, yourself - in spinning. You don't need a spinning wheel. You can make drop spindles with them, so everyone has their own, and learn how to spin - then weave, knit, crochet, nålbind... I'd suggest starting here, if you want to go down that rabbit hole (and this channel is definitely a rabbit hole well worth spending some time in!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDhLLKfUcEI

Doing one bag at a time lets you save your back for picking up your babies. Just have fun, though. Don't break your back, or the kids will see that difficulty, and it could discourage all of you.

Thank you again Carla! So much good advice for me to consider!

I have the other (unwashed) fleece stored in mesh bags- do you have any advice about how to store it until I can clean it? It's stinky and dirty so I don't really want it in the house but I know if I keep it in the garage, mice are going to get into it. Maybe I could hang it from the ceiling?

Jenny Wright wrote:Thank you again Carla! So much good advice for me to consider!

I have the other (unwashed) fleece stored in mesh bags- do you have any advice about how to store it until I can clean it? It's stinky and dirty so I don't really want it in the house but I know if I keep it in the garage, mice are going to get into it. Maybe I could hang it from the ceiling?

I'm very glad you've found my comments helpful, thank you for saying so! Imho, mesh bags, hung from the ceiling would be a really good way to go. Cloth of some sort is definitely better than plastic. If you can put some lavender or cedar in or with the bags, even better, for protection from moth/ larvae damage.

Here's some pictures of the partially dried wool. Looking more closely at the different sections, I am seeing the wisdom of doing small sections at a time. Some pieces look beautifully clean, and others are just a little dirty or greasy and some are disgusting.

It's definitely easier to see your progress after the fibers are dry. Nice pics! One of my local friends won't wash more than a pound at a time, so it takes her a while to get through her annual supply (she has another friend who loves having his Shetland sheep, just for the sake of having them, but has no interest in the wool, so he gives it all to her! ). But, because she works in such small increments, her fiber is extremely clean and lovely to touch and work with, and her yarns are so, very, VERY lovely!

Some thoughts on water temp.  (I know I'm late, but this is for the future)

scouring wool - where we heat the water above about 150F - removes all of the lanolin.  It's difficult to do this in a home setting perfectly, and usually not necessary.

Scouring is usually used on industrial equipment where the greases in the wool need to be of known specific qualities.  But we just removed all the grease with scouring so what do I mean by 'greases in the wool'? I hear you ask.

Correct.  Different grease is added to the wool to make it work well with the machines.

Same too I find with home processing.  If I fully scour the wool, then I need to add oils and grease to the wool or it misbehaves during carding, combing, and spinning.  

So I generally don't fully scour at home.  Instead, I get rid of most of the lanolin but try to keep some in the wool as this is a much better grease than anything I can add in later.  If I do need it fully scoured, I can do that once it's yarn or cloth.  

For my style of working with wool, I find a water temperature where I can keep my hand in the water for 2 to 5 seconds without it feeling uncomfortable is about right.  But it doesn't need to be that hot as we also have the soap doing the work.  Although it's good not to use too much soap as this can leave a residue that feels like grease but doesn't have the advantages of it.

Your wool looks lovely!