Wool Washing (merino mosty )

Hey everyone
I am a young sherperd on my family's farm, and i have a flock of merino sheep. It is my job to wash the wool, i have been doing it for about a year now, and i think i have been getting better and faster. but im wondering if i am doing it right or if there is anything i can do to help.

I start by soaking the raw wool it large bins with well water for about a week depending on the weather and the wool till it gets really stinky ( i since found out its called the suint method)
i then do a succession of washes in hot water i heat up on my outdoor wood burner, water just too hot to handle, i alternate with rinses and wasing up liquide and bicarbonate. i do this till i feel there is no lanolin fat left, i then dry it out.

Each time i remove the wool from a bucket of water i put more wool in it, so i have a line of buckets, i reuse the water each time, usually its only 3 buckets, cause the water gets too mucky and cold.

Is there anything im doing wrong or something i can do to improve my method?

Thanks for listening and hope to get some cool replies


oliver

Sounds fun!   How does your wool come out?

Do you run it through a picker after it is dry?  

Do you spin?  

What do you make with you wool?

Hi Oliver! Sounds like you're doing it right, though after the suint and first 2 or 3 rinse buckets, I typically like to rinse until the water runs clean, which is what my 'suint mentor' does. Honestly though, if you've been doing it for a year, fairly consistently, you have more experience than I do.

Samantha Lewis wrote:Sounds fun!   How does your wool come out?

Do you run it through a picker after it is dry?  

Do you spin?  

What do you make with you wool?

Well it depends on the wool i use, we have merino and ouessants on the farm, but we also retrieve wool off local farmers for doing felt objects.
Yes we have a wooden hand picker, we run it through that, then through our carding machine, and then either its spun or felted.
I don't yet, but my mum does, i am hoping to learn to in a couple of days.
We make quite a few different things, from knitted hats and gloves to felted matts and bookmarks.

Carla Burke wrote:Hi Oliver! Hope, sounds like you're doing it right, though after the suint and first 2 or 3 rinse buckets, I typically like to rinse until the water runs clean, which is what my 'suint mentor' does. Honestly though, if you've been doing it for a year, fairly consistently, you have more experience than I do.

Hey, i would say i have very much experience, and i don't do it as regularly as i should !
I did start to rinse it after the long soak, and wheni went to wash it it was a lot less dirtier and quicker to wash.
I watch the colour of the water, but i really need to make sure i get out al the lanolin, does anyone know if there's any way other than feeling if there is still lanolin ?.
Any advice on the suint method ?

The most important thing is, if you are getting the results you want, than you are doing it right.  If you can, work with the wool so you can adjust your method for quality control.

I don't do the suint method because it takes so much more water to remove the smell than simply washing the wool.  We have 6+ months with zero rain here, so water conservation is the largest concern here.  But it does use less energy and less human power to use the suint method so it's popular among many hand spinners in town (on city water).

The other local tradition here is one the Cowichan First Nations used to use.  During the rainy season, spread out the fleece tips down (cut side up) on bushes and leave it there for about a week to let the rain wash away the dirt and sweat.  The remaining wool keeps its grease but is very clean and perfect for outerwear (Cowichan Sweaters are amazing!)


For a deeper dive into wool washing, dust off your library card, the book for you is Alden Amos Big Book Of Handspinning

The goal influences the method (and water temperature).  I really like his 3 bathtub method for farm-scale wool washing.


We've got our flock down to 21 sheep right now.  That's still a lot of wool.  We've also got a larger carding machine than most hobby farms do, which means it has less tolerance for dirt and grease left in the wool.  For that reason, I'm scouring the wool (the main difference between scouring and washing is temperature) instead of washing.  More heat, more human time (can't let the wool cool in the wash), less water.  

But it depends on the goal for the wool.  For what you describe, the suint method is a very good choice.  

oliver peter Nock wrote:
I watch the colour of the water, but i really need to make sure i get out al the lanolin, does anyone know if there's any way other than feeling if there is still lanolin ?.
Any advice on the suint method ?

Um...

So, if you ask the internet these days, the goal of washing wool is to get out all the lanolin.  I think this is oversimplified.

IF you are using a large-scale industrial carding machine (the one we use is 3 tonnes and requires a massive crane to move), then yes, you absolutely want every speck of lanolin gone.  Then you add in grease so that the wool will work with the machine.  Scouring is the only path I know to remove enough lanolin for these machines.

Most people don't have massive industrial carders taking up 1/3rd of their workshop and making a lovely little dent in the cement floor.  

For them, I ask - do you need to remove all the lanolin?

Traditionally great lengths were taken to keep the lanolin in the wool.  

Wool is very good at gathering a static charge so when we process perfically clean wool by picking, carding, or combing, we have a lot of trouble with it misbehaving.  We have to add some sort of conditioner to the wool.  It's much easier (and cheaper) to leave at least some of the lanolin in the wool and wash the finished product (traditionally washed at the cloth stage - more modern preference is to wash it at the yarn stage).

The big problem with adding more grease into the wool is that a lot of people are sensitive to the additives.  This is the main thing that causes people to believe that "wool is scratchy", it's seldom the wool (true wool allergies are extremely rare in humans) but more often the additives.  (as a side note, wool is a lot like human hare in composition.  only hair is coarser.  Most of the time we don't find out own hair scratches, except those little cut ends that fall down our shirt after a haircut.  This is another cause for the "all wool is scratchy" belief)


So do you really need to get all the lanolin out?  
how do you know?
Can you do an experiment with your wool?  Take a few 100g piles and wash them in different ways.  Suint for one.  Soap and warm water for another.  Scour for a third.  Boil (tied tightly in a net bag)... and there are a few more ways mentioned in the Big Book of Handspinning.  Then work with each pile (if you aren't working with them, then try a blind study by labelling them A, B, C... so the person doesn't know which is which) then see if the additional effort improves the way the wool works or makes if it makes no noticeable difference.  

Every sheep, every farm, every craftsperson is an individual and the only way to know for certain what works for you is to experiment.  

Here is a little video using the wool from my Finn sheep.   it is unwashed.  we are processing it directly as it comes off the animal.

In my opinion the suint method and then rinsing some times in only water is what's needed. But that's me, I love 'all natural', no use of any chemicals. If there's a little lanolin in the wool, that would make me happy (lanolin is like a salve for the skin). And I love it when it still smells a little like 'sheep'.

If you want to sell your wool, it depends on your clients what is the best method.