From Raw Wool to Something Usable, How We Wash Our Fleece

The first thing you're going to do is grab your skirting frame and bag of raw wool. We use a homemade frame, it is pvc pipes all glued together except for the legs for flat storage and the plastic garden fencing*, we got everything we needed from Menards. The fleece is a Jacob fleece and since fleeces act different we recommend testing this process on a small batch if you use a different fleece because it may felt easier than a Jacob.

*you don't want to use metal because you will use the frame to also dry the wool; over time the metal will rust and stain your fleece

---

Next you will spread out your fleece on the frame and pick out what is called vegetable matter or vm (all of the non-wool things in the fleece such as hay, sticks, other plant materials, and poop). Don't be alarmed about taking out complete chunks of the fleece, a full fleece makes a lot of usable material. You don't need to worry about picking every little thing out, however the more you pick out the cleaner the fleece is when it goes through your picker and/or carders (the picker and carders also take vm out)

---

Once the fleece is skirted, you will put it into mesh laundry bags, we got ours at Dollar General, the amount that goes into the bags depends on how many washes you want to do (the more washes the greater chance of felting so smaller amounts in the bags work best). We use the hottest water that comes out of the faucet (around 120*F), this isn't hot enough to get all of the lanolin out but we don't worry about that since the rest of it comes out when we set the twist in hand spun yarn (wash your wool at about 140-150*F to get the lanolin out). A lot of people use dawn dish soap but we prefer Mrs. Meyer's brand because it is 100% natural and biodegradable so you run into less allergy issues; if you are worried about the scent, don't because your wool will still smell like a sheep afterwards.

To wash the fleece fill a container with your hot water and about 1/4 cup of soap per one fleece per wash. We like to do 2 washes, adding a third for really dirty fleece (not often since the poop gets skirted out). The water will not run clean after the washes, it will take quite a few rinses before the water runs clear. To rinse you go through the same process as you would to wash except you don't add the soap and the water doesn't need to be as hot.

Now that the fleece is washed and clean you will gently squeeze out the extra water, take the wool out of the laundry bags, and lay the fleece back on the skirting rack to dry. You are going to want to place the rack in a windy area (whether that be outside on a windy day or in the house with fans) and allow the wool to dry completely. We have found that if you check on the fleece and spread out thicker chunks after some of it has dried and flip the fleece, it dries a little faster. Make sure that where ever you dry the fleece that it can stay there for a very long time (12 hours - 48 hours depending on how dense your fleece is)

---

We like to store the cleaned fleece in a basket if it is going to be used right away, if not it all goes into a mesh laundry bag and stored off of the ground until it is used. From the basket of fleece it gets carded and rolled into rolags then placed in another basket, ready to be spun.

---

That's it! Hopefully this helps you wash and use your own fleeces. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at olympus.fields.llc@outlook.com or comment below.