Washing Raw Fleece

by Amanda

As the weather finally warms, my thoughts are turning to a task more easily completed in the summer – that of washing and/or scouring fleece to ready it for spinning.

There are a number of reasons why you may want to wash your fleece before spinning it, including:

 * It has a rather large range and number of awful microscopic beasties that can harm your health, especially if you have any immunity issues.

* You won’t (like I did) get dirt trapped in your white yarn which is impossible to remove and only seen on completion of your knitted white item.

* Spinning in the grease is one issue – it can be lovely. I have spun fleeces that were freshly shorn and the lanolin was almost a liquid. But spinning in the dirt is something else altogether – and not necessarily at all lovely.

Before we begin, here are some important points to remember.

Firstly, are you scouring the grease or getting rid of the dirt and keeping the grease in the wool? This affects the process you use, the type of detergent you choose and the amount of water it takes to clean the fleece (how will you get rid of it?). Dirty, greasy wool is greedy…

Secondly, there are three conditions which affect wool washing, and a word of warning: wool will felt if you don’t get these three things working in harmony. Luckily, it’s not difficult. These are:

• Temperature

 • Water

• Movement (of the wet fleece in the container – and here the word is – DON’T!)

Thirdly, it helps to know how detergent works. Like washing greasy kitchen plates, detergent works by wrapping around the grease molecule and the grease is then carried away by water. Just like bacon grease on a plate, you wouldn’t expect it to be really clean with cold water, even with detergent. So you need hot water. If you wish to clean the dirt and keep the grease, you can soak the fleece in cold water or cold water and a bit of detergent.

My process for scouring a fleece, especially with finer wool: 

After many different trials, taking into account bending (my back), waste of water (I don’t have anywhere to easily dispose of greasy soapy water) and the final result – I want a clean, scoured fleece - my current process is outlined below.

Equipment

I have chosen to go with the smallish square bucket and strainer in the kitchen section of K-mart. This strainer and bucket may not be big enough for some of you, but suits me fine. It fits in my kitchen sink to fill it, and when full of water, I can still lift it out. The water doesn’t slosh like other buckets, trays or large storage containers I have used. And I don’t have to bend down to pick it up unlike other containers and buckets I have previously tried. It holds about 4 to 5 litres of water.(Photos 1 to 4: Strainer; bucket; both together; and, in the sink.) In fact, it works so well for me that I went and bought another one, although at $12 each, I’m pretty sure I won’t be buying 6.

Then I prepare my fleece. The picture shows the fleece I have, which is a fine one, so I want to wash it with great care. Carefully hold the staple of wool at the base with one hand and pull it free from the top of the staple with the other,(Photos 5 to 7: Fleece ready to wash; removing the staple from the wool; and intact staple removed.) then lay it in the strainer with the cut end towards the middle. Repeat, putting the staples on both sides, so that the cut ends meet in the middle, layering up as much wool as you wish. 

 I tend to only go halfway but could put in more. You don’t want to put in so much that the fleece doesn’t clean. (Photo 8 to 10: Layering staples into strainer; cut end of staples in the middle; and, layering staples to wash.)

This method also works with coarser fleeces, although you may not have to separate the staples, but just gently lay the wool in the strainer. Get the hottest water from your sink (mine is 50 degrees C) and I add about one and a half boiled kettles to make the water around 65 to 70 degrees Celsius. This is a lot hotter than I was taught many years ago, but I have found the higher temperature to be a real factor in cleaning the grease. For Merinos, you may even need the temperature higher as it is a very greasy breed.

Then stir in your detergent of choice, being careful not to make it too sudsy. We want the molecules of detergent to clean our wool, not make suds. Suds are not necessary for cleaning.(Photo11: Detergent added to water with minimum suds.)

There are a range of detergents you can use, ranging from kitchen detergent all the my to may latest favourite, degreasing detergent for car engines!(Photo 12: Choice of detergents.) The main issue is to try and find something that is Ph neutral, as both excessive acidity or alkalinity will damage wool. And yes, the engine degreaser is pH neutral.

When I was at TAFE in my 20’s for textiles, we were also advised that such products were ok, so I have used this type of product before for scouring wool. (You can catch your breath now!) I use about 20 ml for the first wash but sometimes don’t measure.

Gently lower the strainer into the water. You will find that the wool gradually sinks. (Photo 13: Wool submerged.) You can use the end of a wooden spoon or other implement to gently push any remaining staples under the water. Please do not move the fleece around! It will felt.

Leave the wool for around 15 to 30 minutes, some people leave it an hour.  You can lift the strainer to see how much dirt and grease has come out.(Photo 14: Strainer lifted to see dirt and grease.)

Then gently lower it in again. You don’t want the water to really cool down to lukewarm, otherwise the lanolin will start to solidify onto the wool.

When you decide “it’s time”, raise the strainer to drain the water, put it to one side and throw away the dirty/greasy water. Not down sink pipes, as apparently the lanolin can solidify in your pipes. Not sure about septic systems. Once cold, most people throw it somewhere on their gardens or on the grass.

 I also gently put my hand on the wet fleece and squeeze the water from the surface of the strainer into the bucket.

If you have a second strainer, you can use that one to squeeze water out of the first one by putting it on the top and pressing down gently.

Now, it is time for a second wash (without rinsing), so repeat.

Make sure the water is at least the same temperature as that discarded – or hotter. Not cooler, or your wool will felt. You may find you don’t need to use quite as much detergent (like washing your hair, there is less grease in it this time.)

 I then do two rinses.

 I dry the wool between two layers of garden mesh on a clothes airer outside in the shade.

 The final result is shown, and you will notice something that really works for me: the cut ends of the wool have felted together in the middle, so when I want to select a staple, it is very

simple to pull it out using the same process as with the original fleece. The rest of the staple has not felted.(Photo 15: Fleece clean and ends felted together.) I can just carry around my piece of washed and scoured wool in my basket till ready to flick or card it. (And the short ends are left behind in a tidy tangle – most impressive! – Ed.)

Every person will have their favourite way to wash fleece, the way that really works for them.

What are your processes for successfully washing or scouring fleece?