First, get a couple of sheep.
Then let them roam around for a year growing out all that nice wool. And shear it off! Get a professional do to this. Seriously. It's quite a task.
Then take your big stinking, greasy filthy fleece and get it sparkling clean. Yes, this is from a white sheep. The stench to irresistible to all manner of creatures, so if you are finicky about your wool, do this out of smell range of your pets. This is my first time going through the process, so I'm still figuring it out and figured the critters could help too.
Cleaning wool is just a lot of soaking. Sheep 'sweat' a substance called lanolin. It's great for all sorts of things, lip balm, rust proof coatings, chapped nipples, you name it. It's not so good for leaving on the wool when you want to spin it. So we need to get it out. Good thing it's soluble in hot water. But you don't want to wring the wool, or agitate it much while it's in hot water, because the fibers will mat together - called felting. So cleaning is just soaking. If you get tired watching the wool soak, you have a ready made soft bed to take a break on as long as you don't mind the greasy stink.
First soak is in a tub of hot water with ordinary laundry detergent for 45 minutes. Here's the wool after the soak (with a chunk of uncleaned wool nearby for comparison). Mmm...look at that water!
Soak again in just plain hot water for 30 minutes. Getting cleaner!
Finally, a soak in hot water with white vinegar for 30 minutes. Ahh, can finally see through the water in the tub.
The wool isn't 100% clean at this point, but you can wash the yarn once it's done, so that's my plan with this batch. But look how much cleaner it is!
Next up, carding and spinning the wool!
Then let them roam around for a year growing out all that nice wool. And shear it off! Get a professional do to this. Seriously. It's quite a task.
Then take your big stinking, greasy filthy fleece and get it sparkling clean. Yes, this is from a white sheep. The stench to irresistible to all manner of creatures, so if you are finicky about your wool, do this out of smell range of your pets. This is my first time going through the process, so I'm still figuring it out and figured the critters could help too.
Cleaning wool is just a lot of soaking. Sheep 'sweat' a substance called lanolin. It's great for all sorts of things, lip balm, rust proof coatings, chapped nipples, you name it. It's not so good for leaving on the wool when you want to spin it. So we need to get it out. Good thing it's soluble in hot water. But you don't want to wring the wool, or agitate it much while it's in hot water, because the fibers will mat together - called felting. So cleaning is just soaking. If you get tired watching the wool soak, you have a ready made soft bed to take a break on as long as you don't mind the greasy stink.
First soak is in a tub of hot water with ordinary laundry detergent for 45 minutes. Here's the wool after the soak (with a chunk of uncleaned wool nearby for comparison). Mmm...look at that water!
Soak again in just plain hot water for 30 minutes. Getting cleaner!
Finally, a soak in hot water with white vinegar for 30 minutes. Ahh, can finally see through the water in the tub.
The wool isn't 100% clean at this point, but you can wash the yarn once it's done, so that's my plan with this batch. But look how much cleaner it is!
Next up, carding and spinning the wool!
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