Fleece Washing.

Fleece washing is not the most exciting job to do, but it has to be done, and I will have to be doing a lot of it over the next few weeks. It is a dirty sometimes smelly job. I like the smell, if this makes me a bit weired whats new. I like the smell of sheep. It uses a lot of hot water and elbow grease but a good job done now can save you a lot of work later. And effect the end result of your spinning.
When you collect as many fleeces as I do it is not unusual to find that you have some unwashed fleeces from last year. This is what happened to me so I have started on last years first, before the new fleeces start coming in. Many people ask me where my fleeces come from. All I can say is that over the years I have become known as some one who will buy a good fleece. It is all word of mouth mainly through the Bucks Guild of WS&D's. It pays to spend time developing contacts. I was contacted out of the blue buy the person who sold me my horse 12 years ago. She has 25 Black Welsh Mountain sheep and wants to know if I want any fleeces. Sometimes contacts go back a long way.
When I wash a fleece I divide it up into 3 or 4 lots depending on the size. This is to make it  manageable. If there is a lot of variation in the fleece you can put different quality of wool in each lot.
The next stage is to soak the wool in tap hot water and washing up liquid , not to much or it will be difficult to rinse out. But you need enough to get the grease out. This will vary from fleece to fleece. If the wool is very dirty after an hours soak I change the water add more washing up liquid and soak for 24 hours. Don't be tempted to agitate the wool or you will felt it.
The next stage is rinsing. I use  cold water and I am lucky enough to have an old stand alone spin dryer which does not felt the wool and makes rinsing easier if you spin between each rinse. The fleece is then spread out on my chicken shed to dry. You can use onion bags or anything you have to hang it on a washing line, or any method that is easy for you. Not a tumble dryer or artificial heat. This will felt and shrink the wool.Don't risk your washing machine or you will really be in trouble and wreck it.
I do not worry if all the dirt is not washed out. Any dirt that won't come out with carding or spinning is discarded with the fleece. I always wash the skeins I spin to set the twist so no dirt should survive all that.