From fleece to yarn

Back in October I went to my local sheep & wool festival. My goal was to purchase a Lazy Kate for spindles, which I did, but I also bought a BFL lamb fleece. I had been resisting the suggestion to buy a fleece, because I was intimidated by how big a whole fleece is, and how dirty. But here was the fleece of a little white lamb - not too big and not too dirty. I decided to take the plunge. If ever I was going to do this, this was the fleece for me. So I brought it home, along with an alpaca fleece whose color I couldn't resist (yes, it is big), and life got in the way. The fleeces ended up spending the winter in my attic.

This weekend the time finally came to process the fleece. I washed the wool in my kitchen sink - first soaking it in warm water with a little Dawn dish liquid (no more than I use to wash my dishes). I put the locks in a mesh laundry bag so that they would stay organized, and gently raised and lowered them in the water a few times to get the soap through the locks. I was amazed at how much dirt came out in the first washing. After that, I just rinsed the locks in plain warm water until the water ran clear. It took 3 rinses. I dumped the dirty water outside because I didn't know how my old pipes would like the lanolin. I did the same with the alpaca, although that was faster - no lanolin, just dust.

Preparing to wash the BFL locks

Dirty wash water on the right, rinsing the locks on the left.

I stretched the laundry bags over the top of the dishpans to dry. By Sunday afternoon the wool was dry and I was anxious to comb. My Viking combs were the perfect tool for the BFL wool.

Isn't the crimp beautiful?

I hadn't realized how many short cuts the fleece had. By processing myself, they were easy to remove.

The alpaca really needed finer combs, but I made do with what I had. Alpaca gets full of static from combing. I ended up dampening my hands to control the fiber while I pulled it into roving.

And of course I had to spin some - just a partial spindle of each. They were wonderful to work with. I just might get addicted to processing my own fleece!

Spinning outdoors can be a challenge without a distaff - the breeze kept trying to tangle the wool in the spindle.

- what I learned -

It isn't as difficult as I had imagined to wash a fleece. Actually, it isn't difficult at all. If you have been thinking about trying it - go for it!

By processing the fleece myself, I got to control the amount of lanolin removed from the wool. I didn't wash it so much that all the lanolin was stripped out. That made spinning very enjoyable for my hands. I highly recommend it over commercially scoured wool.

I will admit that I didn't wash the entire fleece on one day. But I realized that I didn't have to. I've washed enough to keep me combing and spinning for a while, and when I next have time between housework and yard work, I'll wash some more.