Processing Raw Fleece Part 1
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This post was last edited/updated in March 2021.
When it comes to processing raw fleece, this is not a definitive guide to doing so. This is just my story, my first steps and what I did, so maybe you're a bit less afraid to progress from dyeing prepared roving and batting to purchasing your own raw fleece. Because... it is kind of scary.
But before I go on, I wanted to share a resource with you by someone I know (not know-know, I mean, we're Facebook acquaintances as are a number of other fiber business owners, but that's the extent of it, she didn't ask me to share this) and trust when it comes to processing raw fleeces - this was published well after my first venture into fiber processing, and had I had access to a book like this, it probably would have spared me some of the mistakes that resulted from my experimentation in the years that followed. If you are serious about wanting to get into sourcing your own supplies literally from scratch (off the sheep), I highly recommend you get the book (takes a deep breath because, yes, it's a long title) Camaj Fiber Art's Scouring and Fiber Prep Guide - The Art of Washing Wool, Mohair & Alpaca - Scour Wool Like a Boss: Where Art and Science Meet for Excellent Outcomes by Mary Egbert. If you've been around the fiber world a while, you may know her from CamajFiberArts (she has many great youtube guides on working with fiber as well). You can also get this book, which we can just call the scouring guide, in kindle format; it's just located on a separate product page instead of with the hardcover book. In fact, there's no way I could ever top that, so I'm not even going to bother writing any more fiber prep guides after the ones I'd written. I'll just keep plugging her book instead. Everything that follows this post is my original journey with fleece processing that I had posted several years prior.
I mean, nothing would ruin your day faster than felting your newly acquired fleece into a giant matted ball... unless, of course, you make the best of it and turn it into a cushion. Or maybe you could stab at the amorphous blob of wool for a bit and make it into something, right? I later discovered some people actually look for fleeces that are already partially matted together, because that’s a non-murderous way to get a wool rug with fun, curly locks. The good news is, it's near impossible to wash all the fleece at once (unless you’re someone who’s been doing so for a while and has larger, dedicated vats for this), so if you accidentally felt some of it, all is not lost. Also, I've had to piece together information from all the different sources. One source on what detergent to use. Another on how to wash the fleece (by hand) since many recommend using a washing machine at some point in the process and, well, I have a front loader which is not recommended for washing fleece. There’s also the possible issue of gunking up your machine with all that lanolin, especially with a greasy fleece? Also, a lot of the information out there is for people who spin fiber and, for those purposes, the intention is not necessarily to maintain the lock shape. It's just to wash the fiber. So where they might break up the fleece prior to washing, I wanted to keep the locks intact as much as possible. Note: Someone commented on my IG photo about separating the locks prior to washing them. Now, the videos I'd seen prior showed spinners who were washing their fiber just haphazardly pulling apart the fleece, and that is not what I wanted to do. However, the idea of gently separating the locks and then washing it has me intrigued, so I will be trying that next and will then update this post. Update: here's the link on separating the locks prior to washing to preserve them. I'm definitely going to try this with some of my fleece. (Much later update: I did something similar with my teeswater locks - though this is a lot of work when it comes to doing a whole fleece.)
Last week I "splurged" a bit and ordered two fleeces. Then over the weekend, my enabler, I mean husband, with the assistance of our 4 year old was kind enough to build me a skirting table top. As they were working on that, I ordered a gallon of Unicorn Beyond Clean off Amazon, as recommended by Marie Spaulding of Living Felt (on a now-gone blog post where she wrote about washing locks but unfortunately had not been archived on the wayback machine). I'd been going back and forth on getting it since it is definitely NOT cheap, but if I was going to do this, I wanted to do it "right" the first time (not that there isn't more than one way to do it, but I wanted to get the best possible results). On Saturday, the alpaca fiber I ordered arrived.
Update 2021: I miscaptioned this as Clun Forest - pretty sure this is Huacaya alpaca.
On Tuesday, the Clun Forest fleece and the gallon of Beyond Clean also arrived. I got straight to work on skirting it outside. Lucky for me, it was a gorgeous day to do so. I was too lazy/impatient to drag the sawhorses out to raise the skirting table, so I just worked on it right there on the deck.
The result of shaking out my fleeces, both the clun forest and alpaca.
On Wednesday, I started the process of soaking the Clun Forest. While that was happening, I took the alpaca outside to shake it out because alpacas are like giant puppies who love dust baths. Since it is not greasy like sheep's wool, I did have fluff flying all over the place and stuck to my clothes. The rest of the day if I dried my hands against my clothes I'd end up with fiber stuck to my hands. I want to add one thing here. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of the tutorials I saw included separating the fleece prior to washing. I wanted to keep as many locks intact as possible, so I did not separate my fleece. I washed the wool in clumps that were still attached. The Clun Fleece was dirty.
The wool on the left is after the second soak, no detergent used yet.
My process for the clun fleece (a combination of sharing what I did and what I learned):
1. Get water as hot as possible from the tap, fill the tub first without the fleece in it, add fleece, soak for about 30 min to an hour. Do not feel tempted to agitate. If you're working entirely indoors: pull the fleece out into a mesh hamper (I got mine at Walmart, and it folds!), then dump the water out. The second option is to dump the whole thing out over a mesh screen outside. If you use this method, do it slowly so you can let any VM that floated to the surface pour out, then press gently on the fleece to help squeeze the rest of the dirty water out. Place it back in the tub. I would have my second tub filling with hot water as I did this to cut down on waiting time. The first batch I washed I did indoors. For the second I was able to use the mesh screen outside. Update: first few soak can be lukewarm to get as much grime out as possible. Once you get to scouring, you won’t want to melt the lanolin and then have it stick back to the wool as it cools off.
My "washing station." The fleece was not washed in bags, but the alpaca was (which is what's drying in the back). This was a wading pool for the kids last summer, and this year will be a veggie box, but for now it works to contain the mud.
2. Repeat step 1, especially if really dirty. No point in wasting detergent until you got most of the grime off.
3. Add Beyond Clean to the water after it's done filling the tub. You don't want sudsy water. I did not have to boil water for this step - the hottest water from the tap was more than sufficient. I believe with certain other detergents, especially with Dawn, you do need to get the water really hot (it's something I read/watched, not speaking from experience). You don't need a lot. I used an oz for just over a lb of fiber (eyeballed, not precise). Update: that might be too much. My first fleece ended up too “dry” - just get the book I mentioned up top.
4. If it's dirty, repeat step 3, but you can use less detergent this time. Again, you really don't want sudsy water.
5. Fill the tub one last time, no detergent, to make sure you rinsed it out. It does not have to soak as long this time. You do not want to shock your fiber at any point in the process with temperature extremes. The method I found best for this (tried it the second time around) was to rinse out your wool in smaller batches. I would take some of the wool, gently swish it around, take it out, press gently to squeeze excess water out before tossing it on my towel. Doing it this way helped to get some of the VM out, allowed any remaining dirt or grime (of which there wasn't much left) to sink to the bottom, and gave me a chance for a final check over the tips to see if I missed any. You will probably miss a few. Once I implemented the method of working the grime out of the tips in step 3 and this last bit, my wool looked a LOT cleaner overall.
Some of the pieces are stained, but it came out mostly white. Much whiter than the raw wool
I rolled the towel up, pressed on it to help get some of the moisture out, then moved it to a table where I rolled it back up to dry overnight. If you want to do a victory dance, feel free to dance on top of the towel roll. My kids saw me doing it and joined right in. It shouldn't felt since it's all spread out and you're not rolling, just pressing the water out.
Don’t bother trying to save every last bit - fiber that looks like this is damaged and not worth the work.
Now, the final step. When it dries, I separate into several piles. There is a pile with the brightest, cleanest, whitest locks. The pile with stained locks to be dyed. Nope: If it looks bad, don't do it. It's damaged. Just toss it. The pile with the dirty tips that I missed during the wash - once I'm done washing the entire fleece I'll go back and work the tips out (not a huge issue when you're dyeing and carding, it'll come off then). This should only require one wash and rinse. Then the final pile has just the fluff and any locks that didn't stay together which will be dyed and/or carded into batts. I may actually end up separating that pile as well into the stained wool and the white wool - that way I can keep the white as is, and everything else will have color on it. As I go, I pick the vm out of the fiber, especially the locks I want to keep. I'm not as worried about the stuff that will be carded because the carder will help with some of it.
I know some probably thought I was odd for trying to save locks from a fleece that isn't known for its "locks" like some other breeds are - learning this is how I managed to get lots of great locks from the Gulf Coast Native I processed years later, and took advantage of its gorgeous lock structure to make this Coral Coast art.
I deleted some stuff because you do not need to worry about saving any gross stuff or damaged fibers. They aren’t worth the hassle or the extra work. They are going to be really dry and unpleasant to work with. Anything that looks yellowed and badly stained, not just dirty - just toss it. It’ll be very brittle. That’s what the skirting process is for. After all, you’re already getting this wool far cheaper than you would have processed anyway. Also, just get the book. Or kindle version. Whichever... Don't be me. It was certainly a learning process, but you don't have to learn the hard way like I did. Also, I have a new way of washing fleece now, which I do recommend getting - it'll save your back from lugging a bucket back and forth.