Fiber Geek Resources and Information

Washing a Fleece: Spinning How-To's

by Diane de Arden

This is assuming that you have checked the fleece before hand and have skirted, picked, and sorted as necessary.

Why wash your fleece? Some of this is a matter of choice and some is a matter of getting the wool clean. Washing will remove the dirt, lanolin, and some of the vegetable matter from a fleece. If a fleece is very clean, the sheep may have been coated, it's a matter of the spinner's personal preference. Does the spinner prefer less or more lanolin (grease) left in the wool? Some spinners do not wash a clean fleece to remove the lanolin, others do. Personally, while some lanolin make the wool feel nice while spinning, I don't like the feel of a lot of grease in the wool I am spinning.

Unless you are planning to spin the wool from the lock, washing the fleece will make subsequent processing (i.e. carding, combing, or dyeing) easier. I had to wash a Merino fleece twice before I was able to my combs on it. Lanolin will also act as a resist and make your wool dye unevenly. This may not matter if you dye the fiber before spinning (you can blend the colors with cards and combs) but it will make a difference if you are dyeing the spun yarn.

My method of washing a fleece is mostly taken from Hands on Spinning by Lee Raven. This is by no means the only way to wash wool. Please see the list of urls at the bottom of this page for other methods and instructions for washing wool.

• small tubs and buckets - I use anywhere between three and five depending on the fleece
• Dish soap - I personally use Ivory dish soap because I'm not allergic to it
• mesh lingerie bags - optional
• wooden spoon/s

1. Seperate the fleece out into chunks that will easily fit into the tubs and/or the mesh bags.
2. Fill all of the containers with water as hot as you can stand it from the tap.
3. Leave the first tub with just hot water. This is the pre-soak to loosen up the dirt and lanolin.
4. The second tub gets enough dish soap to make the water feel slippery. If the fleece is paticularly dirty or has a high lanolin content, make a second soap tub.
5. The next tub is a hot water rinse with a touch of white vinegar.
6. The final tub is just a plain hot water rinse.
7. Rotate the sections of wool through the tubs, letting them soak in each tub for 10 minutes. Keep an eye on the temperature and dirt/lanolin content of the water in the tubs. The wool will not get clean if the temperature of the water is too cool or if the water is saturated with lanolin and wool. You may need to dump and refill the tubs.
8. Let the sections of wool dry before processing or spinning. I let my wool dry for three days to make sure it is dry all of the way through.