I am so thankful for this information! I have never washed a fleece and I might just get brave and do this method! So natural and nothing is wasted. I love that! Thank you!

I did a major portion of a fleece this way, and highly recommend… it can turn a white fleece grey…but when you have a lot of fleece to process it is a great process… take some out, put some in… and when you are ready for the next batch it is ready. I had a BFL/Romney and the yarn is beautiful.!

@josefinwaltin

Жыл бұрын

Lovely! It’s a great method to try.

To keep lanolin I use SA8 Natural Detergent in cold water. I mix in a scoop into cold or room temperature water. Be sure its all dissolved before putting in your wool. It takes out pretty much all the dirt and oily lanolin and leaves in some of the waxy lanolin. Rinse until clear. Works great and is nice to spin and comb and card. Does not leave too much lanolin and takes out all the dirt. I may have to try this method so I can say I do mine all natural with no detergents. Just have to do it out in the back of the property.

@josefinwaltin

5 жыл бұрын

Some people who use the fermented suint method use a little detergent after taking the wool out of the suint bath. That is also an option if you think the fermented suint method leaves too much lanolin. It is a question of the amount of lanolin in the raw fleece and how much lanolin you prefer to spin with.

I love washing freshly shorn fleece.

Very interesting.

I haven't heard of this method before so I'm going to try it out. I have some Very dirty Corriedale fleece and I am concerned at the amount of water I need to use to get it clean, especially as we are in drought. Being able to put the waste water on the garden is fantastic. I like some lanolin in the fibre too as I spin. Thankyou :)

@josefinwaltin

4 жыл бұрын

Joanne Peate Do it! 🌸

When I wash my fleeces, I do it by gradually heating my dirty fiber in a big pot on my stove. I remove all of the lanolin using Unicorn Fiber Scour and softening it in a warm water rinse (not on the stove) in a big bucket with Unicorn Fiber Rinse. Its important for me to remove the heavy lanolin laden grease because I usually plan on dying my wool, either as unspun locks of wool or as handspun yarn. I have found that lanolin or grease still left in the wool tends toward uneven dying since it blocks the dye from adhering to the fiber. I find that it works very well for me. But each to their own preference.

@josefinwaltin

5 жыл бұрын

Sheila Mayer Yes, dyeing needs a lanolin-free wool. It’s great to have several washing methods in store. Sooner or later my regular method doesn’t work and I need to do it differently.

I could never do this with a fine merino. It would felt, as soon as I started squeezing. I've had this low micron merino felt, as I set the yarn. It is so touchy!

@josefinwaltin

2 жыл бұрын

Fleeces are different and for some this method isn’t optimal. I do it with most of my fleeces but not all, for similar reasons as you.

How long does the fleece stay in the rinse water? Is it mostly clean after you take it out of the suet bucket after a week or do you have to leave it in clean rinse water for another period of time?

@josefinwaltin

5 жыл бұрын

Melveny It is mostly clean. I do all three rinses in one afternoon.

Thank you so much for sharing! Can you do this with Blue Face Leicester?

@josefinwaltin

5 жыл бұрын

I would do it with any wool. If you want less lanolin or get rid of the lanolin completely I would put some organic detergent/shampoo in the first rinsing water. I mainly spin from Scandinavian breeds and they are naturally lower in lanolin than many other breeds. After a suint bath I get just the amount of lanolin I need for a smooth spin, without chemicals.

About to switch to this method, as electricity is too expensive in the UK for me to use all the hot water as I used to. One question - would you still need to wash with detergent and hot water AFTER this, if planning to dye? (I'm guessing the dye might not take well without a hot water wash, in other words)?

@josefinwaltin

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, for dyeing I would wash with detergent too. Also, I work with mainly Swedish breeds which are quite low in lanolin. If you work with British breeds they may have a heavier lanolin and you may want to use a little detergent for that too, even if you are not dyeing.

@penelopehemingway4515

2 жыл бұрын

@@josefinwaltin Thank you so much! I suspected this but wondered if you'd tried dyeing it, yet. It will still cut down the amount of hot water and effort needed, so am going to try. Have started it off with a very greasy Shetland fleece and have some primitive breed (North Ronaldsay) lined up to go in after that. Thanks for your video - inspiring and useful as usual.

@josefinwaltin

2 жыл бұрын

@@penelopehemingway4515 I do dye sometimes, but always the spun yarn (after washing with detergent), never the wool.

You don't use any soap?

@josefinwaltin

2 жыл бұрын

No, very rarely. The suint in the wool produces its own soap. However, I work with Scandinavian breeds of Northern short tailed sheep, which are lower in lanolin than in fat tailed breeds. If I were to work with for example merino fleece I would probably have to use some sort of detergent.

@rebeccadees2300

2 жыл бұрын

@@josefinwaltin thank you. I'm new to the wool processing process. I just heard about this method so I appreciate your tutorial and explanation.

I washed one fleece this way and it worked very well. But I did another one with the same water and the fleece has a bunch of little white worms in it! I think they’re too small for maggots… Anybody else had this happen? I thought the microbes would kill something like worms?

@josefinwaltin

2 жыл бұрын

I have no good answer for you other than that it sounds nasty. But were they still alive after the bath?

@helenakmiec492

2 жыл бұрын

@@josefinwaltin I dried the fleece in the sun (post-bath) and it seemed like they all died in the sunlight… wondering if I should throw the fleece in there again since I don’t see any worms in the water itself…it’s not clean as the first one I did. I can’t find anything online about this but apparently they look like fruit fly larvae

@josefinwaltin

2 жыл бұрын

@@helenakmiec492 You could do a test and wash some of the fleece again.

Tackar :-)

@josefinwaltin

5 жыл бұрын

Varsågod! 😊