Wool washing

August 5th, 2009

Back in June Abbey and I went out to Merce’s to wash some wool. I bought a whole fleece at last year’s Wool Fest that needed cleaned. Abbey blogged about the day on her blog.

Merce and I get ready to start the washing.

Wool washing

Abbey was decked out in her sun gear and prepped and fluffed the wool for us.

Wool washing

Merce lives off grid too so I was particularly interested in learning her technique. She has three wash tubs, each heated on a propane fueled burner. Candy thermometers are placed on the side of each tub to monitor the temparture.

Wool washing

The first bin is the soap wash, the second and third ones are for rinsing.

Wool washing

Special gloves are used since the temperature is so hot. I want to say it was 150 degrees? Here’s my dirty fleece:

Wool washing

Abbey was teasing me about something so I retaliated with dirty water flicking.

Wool washing

Between tub two and three we put the fleece on a screen to prep it for the wringer.

Wool washing

The wringer squeezes out excess water without felting the wool.

Wool washing

My fleece was dark brown when I bought it at the Wool Fest. After washing it’s now a heathered brown/gray.

Wool washing

Me with my fleece:

Wool washing

Now I get to spin it up!

Entry Filed under: Spinning, Friends

1 Comment Add your own

  • 1. Crafting Chaos » Ne&hellip  |  September 18th, 2009 at 9:14 pm

    […] Remember the bag of fleece I washed at Merce’s place? […]

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