Sunday, October 10, 2010

My wool cleaning experience

I have had a fun time washing...no, I'm not running a fever... :)
I spent about 30 minutes going through the fleece and was amazed at how little VM there was-my hands were so soft and slippery from all of the lanoline.  PeeWee was one clean guy!
I pulled out approx. 1/3 of the wool and placed it in a huge bucket of very warm soapy water.  I made sure it was submerged and left it set for about 15 minutes- I had to resist the urge to stir it around- didn't want to felt it yet! I pulled it out of the bucket and layed it out on my picnic table (I did this all outside).  I did a very gentle rinse to clear up the water.  Now it's laying out in the Florida sun drying.  I am loving the silver gray color and cannot wait to make my rug!  I have two more batches to go.....


3 comments:

  1. PeeWee is indeed very handsome. I will look forward to seeing the progress of the project.

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  2. I'm glad it turned out to be so clean of VM, that saves hours in a very tedious process . When I washed mine I had to get it dried fast so put it in a "delicate's bag" and put on spin cycle in washer and it really did speed drying up .

    Happy rug making, I look forward to learning about it .

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  3. When I was a kid, we had a pet sheep for my mom to have her own wool for spinning. Abby was a Corriedale and we got 26 lbs of wool from her every year. We kept her barn very clean so she did not have much hay or other stuff in her fleece. My grandmother used to take the wool bits from her hind end and soak them in water and then water the plnats with the tea! Plants loved it! That wool always got discarded!!! THings that only my tiny frugal swedish grandmother would do!!!! Glad that you enjoyed your experience! the lanoline is amazing stuff isn't it!!!

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