How to Skirt and Wash a Sheep's Fleece to Spin into Yarn

Sheep shearing

You start with a sheep, and end up with knitted and crocheted projects. Steps to producing yarn include carding and spinning. But first, the fleece must be cleaned.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Unwashed raw wool fleece
• Hot water
• Dishwashing detergent
• Lingerie bags or pillowcases

1. Lay out your fleece -- most fleeces come as a whole "sheet" of wool -- and take off the extremely dirty edges. Pick out any vegetable matter that you can easily remove. This process is called 'skirting.’

2. Separate fleece into smaller pieces and place the pieces in lingerie bags or pillowcases.

3. Put hot water into your bathtub or washing machine. Add enough dish soap to make the water feel slippery. Submerge the bags of wool. Allow the wool to soak 30 minutes. At no time should you agitate the wool -- it could cause the wool to knot up and weave into itself tightly, a process called felting. If you are using your washing machine, never agitate -- you will have felt.

4. Put the wool in slightly cooler water with no soap. The water should still be close to hot -- a sudden temperature change could cause felting. Allow the wool to soak for another 20 to 30 minutes. This is your rinse. If the rinse water comes out dirty, greasy or still soapy, you will need to rinse again.

5. Get the water out of the wool. You can use the spin cycle on the washing machine to press the water out of your wool - as long as the wool is in bags. Lay the wool out to dry as soon as the spin cycle is done. If you are removing the water by hand, press out as much water as possible without agitating or rubbing the wool together. The resulting wool should feel clean and smell like dish soap – it should not smell like sheep.

References

• Spinning Forth: Washing Fleece