Washing lambswool

 As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have lost several kilos of long-stapled wool due to careless washing. I don't think I'm felting it with unnecessary agitation (after all I've washed BFL/ Leicester longwool lambswool with no felting). Rather, I'm soaking and washing it without picking it, so the wool is dense and matted in the hot soapy water. It doesn't wash the mud out very well, not does it dry very well like that, so it's often still slightly damp when it goes into plastic buckets for storage. Six months later I have musty smelling, muddy fleece that doesn't want to be picked and flicked.

Lamsbwool locks before washing

A week ago I bought a lovely soft, white Romney lamb's fleece and was determined not to make the same mistake again. I thought of spinning it all up in the grease, and tried spinning a skein. It spun up well, and washed up nicely, but after washing was still creamy coloured and smelled more sheepy than I really like. I'm used to my skeins being white and clean, and I don't really want to sacrifice that for the sake of skipping a wash.

Moreover, I realise that wool "in the grease" has a shelf life of only a couple of months, before the waxes harden, the fibres stiffen and discolour, and the moths get the munchies. Since I put effort into buying fleeces as soon as possible after shearing for freshness, it seems counterproductive to then let the fleece go rancid and stale in my loft.

Is there a special technique for washing adult or lamb's long-stapled fleeces? I found the blog of one spinner who flicks each lock, then individually sews each one into a mesh bag before washing. Others wash their unpicked locks, half a dozen at a time, in roasting pans. I wanted a method that was unfussy yet reliable.

Theorising that my main mistake in the past had been the compactness of the fibre, not water temperature, type or quantity of detergent used, agitation etc, I decided to separate the fleece into individual locks at the start. This fleece is very open and it is easy to do this. There is also very little mud and vegetable matter, which there was plenty of in the fleeces I'd had problems with.

Fleece in small batches in laundry bags

I divided the locks into two piles, one pile I left unflicked, and the other pile I flicked. Then both piles were split into handfuls, about the volume and weight of a bra, each handful was put into a separate laundry bag, and soaked in cold water. The unflicked locks had an overnight soak, the flicked ones only about 20 - 30 minutes.

Then I boiled the kettle, and made a cup of tea.

Then I boiled the kettle again, and put about 5 litres of too-hot-for-hands water into a plastic trug. I added a 2-second squeeze of Bio-D (unscented, eco-friendly washing-up liquid) to the water, swished it around (ouch!) then put the fleece in.

Then I drank the tea.

Two rinses of equally hot water later, and the water was clear and clean. The fleece went into my laundry spinner to spin, and came out not at all felted.

The unflicked locks after washing

Probably unsurprisingly, the unflicked locks came out with dirt still in the tips, while the flicked locks came out snowy white and shiny, like underwear in a laundry commercial. I need to wait for the locks to dry and flick them for a true comparison (is that dirt going to flick out easily or not?), but I have to say, so far this method of washing flicked locks in small batches to allow plenty of spreading out space looks like a good one.

It uses more hot water than I am used to using, but I don't see there's any way round that. If I was abusing the fleece by washing too much of it at a time, then washing less of it at a time is going to take more of my time and hot water. The kettle doesn't like being boiled repeatedly, and often stops working for five minutes to cool down. I have a tea urn however, and tomorrow I'll get it out and see if that makes the process run more smoothly.

The flicked locks after washing

My main concern now is: how much space is it going to take to store it? Up until now I have squashed and stuffed washed fleece into buckets, at least 1.5 kg in a 40L bucket. Come to think about it, maybe the squashing process itself is to blame for the felting. The BFL / Leicester lambswool that I washed successfully never made it into a bucket. It's been in more or less constant use for sock yarn, so it's been in a pillowcase in the bathroom since June.

I have 3 kg (unwashed weight) of fleece, let's say 2 or 2.5kg after washing. In its compact, unwashed state it wouldn't quite fit into a 40L bucket. I was thinking that after washing it would take up two buckets. But if I store it flicked and washed, how many then? Three? Four? And will it felt in the bucket?

If anyone has any experience they would like to share with me, I would be very grateful. I really don't want to open a bucket in 6 months time and find a musty mess.