May 22, 2009

Another batch of wool in the tub!

Today I started processing Praline and Nougatine's fleeces. First, I carefully arranged Praline's fleece on netting. Then, on a different piece of netting I arranged Nougatine's fleece. I layered the netting/fleeces in my wash tub : Praline's on the bottom and Nougatine's on top, separated by netting, of course!

Both of these fleeces look so beautiful that I almost hate pouring all that rain water on them!

Two Dry Noisette (Brown) Ouessant Fleeces

Eight gallons of water later :

Oh Dear!! "Sheep Soup"
Fortunately it will all come out in the wash!

...Cold water wash, that is!

The lid's been closed . . . hopefully next week we'll find two beautifully clean fleeces.
Can't wait!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting about this method! I had remembered reading about this type of soaking sometime last year but couldn't remember where so ignorantly started the process last Saturday. Will it matter that I used regular water in a galvanized tub and a few squirts of dawn dish soap? I pushed the fleece into the water and it's been stewing since. Except that it's not covered, nor did I think to use netting.

That's what I get for being impatient and not taking the time to properly search!

I just read some of your recent posts too. I remember watching Navajo women doing all the shearing when I lived on the rez as a teen. Their speed, grace and efficiency with ancient hand clippers (non electric) was totally impressive.

Fell in love with ouessants when I saw them for the first time last fall. Want one! :)

Thank you for visiting the Spinning Shepherd!