Soaking was the easy bit, the draining of the bath, squeezing out excess water and the COLOUR of the water was the hard bits. Also, have you ever lifted a fleece that's 4lb dry but right this second waterlogged? It weighs a LOT. Anyhoo, have some photos of my latest purchase.
The raw fleece in feed bag:
Spread out on the bathroom floor:
Mid-wash (I had to take it out the bath entirely to rinse out the bath and refill with water):
Drying on the airer:
I think the second drying photo looks like some big shaggy beast in the shower.
So, yeah. a little under 4 pounds of washed fleece. Next is sorting it into locks by coarseness and then combing those into rolags which can then be spun. It's been a fairly labour intensive process in places and my right hand is informing me that the eczema did not enjoy the repeated changes in temperature and moisture levels but I have a washed fleece that isn't felted! Later today I will transfer it to the airer on the landing but right now even though I rolled it in two old towels and stood on it it's still dripping somewhat.
The house smells pleasantly of sheep and the washing machine is taking care of the towels and dust sheet.
So for future note to myself, it takes about 4 hours to wash a full fleece, 2.5 of soaking, 0.5 of draining and 1 of filling the bath repeatedly.
4 comments:
I really really really will never be drawn to this... yuk! no offence, but I like my yarn skein-happy!
No offence taken.
My Mum would go *spare* at the mess and the smell but I dunno, I like doing it.
I love prepping my own fleeces, despite the smell and copious ammounts of hot water involved. I do tend to sort it first though rather than doing the whole fleece in one go, it makes it a bit easier.
I've heard that it's better to sort it first but this thing was so matted with grease and dirt I couldn't see how, especially as it's usual to sort by hand and the dip they used was irritating my skin.
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