Last summer I washed 10 fleeces. My husband and I soaked them in cold water overnight, or several days, maybe changing the water, maybe not. We used the water on the garden which is a good use for dirty, stinky sheep fleece water. A lot of dirt comes out by doing this. Then I washed in very hot water and dish detergent, not letting the water cool, then at least 2 rinses in the same temperature water. Lanolin stays in the fleece if you do not use hot water and if you wait too long to spin it, it gets gummy and difficult to draft. This washing took all of August, or at least it seemed like it, but we had lovely, hot weather and it dried nicely.
I had a Corriedale fleece which was wet with lanolin and washed with two hot soap washes, rinsed and carded. Shortly thereafter, it was gummy and not nice. I left it several months but decided that it was not going to be used in that condition so rewashed it, but resorted to Tide. Not nice to nice wool, but it did get rid of the residue, also seems to have coarsened the wool. I can now use it, though. Tricia Julie C Gerow wrote: > you could soak a fleece in cold water overnight and get a lot of dirt > out of it that way - with very little effort. -- What if? A million possibilities. [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.armispiansystems.ca/ByHand/ To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
