#washing wool

[iplaywithstring]

Sudden urge to wash some fleece.

This was an impulse buy a few years ago - white merino that was jacketed. It's so clean, but still tacky

I don't mind spinning in the grease, but this is so fine and short that I'm worried about drafting it.

If everything goes well, this will one day be a ring shawl.

So I'm prepping it to simmer in some power scour to get rid of the lanolin

I use cut bits of netting, line the locks up and fold it into a little packet

This keeps the locks from moving around and preserves the structure. I love spinning from the lock.

[tyrhinosaurus]

I found a fleece market day a few hours from home, and omg I had such a good time. There was so much to look at and touch and smell! I came home with 3 fleeces: a dark grey merino cross, a middle brown moorit (@milkweedman was it you who likes moorit?), and a section of piebald superfine merino!

I've never bought whole fleeces before, I'm so excited to spin it up. I keep dreaming of jumpers, but need to get started on spinning before I dream too big.

I started washing locks of the merino cross tonight, trying to maintain lock structure for semi-worsted spinning, but we'll see if that lasts, there's a lot of locks XD I'm also not sure how much lanolin I've actually removed lol, so will have a check in the morning and see.

[egophiliac]

he finally figured out how to use the washing machine!

non-gif version:

[lickyourface8]

Corriedale dyed red.

#Lickyorface8

[comfortabletextiles]

Emptied the potash singles on cardboard so I can keep spinning the other washed fibers. Very satisfying

[milkweedman]

Impossible to photograph this massive fleece without cats all over it. Look how big though !! Might be the biggest I've ever worked with.

[daily-crabbys]

i was gonna ask this on my main but I'll probably actually get answers on this blog

how does one clean a wool hat?

i obtained a wool hat through thrifting means, and every instruction, both on the hats tag and online, have told me to just lightly dab it to clean it, which is probably the correct way to do it. the issue is, again, the fact that i thrifted it, so i dont really trust that to clean it all the way

do i just gotta suck it up and accept the hat will never be entirely clean, or is there another way i could clean it?

[kaiyonohime]

Finished the tiny tot's winter vest! It looks washed out in the photo, but it's a really gorgeous forest green.

Pattern was Storm Slipover Junior.

Fairly good pattern, but read the instructions! The body chart goes much longer than it needs to, so this is actually a little too long for tiny tot. Which isn't too big an issue, he'll either grow into it this winter or wear it next winter. That's the benefit of a vest, no arm length issues.

Took a little over a month to knit, probably would have only taken a weekend if I'd had the time. Tiny tot still tries to help with everything. And by help I mean climbing on everything he's not supposed to. Or insisting I read books to him. Or screaming about wanting a cookie.

Glad it's done, now I can return to knitting lace!

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

The washing is not bad! There are certainly better ways to do it, but my budget approach has involved a thrifted salad spinner, a tea kettle, dish soap, and a collapsible herb-drying rack I got on Amazon. I can only do a little at a time this way, but the rest of my prep is slow too (diy combs and, now, proper hand cards) so that's ok.

First, go through & sort your wool. If it's well skirted, you'll have less to do, but still some. Mine had some different lengths, which you can either mix together or separate for different uses. Videos show fancy skirting tables and efficient techniques, but I just pull a big chunk out of the bag & sort it into categories in mixing bowls. Anything really filthy or short went in my compost, but may be useable for felt or stuffing if you really want to craft with every bit.

(I've recently heard that soaking your fleece overnight in cold plain water before you start this process can help loosen dirt beforehand. Haven't tried it yet, but will. That step would go here.)

Hot tap water + some boiling water + rather a lot of dish soap* in the salad spinner body, then lower the basket in, filled with picked-over wool. Poke it down with a spoon or tongs (water should be too hot for your hands) but don't agitate, & leave it for 10 or 15 minutes.

Lift the basket out & let it drain, dump the dirty water, refill and repeat. Beware of how much lanolin you're putting down your sink - maybe pour it outside. I usually didn't need soap after the first soak, but it depends on how dirty the fleece is. Mostly I've been doing one bath with soap, one the same but without soap, and one or two with just hot tap water. You want to be pouring out clear water at the end.

The last rounds don't really need to sit & soak; you're just rinsing at that point, not softening lanolin and loosening up dirt. But don't run water over the wool! Keep lowering it into still water, poking/jostling** it a little, and lifting the basket of wool out.

Now you get to spin the salad spinner, to get as much water out of the wool as you can. Pressing between towels is also ok, but no rubbing or agitating wet wool! Then I separate the chunks & lay them in the drying rack, and hang it on the back porch.

Once it's all completely dry, you get to move on to combing or carding. Or folding up the drying rack, with the wool inside, & shoving it between some crates for several months, as I have most recently done. The wool can wait, once it's dry.

*Apparently there are some that have enzymes to break down protein on dishes. Wool is also protein, so that's not ideal - check on which brand you use. I hear the *original* Dawn is good, but not everything under that name. I use hippie gentle stuff anyway, to be nice to my septic system, so my regular soap was fine.

Also "rather a lot" means enough that the water feels slippery, for the first soak at least. Don't hold back! And put it in after the water, so you don't get a ton of suds.

**I suppose even this level of agitation could felt very fine wools. It's been fine with these fleeces, and I'm carding or combing afterwards anyway. I could also see even very minor felting being a problem if you're spinning from the locks, so proceed with caution. Remember that felting comes from heat+wet+agitation - you can have any two of those safely, to some extent***, but all three will fuck up your fiber.

***Like, needle felting is dry, but it's extreme agitation. Or that rug weaving tradition where they throw the finished work in spinning river water for 10 hours - cold, but lots of agitation and time. Etcetera.

Baa baa colorful sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, six bags full!

I got a bunch of Romeldale fleece, for free, from a local farm. Note that this is me showing great restraint, because she had at least 30 bags, and was giving them all away. Now to learn to process raw fleece for spinning! I should probably get that old wheel fixed up, too…

[viciousewe]

-_-

I liked spinning Icelandic as rolags more than combed top because my combs separate the thel and tog so I carded all the top I had previously combed and that made for an even better spinning experience……laziness vs experience FIGHT

[fisheito]

Smn here said: fluffed up for winter Kuya! And imagine, Kuya had enough of feeling a tiny bit cold, and he just turns into this fluffball round type of fox that we sometimes see on arts! Completely soft, round and unapologetic about his foxian beauty! (Almost biting off Quincy's hands when he tries to touch the Flooooof just to be a dick)

((Scaring Eiden silly by coming alive from a ridiculous fur sofa in Aster's living room (Eiden thought he was sofa, it's not Kuya's fault he is not very smart)))

(((Inspiring Karu/Garu to do the same, and now everyone is covered in fur and spit, and Eiden's bed has never been this warm)))

((((Yakumo is knitting everyone dog fur sweaters, hats, socks and scarves))))

oh god pompous winter kyorb is gonna activate every histamine in my body he's a cushion with teeth he could be lying ANYWHERE in the mansion i hope aster doesn't have a lot of purple furniture because if he does ..this is gonna be the most stressful holiday party of everyone's unbitten butts

[theblesseddamozel]

When people ask you to knit a sweater for them not realizing that they’re basically asking you for the knitting equivalent of a fucking engagement ring

[tyrhinosaurus]

Wash day! My first time cleaning the whole fleece in one go, it's so much faster than doing a handful at a time. This is a beautiful moorit fleece I bought earlier this year. Surprisingly few second cuts, and very low VM :)

3x cold rinses

2x hot soapy wash

1x cold rinse with hose

Could have turned the temperature up for the washes, there's still a bit of lanolin in there, but it's not unpleasant and I like the moisturising feel.

Overall a great success and so so satisfying. But it takes a looooong time to dry even in the sun. Definitely glad I did it over a sunny weekend

[justgarb]

This morning's project/test is a six strand skjoldehamn braid with 4 threads per strand for bulk.

The goal is trim testing for tunics. This pattern is taken from the Skjoldehamn find, with instructions from Wyrd Kindred. Will be tossing this in the wash on hot to see how it shrinks on the recommendation of ye tumblr SCAdia hive mind. 19 inches at start

Hottest setting inside of a delicate bag. Lost almost 2 inches but holy crap look at those ends! @sca-nerd Update: I'm not sure if this is a good idea to use on the linen tunics. I think I'll limit this to my hand wash items only.

[l0stw00d]

Very quick asphodel doodle, for the soul! she's washing Saoirse's wool :3

[comfortabletextiles]

Plying the wool washing experiment.

Extremely satisfying

Also this pain in the ass plying set up