What's the best way to wash a fleece?

Last october I bought a piece of a Cormo fleece at the Shenandoah Fiber Festival, hoping to get it prepped in time to spin it up during Spinzilla.  Well, I washed it (I thought), but never got any farther along with it.  I was hoping that I would be able to card it with the only cards I own, which are really fine, because it is such a fine wool.  I've been learning a lot the hard way since.

Beautiful Cormo crimp.

In early February, I tried picking some of the fiber.  I found that all the bits of grass and dirt just stuck to the fiber.  In fact, the fiber felt greasy still, and kind of sticky itself.  I tried carding and spinning up a tiny bit, and it was pretty frustrating.  Carding wasn't too bad, but didn't get rid of the foreign material.  Spinning was hard because the fibers were sticking together.  I decided that if this was "spinning in the grease" it is not for me.

Washing the sample.  See how dirty it still is?  

Washed sample looks cleaner, but is uneven because of the stickiness, and still has particulate matter in it.

I decided to read up some more on washing fleece, and a little more on cormo in particular.  What I found is that cormo, along with some other fine fleeces, is really greasy.  Also, it is best to wash the grease out right away; if you don't, it can get old and "sticky".

So, I knew I was in for another wash job, but didn't know for sure what to try next.  There are so many opinions and styles of washing fleece, and I was so afraid of ruining my fleece by felting it up.  I decided to do some experimenting on small portions before I washed my whole fleece again.

The raw fleece before any washing.  It didn't look quite this dirty in person.

First, a description of my fleece.  I didn't really know much of anything when I bought it.  The lovely people who sold it to me had it in a bag and were selling it by the ounce.  They said, "Just pick what you want."  I didn't know what I was doing, and was a bit embarrassed, so I just pulled off a chunk of what was on top.  When I first washed it, I did it in a mesh laundry bag.  The fleece didn't have a very clear lock structure even then, so I just spread it out in the bag and laid that flat in my sink.  After drying in the bag and sitting for a few months, it was a bit of a jumbled mess.  Most of the fleece looked white, but the tips were still very orangy/yellow.  The longest locks are 2.5 inches.  Some are shorter.  There is a beautiful fine crimp to the fleece.

First washing in a mesh bag. 

I pulled off seven little pieces of the fleece, and set up my experiment.  The soaps I've seen suggested most often are dish soap, laundry detergent, and even shampoo.  One site had suggested baking soda to change the alkalinity of the wash water.  Warnings abound against too much agitation and shocking the fleece with cold water.  I decided to try both of these too.

For all samples, the initial wash (well, this is really the second, as the whole fleece was washed in dish soap in October) was in 140 degree water.  This was reported a few places as best for Cormo fleeces and their greasiness.  I let each soak long enough to cool some, drained it, then added the hottest water that came out of the tap as rinse water (except for Sample 6).  I ended up rinsing 4 times.  I varied the samples as follows:

Sample 1:  Dish Detergent (Dawn Pure Essentials)
Sample 2:  Shampoo (Herbal Essences)

Pre-wash

First Wash

First Rinse

Sample 3:  Laundry Detergent (All Free Clear)
Sample 4:  Laundry Detergent + Baking Soda

Pre-wash

First Wash

First Rinse

Sample 5:  Laundry Detergent + Agitation
Sample 6:  Laundry Detergent + Cold Water Shock

Pre-wash

First Wash

First Rinse

My results were not all as I expected!  I would not assume that these results would all be the same with a different type of wool, especially the agitation and cold water shock, but it was comforting to know that at least in this case, I didn't need to panic about either one.  After washing and drying, I picked each sample, carded it, spun it as a singles, and then navajo-plied all six samples into a tiny skein. Here are the notes I made during the process:


Sample 1: Dish Detergent

This fleece is so much better after an additional washing, it is hard to criticize.  There was still quite a bit of vegetable matter, but it mostly shook free in the picking.  The fleece is much fluffier, and felt clean, not greasy.  The fleece combed ok, but had little dense areas (almost neps).  The vegetable matter that still remained didn't fall out in the combing, and was still hard to pick out.  When I spun this little bit, I was disappointed that the fiber didn't spin out smooth.  There were little bumps and neps that made an even draw difficult.

Dish Detergent Sample after drying

Dish Detergent Sample after carding

Sample 2: Shampoo

Picking this bit of fleece right after the one washed in dish detergent, it was clear that it was softer and smoother.  It didn't feel greasy in any way, just softer to the touch (like conditioned hair would).  It picked easily and released a lot more grit.  Combing went well, and the fleece was cleaner than the bit I washed in dish detergent.  It spun more easily than the first sample, but still had a bit of grit and tiny neps of fiber.

Shampoo Sample after drying

Shampoo Sample after carding

Sample 3: Laundry Detergent

The first benefit to the laundry detergent is that it doesn't suds up like dish detergent.  The sample felt about the same as the shampoo sample to the touch--soft and smooth.  As I picked though, there was a big difference.  This sample came apart much more easily as I picked.  It is my clear favorite so far.  The locks seemed to fall apart and fluff up, dropping remaining grit and dirt as I went.  Combing was a dream: easy, with no sign of neps, just an even beautiful batt.  It spun up smoothly too.

Laundry Detergent Sample after drying

Laundry Detergent Sample after carding

Sample 4: Laundry Detergent with Baking Soda

I didn't notice an appreciable difference when adding the baking soda.  I expected the fleece to look or feel a little cleaner, but it didn't.  I think it feels a little less soft, and was a bit harder to pick than the sample washed in laundry detergent alone.  It felt pretty much like the dish detergent sample.  When combing, it was a little stiffer than the sample without the soda.  Spinning was not quite as smooth as without the soda.

Laundry Detergent and Soda after drying

Laundry Detergent and Soda after carding

Sample 5: Laundry Detergent with active washing and agitation

I've been so careful about all of my washing because I'm so afraid of felting my fleece.  I decided to treat this one sample roughly and see what happens.  I actively swished this sample in the hot water many times, turned it, picked the tips apart, and rubbed any parts that looked dirty.  I'm amazed by how good this sample looks in the end.  There might be a couple little spots that are tighter looking.  It was a little harder to pull apart in picking.  When combing, the fiber stayed uneven longer, with areas that looked like neps, similar to the sample washed in dish detergent.  My take-home from this is that at least with this fleece, I can do some gentle swishing of my fleece while washing and not worry at all.

Sample with plenty of agitation (not much cleaner)

Agitated sample after carding (you can see it's still has debris)

Sample 6: Laundry Detergent wash shocked with ice water

Everyone says not to shock your wool with cold water, as the scales will suddenly close up and cause felting.  I decided to go all the way and went from the hot soak water to ice water dumped on the sample.  I then repeated the hot wash and cold rinse.  There is no striking amount of felting in this sample, though like with the agitation, I could tell in the picking that it was a tiny bit harder to pull apart.  The combing went well, with the fiber just a little more resistant than my ideal sample washed in laundry detergent.  The most interesting thing to me about this sample is how clean it is.  It is noticeably whiter than all the other samples.  It's hard to see why this would be true. Perhaps the cold water closed the scales on the fiber shafts and allowed the wool to rinse cleaner?

Cold Shocked Sample after drying

Cold Shocked Sample after carding

The right-hand sample is the cold-water shocked one.  Can you tell in the photo that it's whiter?

Spun Product:

You can tell in the final yarn that some of the samples were cleaner than others.  It's hard to show in the picture which is which, but the cold shocked sample is the really white one on the right-hand side of the bobbin.

Singles in order: 1-6 go sect to right.

Navajo Plyed

You can see the samples that were easier to spin, and the one that's whiter.

Final Results:  

Laundry Detergent all the way!

I will always wash in laundry detergent in the future.  I believe I will also try a 24-48 hour cold water soak as my first step, and hope that I get some of the benefits that I got in my cold water shocked sample.  I also think I'll take a small sample and wash and agitate it before I wash the rest so that I know how worried I need to be about my treatment of the fleece.

I took these results and washed the entire fleece again, did several rinses and then dried it.  This time, I let the fiber float freely in my sink, but I had the mesh bag floating below it, so I could pick it up to drain.  After drying, I found the fleece STILL felt greasy, so I went through the whole process again.  I think part of my problem was that I only used the hottest water the tap would produce, instead of heating the water to 140 deg F.

Now that the fleece is clean and I've done some picking, I really think that lots of my problem with neps is the fleece itself.  It has little bits of short fiber (don't know if they'd qualify as second cuts, but probably), and I don't think I got the best part of the fleece.   I also don't know if the neps and bumps in the carded fleece were caused by my inexperience with carders.  At least it was an inexpensive investment for me to learn on!


References:

http://www.spinningforth.com/articles/spinning/washing_fleece.html

http://www.applerose.com/Sales%20Cormo.html

http://gansey.blogspot.com/2011/09/spinning-and-knitting-in-grease.html

One of these skeins is not like the others...

Remember the Sesame Street Song?  "One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong…"

Well, I did some woolen spinning for the first time during Spinzilla.  Then I tried to go back to my short forward draft to spin the third skein for my Color Affection shawl.  Can you see the results in the pictures?

The two on the ends were spun before Spinzilla.  The one in the middle was done during Spinzilla.  

My skeins go like this:

     Skein 1; 100 g, 258 yd

     Skein 2: 80 g, 215 yd 

     Skein 3: 90 g, 168 yd

Normalized per 50 g, that:

     Skein 1: 129 yd

     Skein 2: 134 yd

     Skein 3: 93 yd

Besides the yardage being so different, the feel of the yarn is quite different: fluffy, airy….woolen spun!

My goal was to match KnitPicks Palette, as I mentioned in this post.  Trouble is, I didn't notice until just now that I'm DOUBLE what I thought!

Here I was saying, Pallete has 213 yd/ 50 g, so I'm doing well  at 258.  But that's for 100 g!  What's my problem?  I was planning to simply spin another skein 3, but now I might just have to start all over.  Hrumph.

Spinzilla Day 7 and Aftermath

Remember that saying "the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray"?  Well, it sure is true for me.

We left on Sunday morning for our camping trip after postponing for various reasons, including rain.  Because we changed plans, I thought I'd get to bring my spinning wheel, but as we started to pack the car, I could see it wasn't going to happen.  With a canoe on top, we couldn't bring the car top carrier, and the car was FULL.  In the end, I threw in my spindle and some brown mill ends.

It poured on us during the drive to James River State Park, but it was only drizzling when we got there.    The river was beautiful, and I had visions of getting my husband to take a picture of me spinning on the banks of the river.  It didn't happen like that.  First we broke out the ponchos.  Then I made lunch under the hatch back of the car while my husband scouted tent sites. Then we ate, and it finally quit raining.  We used the break to get camp set up.  When we were all done, it was settling into dusk.  I was about to get out my spindle, when my husband said, "I'm going to try out the canoe before it gets dark.  Want to come?"  Was I going to say no to an offer like that?  When we got back, it was time for dinner.  While I was cooking, my son made a fire.  With some lighter-fluid help, he finally got the damp wood burning.  After dinner, we all settle around the fire and I pulled out my spindle...and it started to rain.  We all jumped up to clean up everything before it got too wet. We got the little kids into the tent, then did the dishes in the rain before following them. I couldn't let the last day of Spinzilla end without the tiniest bit of spinning, so I ended up trying to spin while sitting on the floor of my tent holding the spindle above my head.  I got a couple of yards of bad singles before my kids asked if I'd please turn the flashlight off.  Ah, well.  At least I got something to add to my total.

The rest of the camping trip was great!  Monday was a beautiful dry day.  We canoed, explored, and enjoyed the weather.  We came home Tuesday, and I was starting to worry about getting my singles plyed so that I could count up my totals.  I thought I still had enough time.  Well, nothing ever goes as planned, and I ran out of time.  I managed to ply the white wool, but had to use a balance to estimate the red.  I wound the purple off and measured, then wound it back on, and my little bit of brown was easy to measure with a tape measure.  

My total was 2243 yards spun.  This is so much more than I've ever spun in a short time before, I have to be happy.  I spun more than I had pre-drafted, so that means I had to have done more than I thought I might.  I also learned to spin from the fold and to love the fluffiness of woolen spun yarn.  I'd call that a success.  The only trouble?  I learned a bit too much how to spin woolen, and my white wool, third of three skeins, seems to be a lot more woolen-ish and fluffy than worstedish and smooth.  am I going o have to spin a whole 'nother skein to match the first two?

Spinzilla Day 6

When I signed up to participate in Spinzilla, I knew it would be hard to find time to spin for a contest.  But I also relished the challenge.  Today was one of those days when spinning didn't get it's turn.

I got up this morning and immediately started sewing halloween costumes for a party at our church tonight.  I don't know why I still, after fifteen years of having children, think that I have until October 31st to finish costumes.  I ALWAYS have to finish them early for some event or another.  This one was particularly early though, and since we'd planned to be gone on a camping trip, I hadn't planned to go.

With the spirit of last minute panic egging me on, we finished costumes just in time to be 15 minutes late.  We had a great time, and I think the kids looked great!

Little Bo Peep, The Black Knight, Tasselhof Burrfoot (from the Dragonlance Books), and Merida (from Brave)

After the party, we went grocery shopping for the camping trip, made meals to freeze, cleaned up a bit, and then I finally sat down to spin for a couple of minutes before bed.  We had to change our camping plans because our first choice plan was full, so we're going to strap on the canoe and go to the James River.  That means car camping, not backpacking, so I'm back to hoping my wheel will fit in the car for the last day of Spinzilla tomorrow.

Here's my little bit of spinning:  Its merino/silk purchase at the Shenandoah fiber festival.  The picture is bad because it's midnight, and I have no good light.  I dyed the roving last week, and have been surprised and pleased by the variation in color.  I expected the silk and merino to take the dye differently, but there's much more variation that I can't explain.

[#spinzilla, #teamspinoff]

Spinzilla Day 5

The fifth day of Spinzilla already!  I've spun almost as much as I have in my whole spinning "career" up until now.  This morning I plied up the "Granite" merino from Unique Ewe.  I LOVE this yarn!  It is squishy, soft, light, and makes you want to squeeze it all day.  My favorite part of spinning is plying. I love how fast it is, and I love seeing the product of the labor.

I also barely managed to get 80 g of wool/silk spun up to finish up my Color Affection shawl.  I had to quit spinning because we're going to a halloween party tomorrow, and I had to pull out the sewing machine to work on costumes.  Here's hoping I finish the sewing in time!

[#teamspinoff, #spinzilla]

Spinzilla Day 4... already?!

As they always do, the days are flying by.  I thought the week of Spinzilla would last so long!  I've been feeling frustrated all day, because I barely got to touch my wheel.  The truth is, the past red days when I did get to use it were the unusual ones.

It's a good thing I did spin a bit this evening, or I might have torn someone's head off.  My husband keeps telling me that C-SPAN radio and driving in traffic don't mix, but I'm too dumb to listen to his wise counsel!  Traffic is bad enough without listening to politicians all day.  If I hear one more person say, "The American People want..." I think I'll scream.  If all the American people wanted the same thing, this wouldn't be complicated.  Hmpf.  Spinning...calm...yes....

So today I finished the bobbin full of merino (4 oz) in Colorway "Granite".  I had kind of a problem, because I'd decided to spin the two colorways separately, then ply them with each other as a marled yarn.  But when I spun up the denim, it was as one of my Spin Off teammates suggested; you don't know which the characteristics of the singles you'll love will be until you see them.  I loved the Denim as it was, so I had to figure out how to split the bobbin in two to ply it.  I transferred what looked like half to another bobbin (same type, so I assumed their weight was the same), then kept weighing until they were the same.  Now I have to do the same again with the Granite so that I can free up the bobbins for the rest of my white wool for the Color Affection Shawl.

If I'm really fast with the white wool I'm spinning up for a color affection shawl, I'm hoping to get to this merino/silk I dyed last week:

I hope I have more to show for tomorrow, because we just decided to go camping this weekend, and that's going to cramp my spinning style.  It's looking like a short backpacking hike, so I guess I'll have to revert to a spindle!

[#spinzilla, #teamspinoff]

Spinzilla Day 3, and I'm beat.

Well, I'm so tired tonight I was feeling discouraged about my spinning, but I'm really actually quite happy with it!  I finished all the red Wool of the Andes, plied the "Denim" merino, which is my favorite part, and got about half of the "Granite" merino spun.

I'm getting better at spinning from the fold, but switching back and forth with short forward draw has my hands all confused!  I finally started folding all the locks in advance so that I can pick them up and join them faster.  I love this colorway.

The pictures are all lousy because it's night, but I really love the soft squishiness of the merino now that it's plied.  Can't wait to see it in the skein!

I have one great story for the night.  The family knelt down tonight to say a family prayed.  My hubby asked my older son to say the prayer, but apparently he didn't hear.  We everyone bowed their heads waiting for a prayed and finally my youngest son said, "Hello?"  Somehow it sounded just like he'd picked up a phone to his Heavenly Father and was trying to start a conversation.  I laughed til tears came.  What a cute kid!

[#spinzilla, #teamspinoff]