This was my first time washing fleece using Unicorn Power Scour (previously I used blue Dawn) and I have to say that I'm a convert. This lovely stuff needed only one wash cycle to get the lanolin out. The dry fleece feels clean but not dried out. The color is getting blown out in the photos above -- the actual fleece is a gorgeous chocolatey brown:
I'm planning to use some of what I've washed to do a little sampling so I can decide how I want to prep the rest of it. The staple length is a bit short for what I'd expect for a Romney cross, but that's probably because the fleece came from a yearling ram. I'll attempt some combing and some carding and see which looks best.
Meanwhile, in between the trips up and down the stairs, I got some decent spinning time in yesterday as well. I finished up my first bobbin of Cheviot singles on Friday night and finished the second yesterday afternoon.
I won't know for sure until the third bobbin is spun and the singles are plied, but it looks like my plan to line up the colors is more or less working!
Ooo! I am excited to see what you do with that fleece! Fun times!
ReplyDeleteOk, so I've been debating about fleece washing as I still have about half of my first fleece (a full Romney) to wash (it was 8lbs, so I'm no as lazy as that sounds). I was thinking about the comments our sweet mutual friend, Fibretown Emily, had to say about the lanolin clogging her kitchen sink. And I realized that my utility sink totally got a horrific clog a few months after I washed the majority of the first half of the Romney. It's the same drain for the utility sink and the washing machine, so I'm considering following her advice to use a separate tub/bucket to wash out the lanolin.
ReplyDeleteWhich leads to the actual questions I have: 1) how do you wash your fleeces (aside from using Pour Scour)? 2) Have you had any clogging issues in the past?