5 Easy Steps for Preparing Raw Fleece to Spin

(No heavy buckets of hot water to haul; No wet fleeces to handle; No risk of felting; and No carding!)

I am preparing to take part in Spinzilla for the first time this year. Since I am now living on the Big Island of Hawaii, I found a team here that I can join. It will not only be a lot of fun, but I will have the opportunity to meet other fiber artists in this community. If you don’t know about Spinzilla, go to Spinzilla.org to learn more. This year, it will be held October 3-9, 2016.

I started thinking about what I would like to spin during the week. I have quite a bit of unspun fiber of all kinds and thought at first that I might like to see if anyone in the group could help me learn more about spinning 100% silk. I have found it a difficult fiber to work with. But then I remembered that I had two small raw Lincoln fleeces, that my friend Emily acquired for me. Believe it or not, I brought them to Hawaii with me! 

Last winter, for the first time, I processed, spun, and knit a whole fleece, and learned that it is not that daunting of a task.

From Margaret Stove’s video, Spinning for Lace  I learned an easy way to wash the fleece, in small quantities, in a way that preserves the locks with most of the fibers lying parallel to each other.  In this post, I will show you how I am preparing this batch of wool for Spinzilla.

Tools and supplies:

     Large shallow tub

     Net bags or nylon netting

     Two smaller tubs or bowls

     Dish detergent or shampoo

     Large towel
     Hot water

1  Pull out and separate all the locks

        
Here is part of the fleece I am working with—as it came off the sheep.

Sitting in a comfortable chair and with a towel over my lap, I put the bag of fleece on one side and a large shallow tub on the other. I pull up a batch of the fleece and giving a gentle tug on the tip of each lock, I pull each one away from the fleece.

 I stack them on my lap—all the tips facing the same way until they are about ready to fall over. Then I transfer them to the tub—again, making sure that all the tips face the same direction. (This is important if you want to be able to spin all the yarn from the tips.)

2  Prepare for washing

Margaret Stove shows two ways to wash the locks. You can wash them one-by-one using a bar of soap, which can be kind of a meditative experience, or you can lay them in some kind of netting and wash them in batches. For this project, I will wash the locks in batches. Lay out 10 or so locks in one layer inside a net bag (Margaret recommends those bags that produce sometimes comes in) or piece of nylon netting which has been cut large enough to fold over the line of locks. I make up 4-5 of these bags and then go to the washing stage. 

3  Wash and rinse

I encourage you to watch Margaret’s video or read her book, Merino: Handspinning, Dyeing and Working With Merino and Superfine Wools, for excellent details for this step. (This preparation method is good for all sheep wool, not just merino.) 

Here is how I am washing this Lincoln fleece: I prepared a small tub of very hot soapy water (a little hotter than I can stand, knowing it will start to cool down at once). Dish detergent is what I have used in the past and what Margaret recommends. It is good for cutting the lanolin. You want the water to feel pretty slippery with the soap. For this project, I decided to use shampoo, instead.

Next to the tub of soapy water, I have a tub of fairly warm clear water for rinsing. Don’t use cool or cold water—you don’t want to shock the fiber and give it any excuse to felt.

I keep a hot kettle of water nearby so I can add some to the tubs as they cool.

Lower a bag of locks in the water and push them under. Gently squeeze the soapy water through the bag several times, not allowing the locks to move around in the bag too much. If you want, you can roll up the bag loosely before you start to help keep the fibers in place.  Squeeze out the soapy water and transfer the bag to the rinsing tub. 

Again, squeeze the water through gently a few times and then squeeze out the excess water. A second rinsing is usually not necessary.

4  Dry

Once all the bags are washed, lay them on a thick towel, roll it up, and again squeeze. This will leave the locks just barely damp and they will dry faster, which is important here in humid Hawaii. The locks will only be damp.

Remove the locks from the bags and lay them out on a large surface where they won't blow away. It only takes an hour or so for them to dry (unless, of course, you live in Hawaii, where it may take overnight!).

5  Tease out the ends

Sometimes I do this step in batches and sometimes I just do it just before I spin each lock.

Lay a towel on your lap and using a small flick carder tease out the tip and then the base of each lock. I keep a firm hold on the middle of the lock so the fibers are not pulled out by the carder.

I then lay the locks in a box or tub until I am ready to spin  (again, keeping the tips aligned in the same direction).

That’s all there is to it!

It may take longer to wash the fleece, but what I really like about this method is that you can pull a few locks, wash them, spin for a while, pull a few more,  wash some more, spin some more—until you finish.  I usually have all stages of the process going at once so I can move from one to the other depending on what I feel like doing. 


My goal for the week of Spinzilla is to spin/ply a mile of yarn. Even if I don’t make the goal, I will certainly gain a nice stash of lovely Lincoln yarn. 

What are you spinning for Spinzilla? How are you preparing?