My first fleece

I bought a fleece from an acquaintance the other day. I'm in love. First of all, I *like* the smell of sheep. I can't place why, but it's a very comforting smell to me.

It's got a lot of crimp - about 13 bumps/inch. Soft enough that when I made an overtwisted cabled sample of yarn, it's still soft enough that it doesn't itch. It's almost as soft as the merino I've got here.

Of course, the first thing I started doing was picking out little locks and trying to wash them. Over the past week, I've made lots of progress in how to wash wool.

My most recent discovery is something that none of the HOWTO sites mention - the wool comes much cleaner if you comb it first. All the bits of vm and dried lanolin and gook crumble right out, leaving just a little bit of dust for the wash water. I've cut it down from two washes and two rinses in hot water to one of each in lukewarm water, and the wool is so much brighter and softer, too.

I also made my own comb. Haircombs work, but they're too fine. I used tiny finishing nails, and put them through a piece of scrap aluminum, then folded the aluminum in half to hold them still. I've been using cat slicker brushes too, but I've been combing through the locks a few times before using them. It gets more crud out, faster.

AND.... brushing/combing the wool allows me to save most of the lanolin. Why waste a ton of water and soap to get rid of something that costs me almost a dollar a gram? All I've been doing is scraping up the greeblies that fall out of the wool, and putting them in water. A quick stir, and the dirt and skin separate from the grease. The grease rises to the top. Once I've got a fair bit, I'll heat it to melt the grease and let it cool, then scrape it off and repeat to get it as clean as I can. When you've got my skin, and Saskatchewan winters, you appreciate lanolin for the joy that it is!

Anyway, I hope Trics forgives me for buying from somebody else first - the price was too good to be true!