Post by elizabeth on Aug 31, 2016 14:57:48 GMT
As I mentioned in another thread, a friend send me a box of pieces of white and dark fleeces from her heard of meat sheep. They are a mixture of several breeds:
The Darks have about 25% karakuls and the rest is genetically Lincoln and ilDeFrance and the commercial white face
Whites are a Rambouillet crossed with Finn and Pollypay and other white faced ewes. Those I cross on to an ilDeFrance ram
I don't know how old the wool is, but she shears in March, so it could have been from the recent shearing or an older one.
I finally decided to pull some out and give it a go to try processing in my kitchen sink.
The first step - I have some Unicorn Power Scour, so how much to use? Hmm. Bottle says 16 fluid ounces to 20 pounds of wool. I have 2 ounces, so... sheesh! this is hard!
I finally came up with about 1/2 teaspoon.
The fleeces was skirted, but there was still a LOT of 'dark matter' in it, so I pulled out as much as I could find.
Here is the first soak. I just used a spare colander in my sink. The Power Scour said that the temp should be around 140-160F, so I heated up water to bring the tap water to a higher temperature. I let the fleece soak for about 15 minutes a soak (I was very impatient.)
I can't remember if this was the second or third soak. Looking at it makes me hope it was the second soak.
Here is a bit that I thought I could preserver as locks, but I'm not too sure. They're very stuck together at the tips. I haven't checked them since they dried, so maybe there's hope with dying them.
I put the fleece on a rack to dry.
I also tried the dark fleece but I was wondering how in the world do you puck out the mucky bits when they're the same color?? I put that through the wash about 4 times to be a bit more thorough.
What do you think?
Should I have let it soak longer? In cooler water?
Is there any hope for the locks?
I'll try the drum carder on this, but I'm a newbie at that, too.
The Darks have about 25% karakuls and the rest is genetically Lincoln and ilDeFrance and the commercial white face
Whites are a Rambouillet crossed with Finn and Pollypay and other white faced ewes. Those I cross on to an ilDeFrance ram
I don't know how old the wool is, but she shears in March, so it could have been from the recent shearing or an older one.
I finally decided to pull some out and give it a go to try processing in my kitchen sink.
The first step - I have some Unicorn Power Scour, so how much to use? Hmm. Bottle says 16 fluid ounces to 20 pounds of wool. I have 2 ounces, so... sheesh! this is hard!
I finally came up with about 1/2 teaspoon.
The fleeces was skirted, but there was still a LOT of 'dark matter' in it, so I pulled out as much as I could find.
Here is the first soak. I just used a spare colander in my sink. The Power Scour said that the temp should be around 140-160F, so I heated up water to bring the tap water to a higher temperature. I let the fleece soak for about 15 minutes a soak (I was very impatient.)
I can't remember if this was the second or third soak. Looking at it makes me hope it was the second soak.
Here is a bit that I thought I could preserver as locks, but I'm not too sure. They're very stuck together at the tips. I haven't checked them since they dried, so maybe there's hope with dying them.
I put the fleece on a rack to dry.
I also tried the dark fleece but I was wondering how in the world do you puck out the mucky bits when they're the same color?? I put that through the wash about 4 times to be a bit more thorough.
What do you think?
Should I have let it soak longer? In cooler water?
Is there any hope for the locks?
I'll try the drum carder on this, but I'm a newbie at that, too.
