Scouring Fleece

freshly washed Targhee/Debouillet X fleece; from Nancy and Sam Ortmann in Wolf Point MT

A few weeks ago when talking about Drum Carding
I said I would write about my fleece washing technique when next I had something to work with.

Fortuitously, as I was writing a mailchimp newsletter thingy the other day to send to those of you who have signed up, a box arrived from the Ortmann's in Wolf Point, Montana.

Naturally in my excitement I neglected to photograph the unboxing and that thrilling moment when the compressed fleece puffed out like a muffin in the oven.
But here are some photos of the raw fleece -- a Targhee/Debouillet Cross I thought I would try.

As you can see, these are range sheep -- no fleece covers, no pampering, but rather a life on the Montana Prairie that leads to some seriously lovely fine fleeces.

I've been buying Ortmann fleeces for years, starting back when Nancy's mother-in-law would send a sample of incredible Cormo if you mailed a stamped envelope in response to their small add in the classified section in the back of Spin Off Magazine.  
Cormo was hard to find then, so this was a miracle indeed -- long, lustrous and next-to-the-skin soft. For a time, everything I knit was hand spun cormo.

Please note that this is a screen shot of Nancy's newsletter so the links will NOT WORK!

As you can see, the breed selection has grown since then and I've made some lovely yarn with Polworth and a couple of massive and open Debouillet fleeces too. I've not used as much Targhee as I'd like, but this year, wanting something not quite so fine as Cormo and being perennially curious about fleece, I tried  the Debouillet /Targhee X.
So far, I'm thrilled.

But I was going to talk about Scouring
about which I mostly have to say two things:

HOT WATER (150 F +)
​Kookaburra Scour

Actually for most fleeces, the water does not have to be that hot, and the Kookaburra container doesn't talk about the temp of the water, but  in my many years of washing and spinning fine and greasy fleeces I've found the temp makes an enormous difference to my success.

The  Kookaburra scour is a no rinse scour, which freaked me out at first as for years I followed what used to be standard practice (dish detergent with one to two washes and two to three rinses depending). But this stuff works so much better!
 Life-altering for me, actually. 

Anyway, the procedure:
1. Put approx 1 pound of fleece into a bag -- repeat.
 (two net bags, 2 lbs fleece total)
2. Fill 5 gallon bucket with my hottest tap water then immerse the two bags and let them soak as the water heats in step 3.

3. Heat 4 - 5 gallons of water on the stove to 150 F or above (I use two pots for easy handling)

4. Roll bags into a sausage (still under water) squeezing as I roll (helps keep lock structure vaguely intact if the wet wool doesn't flop around in the net bag when you lift it out), then lift from mucky water, squeeze again, set aside.

5. dump muddy water into the garden and refill bucket with the VERY Hot water from the stove..

6. Add Kookaburra SCOUR as per instructions (1-2 oz / lb of wool depending on greasiness).  Stir gently with a stick or spoon (don't scald yourself!!!)

7.  Squeeze bags of fleece again, unroll and immerse in fresh hot scour water.

8. Let soak for approx 15 minutes, pressing down or gently manipulating the bags in some fashion once or twice -- CAREFUL OF HOT WATER! (This may not be necessary as wool is  good at doing this work itself, but I have this mental vision of wanting to move the water through the fleece as much as possible without actual agitation.)

9. Repeat underwater rolling procedure - WEARING RUBBER GLOVES WITH INSULATING LINERS (Scalding is real and hurts.  I use winter glove liners inside big rubber gloves with great success).
DO NOT discard remaining hot water.

10. Put the two net bags in washing machine and set to SPIN ONLY  to spin out water
or
use dedicated salad spinner, one bag at a time
or
stand outside and swing your arm in great circles, flinging wash water all over
or
wrap well squeezed  bag of wet fleece in towels and stand on it.

11. Spread clean fleece out on other towels to dry -- or sweater dryers.  Nicest outside on a sunny day but those are scarce around here in the spring..

12. Put two more pounds of greasy fleece into the empty bags  then into the remaining water from the previous wash for a pre-soak while  heating water For step 3 etc.

 13  -- repeat step 3 -12  except at step 6, use only half - 3/4 the amount of Kookaburra called for because the fleeces got the pre-soak in water that already had scour in it.
Also note: that when these bags of fleece go into the new clean hot water with scour, they will want to float as they are already somewhat soapy. I flop them around a couple of times and push them down, but don't worry about it too much.

wet fleece coming out of net bags to dry

This no rinse scour method took  getting used to as the fleece feels different when I spread it out to dry.   Once dry, however,  it is simply lovely -- open, clean, easy to work with, never harsh or ';stripped'  feeling, which can happen with some detergents.
Less water and fewer rinses  also mean far less opportunity for felting or messing up lock structure (though as you can see I made no specific attempt to retain said structure this time).
Even with heating the water extra hot, it all takes much less time than my old procedure and the fleece is ultimately cleaner and nicer to work with.

FYI -- I washed all of this fleece last Wednesday afternoon after my hair cut and oil change.
 It was a productive day 

6+ lbs of wet Targhee/Debouillet and a bit of Grey Cormo

There are many different scouring approaches and people tend to swear by their own, which  leads me to believe that you can do what you want within a range of parameters -- but also  that it is also worth checking out a few  others  to see what kinds of decisions will work for you. 
I have to admit to being stuck in my ways until a couple of years ago when a friend gave me samples of several new scours and I conducted my own experiment with water temp and scour types and ended up with the system outlined above. 
Water is precious here in Idaho, so I am thrilled to use less and am willing to heat it. 
In Michigan Beth Smith, makes some other choices,  washes far more fleece than I and  is definitely worth listening to!   

Freshly washed fleece on a trivet over my gas heater for quick drying because I can hardly wait to get my hands on it! Hard to believe these fleeces had all that Montana soil in them isn't it?

---

I store the dry fleece in bags made of worn out sheets (the good parts). 
Sometimes I patch the sheets, but my husband is a restless sleeper and wears through sheets and repairs faster than I can quite believe, so I end up with lots of bits. Luckily, I have endless need for bags made of tightly woven cloth, not only for fleece, but also for storing and shipping tapestries etc.

Targhee/Debouillet, clean lock

That's all I can think to say right now on this subject, other than that it is totally worth checking out the fleece in your area -- trying out a breed you've never tried before, or an interesting cross just to see.  Once washing and preparing the fleece ceases to seem like a big deal, you  are free to explore obscure breeds and crosses and fine out how the qualities of the fleece may effect your work--be it knitting or needlework or tapestry, or ...

It's just so exciting to contemplate the possibilities, and to follow them through.

Oops -- And one more thing: though I am super happy to clean dirt and mud from fleeces, esp range fleeces like these,  I draw the line at gloppy manure tags, burrs and excessive Vegetable Matter. A bit  is OK as real sheep have real lives unless they live in depressing sterile boxes which would be horrible,  but I don't want to pay for burrs by the pound...Or hay. Or poop.