Members' Tips and Tricks
Members are invited to show off their experience and expertise by submitting "Tips and Tricks" for this page. Below are the articles submitted as of 3/5/2010:
Ball-Plying Procedure, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)
Carding Directions, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)
Centerpull Ball Tips, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)
Clean Wool, Pre-Spinning Preparation, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)
Dyeing Evenly, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)
Making A Distaff, and Spinning Bast Fiber, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)
Wool Scouring, by Elena Dent (added 2/24/2005)
Wool Scouring
You will get a lot of advice, some of it is contradictory, but here goes:
I think combs will work only if you've taken an all day workshop to get good safe habits and if you've got some long lock wool to work with. The combs can be dangerous and they are more expensive than a flicker (my weapon of choice) or a hair comb.
Carding alone will not get rid of VM (vegetable matter) or neps (those nasty little pill thingies that you do NOT want in your yarn).
I would not use a soap, try Dawn or Orvus paste (available from a feed/horse supply place). Soap is more like Woolite, evil. If you've ever used Woolite you know it takes forever to get that stuff out of your garment.
The following works very well for most "normal" fleeces.
Pick up a flicker or doffer (small, sturdy hand held multi-clawed item costs about $20) a metal human hair comb (about $2) or a pet rake (I have no idea how much) to open the raw locks of fleece. This is a tedious rather grubby process. Put a towel down, you might want to wear an apron. The crud rubs off onto your hands too, but easily washes off.
Grab about a thumb to two fingers' thickness of wool, see what's easy to hold. Hold a flicker claws up. Whichever tool you use this should not be hard work. If you're working hard you will stress your wrists and could damage the wool. Start at the very tip and let the weight of the fiber drop it into the claws or teeth of whatever you're using. Work your way up the lock this way; if you have long hair think of combing it out when wet. When you are past half way turn around and comb/flick the ends. Hold the resulting mass to the light; you should see no neps. Throw away the stuff you've combed out of the locks, the most it would be useful for is quilt batting, and that only if it's a coarser fleece.
This will remove almost all vegetable matter, short cuts and neps and most of the really cruddy stuff will also fall out. Put the resulting stuff in a mesh sweater or lingerie bag. You can fill this bag pretty full, the wool is quite fluffed at this stage. Fill with less if it's merino, it takes a LOT of scouring to get merino completely clean and if you don't it will be ruined in a few months because the lanolin will harden. No other breed of sheep appears to do this.
Bring a big pot of water to a full galloping boil. Any pot but a "non-stick" one will do. The "non-sticks" DO stick well to the mesh bags.
Turn off the water and drop in about 1/4 cup of Orvus paste or 1/8 cup Dawn. Use a stick or something to melt the glob and stir it into the water, then drop your bag in. Push it down, then go away for about 1/2 to 3/4 hour. Yes, the water is disgusting. The darker your fleece, for some reason, the darker the water. I have no idea why.
Turn on your hot tap; it should be too hot to stick your hand in. Fill a basin on one side of the sink. Lift your bag 'o wool out of the wash, but do not drain completely. About two fingers' thick rope of water still draining is as far as you should go. Drop it into the first rinse and ready the 2nd rinse, same full hot tap water. When the 2nd rinse is finished filling, turn the bag over, lift it out, drain a bit more, about one finger's thickness. Third rinse - the same. By now the rinse water is dramatically cleaner, but still very cloudy and with a noticeable oil slick on the top.
Now start adding some cool water to your rinse. With each successive rinse bring the water temperature down. When it's still pretty hot, but not painful, open the bag and gently move the wool around with it submerged so the water supports the fiber and keeps it from matting down. The center is probably holding some of the hotter, dirtier water. You will notice the water is not as greasy feeling, and the wool feels much less slimy. As the temperature, grease and Orvus/Dawn content drops so does the risk of felting.
When the water is clear and cool, with no noticeable oil-slick on it, take your bag out, squash it to drain the water, if it's cool you can get fairly enthusiastic about this. Roll the mass in two towels and walk on it. Then lay the stuff out to dry. I made a rack out of 1/4" hardware cloth, but anything will do. Fluff the fiber if it's very squashed. The wool should be dry in a couple of days at the most.
Once you've used this very hot water, never use water this temperature again on the wool or you will make it dry and harsh. It's safe for scouring, because the grease will protect it, but never again. You can use warm or tepid water with a very little amount of Dawn for normal washing. A final rinse with vinegar water seems to keep wool and silk soft, whether this is psychological or not I can't say. I'd be reluctant to use human hair products on wool, simply because our hair is a very different texture than wool and it might gum up the wool.
Shetland, if not obviously a double coated animal: treat the same except that the wool is delicate, when flicking be very gentle; do not rip through the ends the way you can with most other wools. To avoid felting, do not drain the first 2 or 3 times - just lift out of the bath and dump into the clean water.
Karakul or any other very coarse breed: flicking does little good and may pull out the colored fibers in a roan fleece. Just grab a fair amount of the fleece, stuff it into the bag, and scour. This will take longer to dry because the wool wasn't fluffed before scouring.
Double coated breeds: If it is very obvious that this is a double coated animal disturb the lock structure as little as possible when scouring and drying. When dry, pick up a lock by the root and gently pull out the longer guard hairs. With a little practice they will slip right out and fluff up the under coat that might be a bit matted from the scouring. The two coats will feel distinctly different. Treat like Shetland, do not drain the bag 'o wool until the water is fairly clear so there is less danger of matting.
You might want to do the following if you're worried about clogging your pipes:
Pour your wash and rinse water through a mesh strainer to catch neps. I've never found any, the wool holds together surprisingly, but I did worry about the apartment neighbors. If you live in an apartment this also keeps you from overwhelming the downstairs neighbors' pipes since apartments often have smaller pipes.
When you're done with the wool, follow the last rinse with some Very Hot Water and Dawn, pine oil, or some other serious grease cutter. (Not on the wool! down the pipes while they're still hot from all the rinsing) Or, use one of the lye clog removing Liquid Plumber clones in a reduced dosage. I have no idea how much this helps or hinders, but it won't hurt anything.
If you're on a septic tank... ask a local plumber.