[Jacob-list] cleaning dirty fleece

[Trish Barrows]

Hi Lia-our fleeces end up sorta dirty also-but I'm not
willing to coat.  I always skirt aggressively-any tags
and bad wool of course, all seed heads, burdock, etc. 
I also do an initial hand picking (ie pull apart the
fleece) before washing-this helps to get rid of a lot
of the VM. {this is the stage where I bring some
fleeces to my local mill}. Estimated time is an hour
or so per fleece-but I am slow and have 'bad' hands. 
I don't mind the time, as I am working with something
I love.

My washes are generally only one soaping with Dawn
(Jacobs are low grease), but then 4-5 rinses until
clean.  [If I'm not satisfied with cleanliness, I wait
till the fleece is dry, then wash again.]  I then hand
pick (or use a picker-I have an old used Patrick Green
picker) the clean dry fleece.  

If you put fleece with lots of VM through a carder you
 will mess up your carder really fast-and the fleece
won't be appreciably cleaner.  The carder's main
purpose is to get the fleece in a spinnable form
(batts/rolags/rovings)-not to clean it.  My rovings
have always ended up quite clean.  Bottom line-lots of
hand work.  And again-please don't put really dirty
and/or matted stuff through your carder or you may
ruin an expensive piece of equipment.

Our sheep are dirtier this year, cause we had no
pasture to speak of and had to feed hay all year-so I
am prepared to discard more. I have had a friend who
runs a small fiber business tell me that my fleeces
that I think are really "dirty" actually aren't
compared to other breeds.  I also have sold fleeces
after the initial skirting/hand picking and get good
prices (10.00/lb) since I am willing to go through and
get the junk out.

Trish



Trish Barrows
Amazing Grace Farm-NY
Jacob Sheep and Angora Rabbits

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