Washing Wool

From here on out I must tell you that this is an experiment that will take a lot of practice and probably a small amount of investment. What I'm going to do here is rustically explore spinning wool and I'll tell you the things I've discovered. I have never done this before and only have online reference to follow, and there is good reference out there. One site helped me the most, the woman explained her journey through the spinning process. It went something like this, the first day I had no success at all, the next day was pretty much the same with just a couple successes. Something clicked eventually and by the end of the week I had my first skein. This tells me everything I need to know, Keep At It!

Washing the wool

Again, if you want the exact procedure search online. This is what I learned:

#1 When washing wool, Don't Agitate It! That is unless you'd like to make felt instead.

#2 Use a non soap product such as dish detergent. I used Castile Soap which is made of plant oils and such and it had a nice peppermint smell.

#3 Use very warm water around 120 degrees.

Every site says something different but this was the procedure I used:

#1 Use a small dish pan and about one table spoon of detergent in the very warm water. Push wool in water and leave it there for 45 minutes.

#2 Lift the wool out of the water, set it aside, rinse the pan, fill it with the clean, very warm water and set the wool back in the pan for 45 minutes.

#3 Do the same as the last step except put a few tablespoons of white vinegar in the water. Soak again for 45 minutes.

#4 Gather the wool and gently squeeze. Lay it out on a towel to dry. You will need to turn it occasionally.

Soaking wool in clean, very warm water.

Drying wool.

As you can see I've also cleaned my cat brush. I have a stupid notion that I can card wool with it. We'll see how far I get with that!!!