Yarn and fiber enthusiasts attend festivals in which fiber farmers have brought big bags of fleece in the raw either to enter into competitions or just in big sales to the public. I know of many knitters that have marveled at seeing the root product of their passion. Then they happen to fall in love with one of these big bags full and bring it home. Only to realize that it will then sit there for way to long because they are unsure as to how to proceed.
You can’t really make too many decisions until you know what you’ve got. I feel that unless you work with fiber in the raw every day, or at least regularly in your life, it is harder to understand it in the raw than it is after it has been cleaned. Most folks just don’t have the opportunity to look and feel through the dirt and grease often enough for the intuitive understanding of what’s there. So, let’s clean it.
However, the act of cleaning the fiber is important to think about because cleaning it poorly can take a great fiber and make it feel worse. Everyone is familiar with natural fiber that feels scratchy, prickly or crackily having a tendency towards felting. If in your cleaning process you use ingredients that are too harsh or caustic or even break down the integrity of the proteins in the fiber you will make it feel worse and shorten its lifetime and usability. So, let’s be thoughtful.
You have three objectives when cleaning your raw wool or fiber: first, take out the vegetable material and dung tags; second, to get the grease or lanolin removed; third, to clean and get out the dirt. There are lots of ways to address all of these concerns, many methods and agents that can be substituted, changed or customized to your particular situation or preference. However, there is a paramount ingredient that can’t be changed no matter what, and that is time & effort. To start from the raw fleece to the completed project is an entirely different experience, so relax and participate; it will be awesome but not fast.
The most “boiled down” instructions – pun intended: Skirt your fleece, submerge in hot water with a grease cutting detergent, repeat, rinse and lay flat to dry. A little further on what that means….
A bag of fleece that is wool is very different in size and density from a bag of mohair or alpaca. The description below is from the point of view of wool, however, there is much overlap to other fibers.
If you’re working with a huge bag of wool it can be daunting. I break it down. Spill the whole fleece out onto a clean sweep-able surface. It may still hold some of its coat like shape from the animal. Either way, you should see some areas that you can toss right away. The underbelly, legs, and particularly rear end likely hold clumped dung and mud. They are hopelessly stained and smelly, so toss them. Also, usually the crook of the neck and some spine gets full of vegetable material. Even when the farmer has great management practices to reduce hay, straw, grain, and pasture stuffs that get into the fleece, there will be some right behind the head. Most animals get some here as they eat, and it just stays there because they can’t reach that area of their own body. It becomes very enmeshed into the fiber, so I pull it out and toss. Now, you should be looking at a large pile, probably still covered with sticks, straw, seed heads, grass and other contaminates. This is where I break it up into perhaps two or three sessions of skirting. I’ll divide the pile and then with the section I’m working on, try to keep the locks intact, but pick up handfuls and pull out all the stuff. Sometimes turning and shaking it out. I don’t obsess down to each tiny bit, because I’m going to do it again. On the other hand, it makes sense to get as much out from the beginning as you can – why wash vegetable material.
The next objective is your first wash in order to address the grease and dirt. There are innumerable choices on how to do this and they originate in the vast expanse of human history and various cultures, including working in a river bed, in a big kettle over an open fire, in any old tub, in an ordinary washing machine, to a high-tech expensive automated machine. It’s safe to say there is more than one right way. Think about, what is the biggest issue. Is it debris, dirt or grease?
Sometimes an upfront rinse is warranted when the problem is dirt. The action is dissolve and dilute. Submerge the fiber in water, cold here is fine. Temperature is not an absolute; however, if it is hot, temperature aides in removing some grease. The purpose of this rinse is to take away an initial heavy layer of dirt, so that when you are adding detergent, it will go farther to attack the problem areas. The dirt is heavier than the water, gravity here is your friend.
Generally a soapy hot water bath is the basic start. Submerge the fiber in very hot water, but below boiling. The hot temperature separates the lanolin/grease from the fiber, and it generally floats to the top. Included in this initial wash is soap. Do not agitate, it can felt. I will move the fiber around just a little by hand to make sure all is wet and soapy.
I will digress here for a discussion of soap choices, from the point of view of a non-scientist:
The job of alkalines/bases in detergent is that they are dispersants, good at dissolving fats and proteins. The job of acids in detergents is that they are good at removal of minerals and things that cause stains from both vegetables and minerals and they soften the water creating a better opportunity for cleaning. The reason for wanting PH balance is care in not deteriorating the item to be cleaned. Cleaning wool and natural fiber has a claim for each element of this dynamic.
Bleach – It is a combination of chlorine and caustic soda that breaks the chemical bonds of things. It will deteriorate and break down the proteins in the fiber. Do not use.
Ammonia – It is naturally occurring in our atmosphere, considered a weak base, and generally will not hurt the fiber. However, it can be very harsh on the fiber and make it feel scratchier. There is controversy on whether it aides in cleaning or reduces urine stains or odors. It has a very strong odor of its own. I do not use.
Granulated Oxidizers – It’s used as a whitening agent and it not good when associated with bleach; they can be used as something that separates minerals from the fiber and reduce stains. They are controversial, if used rinse thoroughly.
Liquid Dish Detergent — Folks use this as an inexpensive means of breaking up grease. The pros are it can, the cons are how much to use. To really remove a lot of grease you need a lot of the soap, but then there is so much foam and residual soap it can be a lot of work to get the soap out.
Laundry Detergent – Folks use this as an inexpensive product for cleaning fiber. The pros are it was formulated to not hurt natural fibers. The cons are it wasn’t formulated to work on this specific task, so it usually falls short of being able to really scour the wool and get it as clean as you would like to see.
Vinegar – It is safe on fiber and frequently used in dyeing. However, it is incomplete as an agent to clean wool. Generally it would used to reduce a urine problem.
Dedicated Wool Wash – This is the ideal choice; it is well worth the purchase. You want to use something that dose the work, but is gentle on the fiber. There are a number of specialized cleaners on the market. I like a three product approach: a scouring soap to work on heavy dirt, grime and grease; a regular washing soap for when the scour is not needed and for finished items or spun fiber; and a rinse for aspects of care related to blocking, longevity and comfort of the fiber.
I enthusiastically use and recommend Unicorn cleaning products. http://www.unicornclean.com/home
Returning to the directions…
Drain the first wash, and repeat the process. If you have used more of a scour soap in the first wash and you like how the fiber looks, you may only need a regular soap/detergent in the second wash to continue to get the job done. I will not force any fleece into a rigid formula. Different fleeces should be looked at their individual problems – more grease, more dirt, more staining, more smells. Temperature and scouring soap take out grease; detergent and time in the water take out dirt. Sometimes stains and smells can be more set by heat, so sometimes they are best addressed by scour soap and time in the water. So, two washes and a rinse is not hard and fast, you have to go by what you observe and adjust.
In between wash cycles, I will continue to skirt even if the fiber is slightly wet. Some vegetable material that was stuck to the fiber due to the grease and lanolin will now be available to fall out, shake out, or pick out.
The final step is the rinse. I’ve heard folks say they do a hot water rinse as one last opportunity to get out more grease. I think that could be warranted. However, a cool or cold water rinse is more ideal to remove residual soap. So, it would be the goal that the grease is gone at this point. Again, an emphasis on no agitation.
Lay the raw fiber flat to dry. It is optimal if air can circulate both on top and on the bottom. Flip it over occasionally, separate clumps, and lightly fluff through the drying process so it does not mildew. I will continue to skirt during and after the drying process. When you are fully satisfied it is thoroughly dry you can store in an air tight container, but do not store this way if it is not completely dry.
An FAQ – People ask me what I use to put the wool in to do the washing, ie, bathtub, five gallon bucket, laundry room sink, etc. I use a top loading washing machine and I unplug it to prevent the agitator from working. The reason is you need something large enough for the fiber quantity to sit in and soak. Also, I wash fiber frequently so it would be too hard on my back and labor intensive to fill and drain properly buckets, sinks, and bathtubs. I also like the spin feature on the machine. Without letting the agitator go, I turn the knob to spin to rinse and drain; I feel it is every effective at not letting dirt and grease re-settle on cleaned fiber. However, I have a dedicated machine for only fiber, so I’m not really sure this applies to the one time person who bought a fleece.
This article is not intended to be an absolute answer for every situation. It’s merely an attempt to help the folks, particularly mentioned in the beginning, that have taken on the task of cleaning their first wool or fiber fleece they have purchased in furtherance of their fiber passions. And, as mentioned earlier, I would refer folks to http://www.unicornclean.com/home for more information and expertise in this field. If you have a question, I am happy to try to be helpful. When I had questions, I called Unicorn.
Thank you for a great how-to!