First wash your fleece ...

Rosemary's fleece, skirted and ready for its beauty treatment

IF the weather is summer-y (big if) there is lovely synergy between helping your garden plants to additional food and watering while prepping the new year's fleeces for spinning. Mucky wool can be added to containers, hanging baskets and compost bins as the fleece will break down and add goodness while also (bonus) helping the soil to retain moisture. The 'liquid manure' generated during soaking and washing gets added just when plants need it most. Definitely don't put it down the drain if you have a soakaway system - it will gum up the works!

But do you NEED to wash fleece?
No you don't. Most spinners do not want to wash fleece - its not the most pleasant process. You can skip it altogether if you spin wool 'in the grease' (i.e. as it is shorn with just the worst bits of field and poo removed). I don't like the way that the fleece feels in this state and how it deposits sticky dirt on me and my equipment so not an option I would choose.

You can also do a no-wash 'clean' if you set up a fermented suint vat using the natural soapification process inherent in fleece. Over a few days the chemicals in the fleece dissolve the worst of the dirt (if all goes to plan). There are some similarities with sourdough making - you need to prime the vat as you would a sourdough starter, but ingredients this time are a very greasy fleece, soft water and warmth. The vat itself smells rank if working properly and does leave some residual stickiness in the fleece after cleaning (more than I like). My dormant vat is sealed and in the polytunnel - I won't be using it for fleece this year but will water it down to be plant feed for the tomatoes.

A way of washing fleece that works for me
Through trial and error I've developed an approach resulting in a nice feeling fleece and a process which wastes minimal water. (That is, it uses lots of water but all of this is recycled onto my plants). The equipment is adaptable (you may have less fleece than me or different containers) but a spin dryer is key equipment in avoiding felting and speeding up the process.

I will add a fuller description to the Tools and Technique page - but this visual probably captures the effects quite well.

Stage 1: Cold overnight soak in a 'bath' in the garden. Even though this was a relatively clean fleece the water is pretty mucky as you can see. This stage helps remove surface grime.
Stage 2: Spinning all the water out has the effect of bringing the fleece to room temperature and shows that the fleece at this stage is holding cleaner water than was in the bath it came out of.
Stage 3: After sitting in very hot soapy water the scales in the wool fibres open and more dirt drops out. The heat also helps remove grease (especially important if dyeing). Remove and spin again while water is still hand hot (so scales don't close up again and trap the dirt). The discharge water from spinning has soap in it but is less grimy than at stage 2.
Stage 4: After rinsing carefully in warm water another spin and by now the discharge is pretty clear.

The wool will be washed after spinning and soaked during dyeing so I would be happy to dry it off at this stage ready to prep it.