Washing wool

I've been washing wool for about 24 hours now.

The first time I washed wool (2lbs, looked very dirty) it was a breeze. It happened just like the instructions said it would. Thank goodness.

This time, it has taken forever. And I'm very happy we don't have to pay for our water, because I have used a ton. I just worry a little about our septic system.

Anyway.

This time I followed the exact same instructions as last time - If you are a first time wool washer, please don't follow these instructions. I'm leaving a lot of "don't do this" and "do this a certain way" out of my post because these are not instructions, rather this is what I did in general. (there are other websites with great instructions available).

1. very hot water. Add dish soap of choice (nothing with bleach) about 1/3 cup to each pound of wool. Soak wool in this for 1-2 hours.

2. drain water, add fresh water.

3. step 2 again.

By this time you have clean wool.

Well this time after step 3 I noticed that there were areas of the wool where there seemed to be a slick and sticky substance. This is known as lanolin. If left in your wool it will make it hard to card and eventually make the wool stiff and sticky.

So its late, I thought I'd be done by now, and I'm tired.

So I add all the wool together and start at step one.

I let it soak all night in this.

This morning, same spots of lanolin.

So upon further research I decided to try super washing soda from Arm & hammer. Also, I've switched my tubs of water and big laundry sink full of water for my washing machine. At this point, since the wool is pretty clean, It's ok. But I would never use the washing machine from the beginning. To much sheep poop on the wool. Yuck.

Using the washing machine means that all of the wool has to be bagged so that no fiber can sneak into my washing machine parts and cause me to have to buy new parts.

So I just filled the washer and put in 1/8th of a cup of washing soda per pound. Since I have 9 pounds, I put just over 1 cup in.

I let it soak for no longer than 20 minutes. Washing soda can harm your fiber if left to long.

I just put it through the spin cycle. This is safe because unlike the agitation cycle, it doesn't move or agitate the wool.

When I pulled the wool out of the machine (never refill the machine while the wool is still inside!) I noticed small brown dirty looking, slightly greasy small blobs. These lightly coated the inside of the washer and the pillow cases that I have all the wool inside.

I wiped down the inside of the washing machine, but couldn't do much with the pillow cases. As long as I keep the water hot, this yucky stuff shouldn't redistribute onto the wool. As long as its not hanging out on the wool, I'm ok with this.

Anyway, the wool is currently soaking in dish liquid again. Since the wool is pretty clean by now, it won't soak in there very long. I'm thinking about 1/2 hour.

The next rinse I'll use vinegar. Washing soda is very base, so you need to bring the wool back to somewhat neutral I guess. Anway, after the vinegar I may rinse one more time. I'm not sure how necessary it will be though.

Please cross your fingers for me that I didn't somehow felt the whole 9 lbs. I would die.

Oh, and we'll be getting 2 sheep on Monday. More on that later.