Monday is Washing Day...

So is Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday if you are washing a big fleece.  This undertaking began on Saturday at the North Somerset Fleece Fair where I collected my pre-ordered fleece from Yvonne Hoskins of  Woolastons Woolly Wonders   This was a Polwarth/Merino Cross and he had grown somewhat from last year when I was pipped by K when we came to choose fleeces.

As you can see Molly approved!

Saturday had been cold and wet, but Sunday dawned bright and sunny so I began washing the fleece - now named Baldwin, because Baldwin Steam Engines are called Big Boys in the US and my sheep was a very big boy!  Over the years I have tried many methods of washing fleece, mainly by dividing it up into manageable pieces and soaking and washing before separating the locks for spinning.  Not anymore - last year I watch a video 'Spinning for Lace' by Margaret Stove in which she washes her fleece lock by lock in boiling water.............. but it works and I have now perfected a technique using Teflon chip trays!! 

I lay locks of fleece in a basket created from the tray and put them into a bowl of boiling water and Power Scour and squeege with a potato masher, then the tray is transfer into another bowl, again with boiling water but this time I add a dash of Ecover Washing Liquid, squeege again and then rinse in near boiling water, spin and leave to dry.  Sounds time consuming, well yes it is, but the results are worth it!

The washed locks are ready for combing and take very little preparation - so although the washing does take a while it is compensated by the ease of prepping - and look at the gorgeous top that results from all this work - a fibre that spins like a dream..................

Also on Monday Mr S and I washed the windows - no big thing really, but not a job that we do very often - Mr S claims to be useless at cleaning windows so I bought him a Karcher Window Vac and guess what he can clean windows.............................  But in the process I all this cleaning frenzy I managed to close the front door on my thumb resulting in a fairly stunning bruise.........................