Washing wool... continued

Below are pictures of my washing exploits. I'm not convinced I'm doing it correctly ...

First, we put the wool in netting packages, lock by lock, and safety pined them down:


Then I put them in about 130 degree water with ORIGINAL Dawn dish detergent and let them soak for about 20 minutes, before repeating with clear water for rinsing:


(on this day, I put it on my electric griddle to keep it warm. For reasons you will see below, I didn't my second day.)

As you can see, it looks pretty funky. I have no idea if that's correct, and am concerned that I'm lightly felting it somehow. As you can see in the picture below, the edges don't look right.

So today, I washed in water never more than 130 degrees, put in the water and WALKED AWAY for 20 minutes (no pushing back down in the water, or swishing water), and the last two packages I did, I loosened the netting so it wasn't touching the ends. Here's those results:

Better? Suggestions? What do you think?

I'm Baaccck!!

Hello All!

I can't believe it's been over 2 years since I last posted - I am a baaadd blogger. But, I've decided to try to keep this up as a list of the things I am doing and things I've learned now. I'll try to be better.. I promise!

Here's my latest project:



A big BEAUTIFUL Cormo fleece from Ellie at Angel Crossing Farm owned by Patricia and Victor Loun. The fleece is 8.6lbs, and as you can see takes the entire living room floor at my mother's house.

It's come just in time too! My dear mother just had hip replacement surgery and is NOT the type to take this laying OR sitting down, but (and all you fiber-holics can drool) loves to pick wool. For those of you non-spinners, that means taking lock of washed wool and painstakingly separate the fibers from each other to make spinning easier. SO, I didn't buy this fleece for me, but rather for my mother. Really! I'm so selfless :).



I taught her the new method of washing preparation I watched Judith MacKenzie McCune do at the 2011 Madrona Fiber Arts Festival and learned from ThreeSheep's blog and article - thank you ThreeSheeps! Also, the people from Ravelry. I'll post the results later this week.