Wash Wool and Fiber correctly…. without felting it!
I was going through my old posts the other day and realized that my tutorial for how to wash wool and fiber is totally inadequate. That was a special — washing wool with rainwater — post. Well, the timing is perfect since I just bought a bunch of fleeces at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Fest which are filthy and have to be washed.
The really fun part is that unless you know the animal, you don’t really know what color the fiber will be once it’s washed. It’s usually much prettier than I expected.
This wool cleaning method works great on all animal fiber including sheep wool, goat (mohair), alpaca, llama, etc. The trick is to wash your wool or fiber without felting it.
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What makes wool and fiber felt?
Have you ever accidentally put your favorite wool sweater in the washing machine? There you go! The two things that felt wool are:
1. Agitation (moving wet fiber around)
2. Drastic change in water temperature
Supplies Needed
-Dirty Wool
–Mesh Laundry Bags
-Soap, I use Dawn detergent but people swear by Unicorn Fibre Wash
-Bucket
-Hot water
-White vinegar
Skirting the Fiber
This is optional but I highly recommend it. What is skirting? It’s removing anything you don’t want in your final fiber such as hay, poop (ha), short cuts or matted fiber.
Place your skirted fiber in the Mesh Laundry Bags
Soaking
Fill the bucket with HOT tap water and then add a few squirts of soap. (Don’t add the soap to running water or you’ll have a mess of bubbles).
Place the mesh bag with fiber in the bucket and gently press down to submerge. Careful, the water is HOT! Make sure the fiber is completely covered with water but don’t agitate or move the fiber around in any way. This will cause it to felt! Let sit for 20-30 minutes.
Now, pull the bag of fiber out of the bucket and gently squeeze out the dirty water. Try not to move the fiber around too much. Just press out the water.
Refill your bucket with clean water and add a squirt of soap. Remember to make sure that the temperature is about the same as the water was when you pulled out the bag. It may have cooled somewhat.
Soak for 20 – 30 minutes. If the water is still dirty, repeat, but don’t add any more soap to subsequent soakings. Once your fiber and water are clean, add about 1/2 cup of vinegar to the final soak. This will neutralize any remaining soap residue which can degrade your fiber over time.
Squeeze out the water and lay your fiber out to dry on an old table or screen.
All clean! What am I going to do with these Teeswater locks? Dye them, of course! Come back next week when I show you how to dip dye them.
Did you see my Beginner’s Guide to Hand Dyeing Yarn?
But what about wool that is already made into something? I have some wool items and would love to know a great way to wash them!
Hi Jesica,
Wool clothing can be washed basically the same way. Fill a sink or bucket with warm water and add a bit of soap. Put your item in the water and push it down. Don’t move it around! Let it soak and then place in a bucket with just water – same temp as before. You don’t need very hot water for finished clothing though, because it no longer has the lanolin in it. Then just squeeze out the excess water and lay or hang to dry.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks,
Annette
While you CAN spend $5 for a mesh laundry bag, I get mine at Dollar Tree. I can get five of them for $5! I soak the wool (in bags) in the washer filled with hot water, and then use the spin cycle to force the dirty water out. I pull the wool out of the machine while filling with hot water, then gently submerge the bags of fiber.
Thanks for a nice tutorial!
Thanks John! I always wanted to use my washer but the spin cycle was broken lol. So … I had to do it by hand. Thanks for stopping by!
Annette
FiberArtsy
Hi there, I just got a whole bunch of wool off our camels and I was wondering if this process will work for cleaning camel wool as well?
Thanks!
Yes, absolutely. That’s how I washed all of my alpaca fiber. Thanks for stopping by. Happy Sunday 🙂