Raw wool: processing & what to make

[jungle_re]

Just been sorting out a sheep skin rug im making from the skin off a hogget i killed and butched up some time ago and got a bin bag full of dirty wool.

Its currently siting in its 4th bath washing out the rest of the dirt and lanolin.
Ive read a few sites detailing the carding process and using a hand spinner which are great but not sure if it is all worth the effort. Also tempted to use it to make felt hat.

Im intrested in hearing peoples veiws who have done any of the above with raw wool or have any practicle ideas of what to use it for.

Cheers Will

 

[Toddy]

I generally go through half a dozen or so a year.

Depends really on what you would like to do with it.

Firstly, the washing.
Remove the worst of the dags first (sheep****ty bits ) and wash them seperately if you need the fleece.
Cover with cold water and leave to soak for a couple of days. That helps the suint, that's a kind of natural cleaning agent, like little greasy dandruff flakes, clean the fleece. Then drain it (that first wash is absolutely great fertiliser for the garden) and soak it again. Drain and do it again, this time adding a very small quantity or ordinary generic shampoo. It's meant for hair, fleece is hair. Rinse and gently squeeze out as much water as you can. Lay it out on an old sheet or towels to dry.

Carding an entire fleece by hand is a *lot* of work, if you can borrow a drum carder it'll save hours and hours of work.

Once it's washed, dried and carded, it's pretty much up to you what you do with it. It can be spun, again it's a lot of work and it matters what breed the beast was, some are only fit for rugs the fibres are so coarse, or felted. All wools will felt to some extent, but they don't all do it well, and there's only one way to find out try a bit and see.

Lots of sites on line or on youtube showing how to spin and felt, but the best bet is to find someone who knows how and has a couple of hours to spare.

Are you going to the Moot ? If so, there will be a few of us there who can show you what to do.

There is another way of dealing with lots of fleece that doesn't need any carding. Make a peg loom and tease the wool into long lengths and weave them into a basic rug. If you want to felt this afterwards it generally works quite well and will give you a stable piece of wool material.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[jungle_re]

got a feeling it was a texel but i cant remember for certain.
Yep its been a right swine to get the crap out of the wool but after the 5th wash out it not looking that bad the bits thats are still stick in ive decided to pull/cut out. I normally do a couple of these hoggets a year so if the wool comes out ok i'll keep it from the next ones.

Thanks for the tips and for the offer for the moot much apriciated though i dont think i'll be at the moot this year. I think i'll have a go at a felt hat and keep a little behind to have a play with a hand spindle if for nothing else than to appricate the work involved to produce wool yarn.

Cheers Toddy
Will