How to Clean A Fleece in 100 Easy Steps!

Or how I cleaned a fleece this weekend. I decided that my next spinning project should be to prepare and work with the whole fleece that I won from Stone's Throw Artisans a while back, shortly after buying my wheel. I saw some tutorials online and decided I would give the washing machine method a shot. Step one, take fleece and put it into a pillow case:

Tie the case shut and stuff pillow cases (this was a big fleece) into the washing machine and fill up the tub with cold water. Add some wool wash and let it soak for a while:

Put the washer setting on the spin cycle and drain the water and soap. Repeat this a few times until the fleece doesn't make the water turn yicky (about three times for me, but I'm sure that will vary). Once the fleece is free from the grease, then spread it out either outside if it's warm and sunny, or wherever you have space, such as the basement floor for me:

I set up a fan to help dry the fleece a little faster. Let your fleece dry completely then prepare it however you want from there (drum carder, mill, hand cards, flick cards, combs, etc). I'll show you my flick carding once the fleece dries in 100 days :oP

DBF and I went to a golf show this weekend since we had free tickets and there was this alluring promise of a free club to all who came. That claim was bogus since you had to have a card to claim your free club online andpay 20 bucks shipping, but they had no more cards. Oh well, we still looked around and then walked over to an SCA event. SCA is an interesting group of people sometimes. You get those who do it for fun, then you have those who take it so seriously that they can get a little freakish at times (i'm a gamer, so it takes a LOT for me to consider someone freakish). We decided to take a look around and I of course spotted a spinner, working on this neon yellow wool. I go over there and try to talk to her and she wasn't very friendly. I told her that I spin too and that I use an Ashford wheel. She sort of chuckles and says, "Oh no, I use good wheels."

...

Even if I don't think a wheel is the best around, I still don't say that my wheel is better than your wheel. Generally people in the crafty world are nice. This chick was just downright mean and rude. So, I politely complimented her on her drafting techniques then moved away. DBF was surprised since he thought I would chat for a while with her. He was even pissed when I told him what she said. Oh well, one bad person doesn't mean that all are like that.

I did a little more knitting this weekend on the nightie:

It's getting there. I have to actually study for a test tonight, so I doubt there will be much knitting going on today except to break up the monotony of studying.

Knit on...