How To Make Yarn, Part 1: Scouring

A lot of people ask about how I start with a sheep's fleece and end up with yarn.

Pecan, just this morning

 One option to go from fleece to yarn is to send fleeces to a mill.  In a few months (or a lot longer, depending on the mill), the mill will send back roving or yarn.  I do send some fleeces to the mill (I have too many sheep to do them all myself).  But there's nothing quite like spinning a hand-prepped  fleece.

I usually end up processing the ones with too many second cuts or too much vegetable matter (VM) to sell or mill.  Here's why I'm working on Pecan's most recent fleece (fall 2015, from Fulton Fall Folk Festival):

VM

If you do it yourself, the first step in transforming a fleece into yarn is to wash --or scour-- it.  Scouring sounds harsh, but you have to be gentle or you'll have a big glob of felt (and although felt does have its uses, you can't spin it!).  The primary reason for scouring is remove lanolin from the fleece.

Like most other parts of the process, there are a lot of options. Here's a brief explanation of what I usually do:

I started by thinking about how to address the problem with this fleece: VM. VM does not wash out, but nevertheless, the VM in this fleece is not a big deal for me.  It's all in one place--where Pecan overflows his coat...

Pecan overflowing his coat on 2015 spring shearing day.

 ...-- so I put the fleece on the floor and picked out a small section to wash, avoiding the part with the VM. (I often wash entire fleeces all at once.)

I put my selected fleece into a large delicates bag.

Next I run as-hot-as-possible water into a tub.  I put a squirt of Power Scour into it, and then carefully smoosh the fleece down until it's completely submerged.

 Here's the water after one wash:

I usually only do one wash--I like a little lanolin to remain in my wool--but I think Pecan brought half of the dirt in Tennessee with him when we moved.  I did a second wash this time. 

After the washes, I do a rinse or two. The fleece gets submerged in clean, hot water.  Running water directly on the fleece is a bad thing--it results in felted fleece.  (I won't include pictures of this step because they are just pictures of my tub with some water in it.)

Now Pecan's fleece is drying.  I'll have a few days to wait until I can do the next step.