Washing Wool

Wow, I've just spent the last 2 hours washing fleece, dying muslin and fleece and cooking dinner.
Luckily I didn't get any of it mixed up!!

I washed the fleece both by hand and in the washing machine. There are some great hand washing instructions are here.

the top left and right were washed in the machine and the
yellowy cream fleece at the bottom was washed by hand

There are lot's of instructions for top loading washing machines and not much for front loaders, I did read something yesterday saying that it is possible in a front loader with a wool cycle, so I thought I'd give it a go. (sorry can't find the site where I read it)

My wool cycle is for 'machine washable wool' at 40, so I decided to try the silk cycle and it came out really clean. I did put it in a mesh bag but the bag came open and the wool came out and a couple of little bits feel a bit felted but I don't want to fiddle to much until it's dry.

I was dying some muslin olive green, when it was done I thought I'd try and dye a piece of the washed fleece, this is it just after it came out and was cooling. I'm hoping it will stay the same colour once it's been rinsed.

Now I'm hoping the new carders I brought at the weekend on ebay come soon, then I can prepare this lot ready for a bit of felting!