Washing your fibers

1640 South 600 East * Salt Lake City~ UT * 84105 * 801.668.0563

Washing Fibers 101

No matter what you have heard- it really isn't a scary venture! We have heard so many people afraid to wash their fibers for fear of felting. Anyone who has tried felting knows that it take hot water and soap- yes that is true- but one element that many forget...... LOTS of agitation! The 1st 2 things mentioned will not , not matter how hard you try, felt your fibers. Now lets get a few things together and well, go wash some fiber!

Whether you have a sheep's fleece, a goat, some alpaca, or maybe even dog or cat, you need to follow these instructions. While sheep and goats have a substance called lanolin, which we will discuss later, never underestimate the value of cleaning alpaca,llama or similar fibers. And no, you will not felt alpaca or the like in hot water. I was told years ago to use tepid water for these fibers. Well truth be known, the fibers never got really clean. We use very hot water all the way through the process for ALL fibers!!!!

Things you will need

  • Decide where you will wash your fibers - in a large tub or the washing machine.
  • Determine the temperature of your water by using a thermometer. You must have at least 150ºF water from the tap, or you will need to boil some water on the stove to add to the wash basin.
  • Weight the fleece and measure no more than 5 pounds of fiber. This is a good amount in a washer or laundry tub. It means about 25 gallons of water to 5 pounds of fiber.
  • Make sure you have lots of detergent.
  • Have gloves on hand
  • A good drying rack such as a sweater rack or an old screen

    • OK now- do you have everything ready?

    Ready..... set.... let's go!

  • Fill you tub or washing machine with at least 150ºF water
  • Add your detergent at a little less than 1/3 cup to 1 pound of fleece. *I add 2 cups per 5 pounds of wool 1 cup per 5 pounds of alpaca
  • Gently mix the water and detergent making sure NOT to make suds.
  • Add your fibers- pressing down, but NOT AGITATING them.
  • Close the lid on the washer or place a black plastic bag over the fibers to retain the heat.
  • Leave in the water 20 minutes- no longer than 1/2 an hour. You DO NOT want to let the water cool especially for wool or mohair. Lanolin recongeals at 110ºF , which is still very hot for our hands. Cooling the water will make it more difficult to strip the lanolin.
  • Using the washer- remove fleece from tub- or start the rinsing process with your fleece in the washer. Turn the knob to the LAST rinse cycle. You want drain and spin only!
  • Add another tub of hot water, as hot as the wash water, if it is wool or mohair, you might want to do a lanolin check. * Take a few locks of fiber - fill a glass with hot water and a few drops of detergent. Put the fleece into the glass. If the water remains clear, you have successfully stripped the lanolin- if it turns milky you need to rewash the fibers.
  • Soak the fiber for another 20 minutes, drain and rinse.
  • If the fibers leave the bottom of the washer clean the fibers are clean. If there is a dirt ring around the bottom, you need to rinse again. This time you do not need to soak the fibers. I add hot water to cover the fibers and immediately spin and rinse. I do this several times.
  • Take your fibers to your drying rack- as the fiber is drying we fluff the fibers up. This helps remove more tiny VM, and helps the fibers dry quickly. * If you do not have a fan on on the fibers, it may take up to a day and 1/2 to dry them. In the summer months you can place your racks outside, avoiding direct sunlight.
  • Your fibers are now ready for processing, by you or your favorite processor- *we would like to think it is Spinderella! :-)

    • A word about lanolin

    For the record, there is only one type of lanolin. It is the greasy sebum secreted by sheep's skin and absorbed into the fleece. Lanolin’s function is to keep the fleece clean while also acting as a moisturizer, helping to keep the skin dander-free and the fleece in good shape. Lanolin is a complex blend of oils, waxes, free fatty acids (which combine into oils) and lots of other stuff.

    A fleece can also contain more than just lanolin. For instance suint, which is the water-soluble chemicals left after sheep sweat evaporates. Of course we all know about tags( dung),plant matter,and dirt to name a few. These ingredients all combine with the lanolin and make different kinds of chemical bonds that need to be cleaned. Keeping in mind each sheep will have a slightly different chemical composition. For instance a Merino sheep is waxier than say a Lincoln which is a little more oily.

    The water-soluble bits are the easiest. Suint and dirt rinses out with cold water. But remember, cold water will not remove lanolin or all of the dirt. You need to find a way to make the lanolin mix with the wash water and rinse away.

    Being an old soaper - we know that making soap requires saponification. The meaning of saponification is adding a alkali to warmed fat- thus making soap. Being that soap is water-soluble, the fat will rinse away in wash water and also carry dirt and oils with it. Of course there is something called emulsification, which turns the oils into little globules that are suspended in water based liquids, allowing them to be washed away with a surfactant or detergent. Putting these things into practice, I used to notice that adding soda ash to my water was a strong enough alkali to saponify lanolin. The problem I found was protein fibers could be damaged in alkali conditions. Over time I realized that wool is coated and protected by the lanolin, and was not damaged by the high pH until all of the lanolin dissolved. With hot water and a higher PH with sorter soaking time minimized the risk of damage to the fibers. I find that 20 minutes is plenty of time to do this.

    Without getting into a long and drawn out college paper, I want to tell you that a neutral pH cleaner is better than a high pH cleaner. Years ago a friend of mine gave me some Sodium Laurel Sulfate (Orvus is another word for this). I tried it to wash wool and found it does not work at all. It was originally formulated to make suds, and though most equate suds with cleaning, it is not something I would use to wash a greasy waxy wool.

    Because lanolin is a grease, it dissolves best in very hot water and generous amounts of detergent. If temperatures are lowered during the washing process, it can make the lanolin recongeal and make a stickier substance that is more difficult to wash out. Remember - HOT HOT HOT is the solution here!!!! This is imperative throughout the entire washing process. No hot- warm and cold!!! The only time you may want to soak a fleece in cold water is before washing to remove and soften mud and dirt from the fleece. You can soak a fleece overnight in cold water before washing.

    Llama, alpaca, and some other exotic fibers do not contain lanolin and, while easier to clean than sheep wool and mohair, you should not underestimate the value of cleaning these fibers.

    We suggest you wash you fleece as soon as possible after shearing because the lanolin or wax in the fleece hardens with age. Though we have washed and processed older fleeces with no problems, not washing your fleece increases the likelihood of color changes in a white fleece, and increases the chance of the fermentation of organic matter. A raw fleece is more likely to attract moths than a clean one.

    A word about your cleaning agent

    This is a topic that everyone has an opinion on. Many tell you one brand or another. We will not tell you what brand to use, but give you some food for thought so that you might be able to make up your own mind.

    • Shampoo will not work for wool washing . It isn't strong enough.
    • Dishwashing detergents like Dawn, Joy,etc, have some good grease cutters. The problem is they can be expensive. They also contain a lot of foaming agents and can be very hard to rinse out. This in itself is not bad, as soap is a natural moth deterrent.
    • Laundry detergents can be beneficial. The liquid ones are based on surfactants. Laundry powders are generally based on alkalis and soaps rather than surfactants. And some laundry products are mixtures of both surfactants and alkalis.Some laundry detergents contain "optical whiteners". Many spinners are afraid to these whiteners on their wool, but these whiteners are like white dyes,and are washfast. They rinse away the next time you wash the wool.
    • Oxyclean or oxygen cleaners are things to avoid at all costs! I called the Oxiclean company years ago and found out it contains blend of enzymes to attack protein-based stains on cellulose fibers. Because wool is a protein , these enzymes read the fiber as a stain and starting to eat it! If left over time, it would dissolve the fiber- then what would you have to spin??? :-)
    • Use a good detergent and lots of it.
    • Minimize the wool's exposure to the high-pH scouring water once the lanolin has dissolved from the wool. Bath temps at 150ºF for 15-20 minute soaks until the wool is clean. We find 2 times is usually enough.
    • Hard water requires more soap, or try adding a little bit of salt, like they use in a water softener.
    • Alkaline pH assists in the opening up of wool, but use caution and move the fibers quickly.
    • Avoid any that contain perfumes and oxygen cleaners.
    • Do not use products containing conditioners and do not add conditioner to your rinse ! Conditioners leave a residue on fiber which, over time or when exposed to heat, become sticky and cause nepping and noiling, and we know you do not want that in your roving or yarn. If conditioners are added to the rinse water processors will have to rewash your fibers!!!