Washing Locks

While the wind howls outside, the garage work is on hold and I play hooky from house work. I decided it was a perfect time to sit down with some coffee and get this lock washing blog knocked out.

I love working with locks and recently learned that this is often the way they have done in the past when there wasn't a whole lot of equipment for processing.  Since I prefer to live on a budget and I don't like a lot of steps between me and my wool at the spinning wheel I wanted to look into the process of spinning from the lock even for shorter staples and fine wool like Merino etc...  I tried to simply wash my wool and then pull the locks out as I'd seen a video of that process on youtube and with that process it still took a long time to pull the locks apart and half or so of it needed some hand carding.  I injured my shoulder a couple years ago and hand carding aggravates it so I don't really even want to have to hand card my fiber if I can help it.

First thing to do is gather supplies.  I use a roasting pan and a large piece of rayon silk type fabric I got in the remnants section at Walmart.  You can use a pillow case cut open as well, I just didn't have any laying around and it was easier to grab a remnant than find a single pillow case at the store. Lay the fabric centered in your pan, unfolded.  Next unpackage your fleece.  If it's a whole fleece it's easiest to go ahead and unroll the whole thing cut side down.  For this blog I was washing a few ounces of the superior Rambouillet fleece from the Wyoming State Fair.  The fleece should have pretty pronounced "chunks" of locks here and there.  Some will be easier than others and if it's jumbled up like mine teasing it gently to get it to unfold without pulling very hard will get the locks to kind of organize themselves. Separate or pull out the lock sections gently to keep the rest of the locks around it intact. You can grab the locks by the tip if you've laid a whole fleece out with the cut side down.  For this blog I did both since the jumble of locks was all over the place.

tip end of the lock

cut end of the locks

Lay the locks in your pan on top of the fabric.  You'll want to make sure the ends toward the center are the same, either cut ends in or tips in with the cut ends out. This is a good time to remove any second cuts you find or loose vm.  Fill your pan up with locks like this.  I filled mine to the top with this batch but I think I would keep it maybe a quarter inch from the top to allow more water for it to sit in.

second cuts

Locks cut ends in laying in my pan

Now you fold your fabric over the locks into a lock burrito.  Once your fabric is folded over you add room temperature water.  Let that sit and soak for an hour or so.  Not less than an hour though so you can soak as much of the dirt and other yuck out of the fleece before you add the soap and the heat.  I like to weigh the burrito down to make sure all of the wool is under water.  After it's been soaking awhile dump that water off gently.  I dump all my water outside, it's so gross I don't want it in my drains.  You can roll up the lock burrito to dump it or I use the grate that came with the roasting pan to hold it into place before I roll it up and give it a little squeeze.  A LITTLE squeeze, no wringing.  Wool hates wringing and will felt on you if you try to wring it out.  This water will be pretty dirty and many people use gloves.  There won't be any grease in this water as well so it won't have the same look as the water that will come off next.

My locks soaking

With your locks rolled up in their burrito set them aside so you can fill your pan up again with room temperature water and add soap this time.  I use Dawn original dish soap, probably about two or three tablespoons worth and a couple drops of my laundry soap. Work the water around so that the soap is evenly distributed before you put your locks into the water. Now you put your pan of water and lock burrito onto the stove, take a deep breath and turn the stove on *gasp*. Keep the stove on low heat and babysit.  I usually clean up the kitchen, listen to a pod cast...checking on the pan of locks often.  Don't let them boil but you want them to steam.  If you're like me and need a goal in mind use a thermometer and watch for the temperature to get to 150 degrees fahrenheit.  Let it soak like that for 30 minutes to an hour making sure it doesn't boil!

locks cooking on the stove

lock babysitting selfie

Turn off the heat and pour off the water CAREFULLY so you don't burn yourself.  This water will be a milky kind of dirty because of all the grease coming off of the fleece.  If you want to wash but leave some grease in your locks you can heat the water but not as hot and for a shorter period of time. 

dirty soap water

Let the whole business cool for a bit and then refill your pan with HOT tap water, as hot as you can get it.  Wool really hates temperature changes so you need to make sure the water is as hot as the wool is.  Repeat the cooking process but no more soap!  This is the first rinse.  You repeat this rinse step as many times as you need to till the water runs clear.  It should only take two times, maybe three if you got carried away with the soap.

Filling my pan with HOT rinse water keeping my burrito out of the direct stream

Once you have clear water you can let your locks cool.  Roll them up in their burrito and give them a squeeze or two.  I roll them up in a towel at this point and press on the towel to "ring" them out as much as I can without making the wool mad.  Now you can open your lock package and lay them out to dry!  I laid this particular batch on the top of my outdoor rabbit cages in the afternoon sun.  Some people use the sweater drying racks. I like to use a hanging mesh toy storage thing when I dry in the house which is usually the case. Otherwise the wind would blow my wool to Nebraska.


The last thing to do is to prep your locks for spinning once they are dry.  For this fine fiber I used a dog brush.  There are flick carders but I'm too cheap to get one yet ha ha.  For less fine fleece I use a hand carder or if I messed up and ended up with some felting.  Take a few locks at a time in your hand and give them a twist in the middle.  Sometimes I do more than one twist if I can.  Hold the twist tight in one hand and use the brush or carder to get the ends organized.  Both ends need this, the cut ends and the tips.  Usually the tips need more work than the cut ends unless you have a bit of felting.  On this batch I kept poking around moving the water around etc... and had some felting.  It was my first time working with fine fleece.  Once both ends have been carded/brushed out nice you can untwist the middle and give it a good tug.  SOMETIMES if the fleece isn't too dirty you can just tug it and not do any flick carding at all.  A couple of tugs should get that middle bit straight and separated enough to spin with.

Clean dry locks ready to card

twisted in the center to card the ends

Holding the twist for brushing

Brushing ends

Ready for a few tugs to sort out the middle

Locks ready for spinning

 Once you are ready and have enough fiber to spin you can either spin from the fold or simply hold a few locks upright between thumb and forefinger drafting toward the crook of your hand.

There's the lock prep that is my favorite way to spin.  Not much carding etc... involved and while there is babysitting involved it's not something that requires much elbow grease at all through the entire process.  Nor does it require much in terms of equipment which is a big bonus for me.  Hope you enjoy this process as much as I do and happy spinning!!!

Coming up: Sheep part 3

Fleece!! Sheep pt.2

Before we get to the picture heavy portion of the shearing day excitement I thought I'd go back to the beginning BEFORE I unloaded the sheep in the snow.

I've known since I began knitting that I wanted my own sheep one day.  I decided to take a wool spinning class to see if I'd like that part of the process.  I wasn't surprised at all when I found that I really enjoyed spinning.  For a few years off and on I would use a drop spindle to spin singles of my dog's hair.  I hadn't gotten to the plying portion of the class and life happened so I just kinda played around waiting for the day that I'd get my own wheel.  Once I did get my wheel I was terrified and didn't touch it for a year after an initial attempt at spinning the free fiber sample that came with it. 

BlueLips in her coat

Purl and Rosie coated

Once I spun up a bunch of free fiber I got from a local knitting shop that had to close it's doors I was hooked.  I watched youtube and learned to ply it and set the twist etc...  I made my first skein of yarn and never looked back. 

It took a few years to get to a place where I could keep sheep financially and to have the barn and fencing to do it.  During that time I learned a bit about different breeds, and wool.  I spun the wool that came from the breeds I was interested in that would do well in the climate here in Wyoming and decided that for the first sheep I got I wanted fine wool and that I would not worry about whether or not they were purebred or registered.  I found three local sheep, two black CVM x Merino cross yearling ewe twins that I named Purl and Rosie and in order to keep them on an even keel I picked out a strong smart 4 year old long wool cross Ewe. BlueLips was the name her shepherd gave her.  It stuck, her lips are "blue" (basically like she ate some grey lipstick). 

I learned that if you coat your sheep the fleece stays clear of vm or vegetable matter (hay, burs etc...) which can make processing the wool for spinning harder.  This in turn gives the fleece a better value in general, higher prices.  I purchased a few coats as the ones that were given to me with the sheep by that time had already become too small for the wool they were growing underneath.  I changed coats for them a total of three times and each time I'd sneak a glimpse of what they were growing underneath.  Even those little glimpses was nothing compared to what they were like once they were shorn and the fleece could be seen as a whole.  WHAT BEAUTY!!!

Shearing was super interesting!  The pure white of BlueLips fleece was shocking as was the rich dark black of Rosie and Purl's fleeces.  They were shorn last, at sunset and very carefully to keep from getting dirt and wool from other animals in their fleece and of course to keep them from being injured. The shearer did a great job keeping the fleece clean and in one piece and being gentle with my girls!  We traveled to the shearer, he was shearing alpaca at a friend's place.  I helped handle the alpaca and gather wool and clean up between animals while the kids played in the farm yard. We were all quite surprised at how different our sheep looked after shearing.  It was as though I brought different, BIGGER, sheep and took home a load of little lambs. My girls looked sooooo much smaller!  My kiddos were exhausted by the end of the night as well.

Sunset shearing

Tired Kiddos

I watched a few videos about how to skirt a fleece and as soon as I had time and a calm day came along I skirted the fleeces.  I could not wait to get my hands on them! 


BlueLips:

Rolled lengthwise ready to be rolled up and bagged

Purl:

Showing Crimp.  The color was hard to get this close up

Rosie:

All rolled up ready to be bagged!

Shearing was in May, the county fair wasn't until August so I had to put the wool away and basically pretend it didn't exist till the end of July!  It was a little torturous.  To show your fleece it must be skirted (all the dirty edges, second cuts and shorter areas like the neck etc... removed) and then you take the fleece and fold the edges in toward the center, folded in thirds and roll it up and place it in a clear plastic bag.  Each show is a little different in presentation as far as bag color goes but the skirting and folding/rolling of the fleece is the same for all shorn fleeces.  To my great surprise and even greater delight BlueLips took Grand Champion at the County fair.  I didn't think she'd do too great because she really is a heinze 57 of breeds.  She doesn't have coarse wool but it's long, 8"-10" and without a tight crimp or curl to it.  There's also a good bit of sheen, really lovely for a hand spinner that likes to work with the more medium type wool.  They really loved her wool though.  Purl got Second for colored wool and Rosie's fleece took first and reserve champion colored fleece.  All very respectable showings for my first year keeping sheep etc...  I was certainly pleased.  I sent BlueLips and Rosie's fleeces to state fair they got third and fourth ribbons respectively.

All of my Fiber arts and wool fair entries tagged and ready to go

Fair entries after county and state fair

Quite an exciting year it has been!




Coming up: Wool Prep to keep the lock intact.