Washing Wool

Over the past 2 weeks I have washed 50 pounds of wool in our washing machine. A young couple called us on the phone asking us to wash the wool and mohair from their animals. They were not sure how many pounds. We agreed on a price per pound, and when they brought the wool I realized what I was taking on.

The wool was very dirty. I sorted through and weighed each fleece, one box for dark wool, one for white, another for colored mohair, and another for white mohair. As I sorted I was making a judgment about what fleeces I could manage.

To wash wool I fill the washing machine with HOT, hot water...140 degrees in fact. I add liquid soap and put the wool, encased in mesh bags. NO AGITATION! Let it soak for 30 minutes. This means set the timer I keep with me as I do other things. When the time is up, drain the tub of the very grungy water, take out the wool, refill the tub with more HOT water, enter the wool again, first rinse for 30 minutes, NO AGITATION. Repeat draining, removing wool, and refill with a second wash with soap. Wait 30 minutes. Repeat draining, removing wool, and refill two more times for two rinses. Whew! The whole process takes two and one half hours of soaking not counting filling, draining and spinning. And when you are done you know bunches of dirt and lanolin have gone down the drain and the wool looks white when it looked gray to begin with.

Then the wool is spread out on racks to dry. This is when I begin to see bits of vegetation that did not get picked out of the dirty wool, and I find myself picking a bit out every time I pass the drying rack. Some of the wool dries overnight. Some of it takes several days. I know it would dry faster if the layers were not so thick, but I have limited space. I am looking forward to having a drying rack that is stacked high with screen shelves. As it is I have to wait several days for each load of wool to dry before I can do the next one.

Now I have a much better handle on what is involved with washing larger quantities of wool.
This summer we will build a fiber building that will have the capacity to wash and dry wool using solar thermal hot water. I will be glad when we are able to wash our own fleeces and the operation no longer takes over our bathroom with wall to wall wool.