I decided to go ahead and try washing one of my fleeces. Having sheared my sheep right on the ground they live on, they had all kinds of little surprises tucked inside the strands of hair–everything from twigs, leaves and seeds to pieces of food that had gotten trapped. All of that debris was on top of the waxy lanolin that gives sheep their distinct smell. Lanolin is a great waterproofer and unfortunately, a wonderful dirt collector too.
I’d read a few methods and decided to give it a go with the washing machine. The fleece certainly could have fit in the tub but it sounded a lot more labor intensive and time consuming. The washing machine method was easy enough and I’m happy with the results.
Here’s how:
Fill washing machine with hot water and mix in 1 cup liquid laundry detergent. Once full, submerge fleece and close the lid, allowing the fleece to soak for 45 minutes (make sure your washing machine is off–if it actually washes the wool via agitation, you’ll have an irreparably tangled mess).
Turn on the spin cycle. When the water is drained, remove the fleece, rinse the washing machine and repeat with another soaking cycle. Repeat as many times as needed to sufficiently remove the lanolin and dirt.
 |
| Gross. Needs a few more cycles. |
While waiting for the washer to refill with hot water, “groom” the fleece to check again for debris such as twigs, leaves, seeds, etc.
For the last soak, fill the washer with hot water and 1/2 cup white vinegar. Spin to remove water and place on a towel to air dry.
5 Responses
Good to know! I need you to get some ducks last year (yes, work that one out in your brain) so I can read about how to take care of them . . . Easter is a wonderful time of the year but why a person would buy someone a duck who lives in an apartment, I'll never know. Long story short, I now have a duckling living with my chickens and we're trying to figure this out.
Get the duck a little kiddy pool…
We actually did have a couple of ducks and one goose with our hens, haha! They probably hated being cooped up with the chatty chickens but they did alright with them. And yes, that is strange anyone would get a duckling for an apartment dweller…not exactly the best combination!
We actually had a girl duck with our hens and she started laying and sitting on her eggs… so our hens started laying eggs in her nest and she actually hatched out a baby chicken, on Mothers day no less. (we had a rooster LOL)
We called her Chuck (chicken+duck) and our duck just loved her little Chuck, they were like peas and carrots LOL I think Chuck was confused to why her ducky Mother would get in the water all the time, but it all worked out LOL
Oh my goodness! That is too cute! Our poor little duck didn't want to have anything to do with our hens. Poor girl probably was pretty lonely among all the chatty hens. 🙂