Washing My Soay Fleece

They say there's a first time for everything and for me this was definitely the first time ever for washing fleece, made all the more exciting because it came from one of my own Soay sheep. As I've mentioned before, Soays shed their own fleece so there is no need for clipping, but you have to be vigilant if you want to get as much of the fleece off as possible. My Soay, Yaisah, had shed almost half of her fleece before I got the rest off. I did, however, get most of Shulah's fleece.
So follow me with words and photos as I take you through my first tentative wool wash!
I started at about 12.45 pm and looked out all the things I would need. I wasn't sure whether to use detergent or soap flakes as I'd read that either is acceptable, but in the end I settled on one of my favourite detergents......

Fleece smelling like apples? Hmmm..

Please comment below this post if you have found that one particular soap or detergent works well for you personally. I'd be very interested to hear your views on this.
I weighed the fleece just out of curiosity and this was the result. Remember, this is roughly HALF a fleece from a year old Soay lamb. Next year the sheep will yield a thicker and heavier fleece.

So I filled a small bowl full of lukewarm water and the detergent and gently pressed the fleece down until it sank down into the bowl.....

Soay fleece is VERY greasy but I wanted to keep some of that in the wool to assist with the spinning process so I felt that lukewarm water was the best. Next time I will make the water a little hotter though. This is all a learning process and I'm enjoying the learning as much as the process itself!
As all my sheep are on a heathery hill apportionment with some marshy areas among it, I was not surprised to find that the water soon became very dirty. This photo is actually the second blot. In my excitement I forgot to take a photo of the first!

I was timing these washes carefully because it's important not to let the water temperatures vary, so I didn't keep it in the basin long enough for the water to cool too much.By this time the clock said......

I took three photos of the fleece after the second wash while it was on the draining board. You may be able to see the amount of lanolin in the fleece. When wet it appears almost like a hoard of tiny wet particles of rice. If you squash it between your fingers it is just a greasy mess and quite unpleasant but very good for the skin on your hands! Here are the photos I took......

And then I got distracted and took a couple of random kitchen shots!!!

I love these bull plates. I have five of them and paid only £2 each for them. They measure approx. 11 x 9 inches and I like them very much.

I'd never actually keep pigs ( unless they stayed tiny piglet size!!) but I do love paintings of farm animals. This pig painting isn't very big and is painted onto a block. It looks nice in our kitchen.

Oops no, that was the time after the first wash! Sorry!

Nothing I own is worth a lot of money. If I like it, I buy it, and most of what I love is either presents from much loved family members (those things I DO treasure!) or items picked up at car boots or other sales. After all, we can't take our possessions with us when we leave this earth. Enjoy what you have, even if it cost more in car fuel to bring it home!
Back to the draining board!
The first rinse obviously showed detergent and a little dirty water coming through but after a few rinses it was beginning to look clear and I was satisfied that I'd got enough dirt and lanolin out of the fleece to think about getting it completely rinsed and on the 'screen' for drying. Here you can see the water is clear where I've moved the fleece aside....

The book I was using to direct me in this whole process suggested using a colander to get most of the water out of the fleece and then to get a fluffy towel and lay the fleece in it and squeeze down on it to get more water out. My colander has lots of ideas of what to drain in it but fleece is not one of them!

From the colander to the towel......

Now can I ask you something?
What do you use as a 'rust proof screen' when drying your fleece? I don't really have anything that I would consider totally suitable for this purpose so I actually used a kitchen cutting 'mat' made of reinforced glass. The ones you use for chopping veg and cutting meat. I won't use it again as I wasn't totally happy with it. I found the fleece took too long to dry (but then I did have to dry it indoors). Please let me know what works for you. Just write in the comment box below. I'd be very interested to know.

Well, I hope I haven't bored the fleece off you!!! Please let me know you called by my blog. If you have your own blog I will certainly visit yours too.
Now I'm off to have a roast chicken dinner! Until next time, keep calm and read lots of blogs!

First Soay Fleece

What a birthday present! My first little bundle of Soay sheep fleece taken from my lovely ewe Yaisah today. Just look at this.....

There would have been more but, as Soays shed their own fleece, half of it was gone before I got to her to get the rest off. I may get nearer the full fleece from Shulah as she hasn't started shedding too much yet. Here are a couple more pics, a little closer up this time. Their fleece is very oily. Good for the hands!!

I've never worked with raw fleece before and as I want to learn how to spin I need to learn how to go through the whole process so I've oredered this book through Amazon......

And then of course because I want to learn to spin using a drop spindle I just HAD to order this book as well.......

I've found someone who is willing to teach me how to use the spindle and I'm so thankful and very excited about it. I would love to knit a shawl from my very own fleece. That is my goal.
And if all this isn't enough excitement for me, I'm getting 2 more Soays next week. This is my birthday present from my hubby. They are 'wethers' (castrated rams) and were born last year around the same time as the 2 ewes I have so it will make a nice little group. I plan to have perhaps half a dozen Soays and that will probably be my limit so I can add a few coloured Shetlands to my small flock too. About a dozen sheep altogether will be my flock size.
My hubby made a lovely gate for the larger sheep pen today. I was so grateful as it will help enormously when it comes to shearing time. We just need a couple more bits of wood to make it completely safe and sound. My hubby is so good to me and if I need something done or made he always does it and doesn't leave me hanging on or having to nag!! I wouldn't nag anyway, it's just not me.
So, I'll leave you today with a photo taken from the batch I took on Saturday at the Shetland Alpaca and Soay farm. Thanks for calling by my blog. As always feel free to comment, join, follow, ask questions......whatever you want. Here's a pic for you................

Three light Soays

Baby Soays......Adorable!

Just look what I got to photograph yesterday! I had made plans with the couple who own the Shetland Alpaca Farm to come up yesterday and take photos of their baby Soay sheep. I couldn't wait. I slept very badly the night before and got up at 6.00am because of my utter excitement! I know, I'm just a hopeless case.
Here is one photo I just love......

Just chillin'

As you can see, Soay babies are not really like the lambs of other breeds of sheep that we are more familiar with. They are much more like young deer and I noticed the 'bleating' sound they make is also unlike a lamb's bleat. Their coats are quite tight and very wavy, almost curly in places.
Here's a few more pics for you.....

Look at that face!

One of the ram lambs this year has a much lighter coat than they expected, but I think they are keen to keep this little ram to use as a breeder in the future. Soays can be light or dark. They can also have white on their faces. Some people prefer this. It's a matter of personal taste really. As long as the lamb's generational history can be traced back and there is only Soay blood in them then it's perfectly ok to have a change in colour. Sometimes a breeding ram may "throw" a lighter colour, even though he is dark. This is obviously a throw back from a previous generation.

Light Soay

Dark Soay

Soay sheep shed their own fleeces, although you can pull it off yourself if you see that is is becoming very loose and patchy. I notice one of mine is looking particularly straggly so I may try to get as much of the wool as I can so I can try to spin it. Phill from the farm showed me yesterday how to take off the loose fleece. You just get hold of a piece and 'roll' it upwards away from the skin. This doesn't hurt or harm the Soay sheep at all. The new fleece grows back quite quickly too. You can see in this next photo how the adult light coloured Soay is beginning to shed her fleece. Those loose clumps would easily come off with a gentle pull upwards.

I'm just going to finish off this post with a photo of one of their rams called Gambit. He is quite a character. When I arrived yesterday to take photos he was lying back in the sunshine watching all the mothers do the hard work............enough said!!! Here he is in all his glory..........

What a dude!

Back soon with more news and photos. Take care.