Scouring fleeces

I finally got busy and managed to get ONE fleece scoured before my son's heart surgery last month. It is a really fine Rambo/ColumbiaX. I did it in two halves (since it wasn't very big) in the laundry room sink - and I did a very Non-Scientific experiment while I was at it.

I washed one half of the fleece in Dawn Dish soap and the other half I used Kookaburra Wool Wash. It turns out that this fleece ended up being much dirtier than I expected, so I thought this might be a good comparison to share. As you read, keep in mind that I was very careful about not over-packing the sink. I used lots of water in relation to the amount of fleece.

The first half, washed with Dawn took 3 washings and at least 5-6 rinses before I considered it clean enough to send to the drying table. With all that washing/rinsing I thought for sure I would end up with nothing more than a pile of felt. It turns out I wasn't too far off - it is slightly felted, but not so bad that I won't be able to save it. Amazingly, it STILL has a lot of sand/dirt in it. The water never really ran clear...

The second half, washed with Kookaburra Wool Wash only took 2 washings and 3 rinses before reaching a similar state of cleanliness. I really noticed how much easier it was for the dirt and grease/lanolin to lift out of the fiber, and also for the cleaning solution to rinse out. The fiber did get a little felted, but again I'm not surprised after the abuse I had to put it through to get it clean.
Comparing the two, this pile of wool seems cleaner to me, and smells wonderful (they use tea tree in the formula which leaves the wool smelling fresh, clean and acts as a moth deterrent) even though it didn't require as many washings as the Dawn half.. . Although the Wool Wash has a hint of lanolin in it, I can't seem to feel it on the fiber. One run through the carding machine will tell me if it will be a problem or not. Kookaburra does make a Wool Scour formula without the lanolin which will be used on the next fleece.

I definitely plan on adding this product to the shop, and highly recommend that you at least TRY this on your next fleece. I'm glad I did, and I will be using it on all my fleeces.