Washing Shetland hoggit fleece

So that Shetland fleece I bought at Rhinebeck... The one I thought was tan? Well I was WRONG. I decided to wash a couple of locks just to see if I could do it without felting the thing. I had heard so many HORROR stories you see about Shetland fleeces that felted in the bag on the way back from fairs.... So I wanted to be really careful. Even though I bought this fleece for demonstrations I still didn't want to RUIN it completely.




This is the Shetland ram lamb hogget fleece I bought. It's tan isn't it? WRONG!!! Look!



Locks of fleece living in there little fleece pens. Doesn't it look like I'm cultivating mold?


Fleece drying on a clothing rack that I've lined with paper towels.





Hmm.... the locks come in all shades of white to dark gray!!! What a dirty dirty filthy little lamb!!! This is the first sorting with the the first pile of cleaned locks. Obviously, I managed not to felt them. So... I went on to wash some MORE fleece.


Compulsive enough for you? I went from 5 piles of locks to TEN! and I'm not even half way through washing the thing yet.

This little lambie has just about every single possible color combination possible in his beaver locks that is listed for white to gray fleece on this site. http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/ssbg/colours.html


Pure white.


White shot through with black threads




A couple of shades of light gray and silvery gray.



2 types of musket, or a sort of agouti stripe. One pile is coarse than the other.



And the dark grays.

As well as a couple of piles of shorter locks and possible second cuts.

More sorting to go!

What am I going to DO with this once it's all clean??? Who knows... I'm sure I'll think of something!

Off to change the water in the sink.