Margaret Miller

With all the fleeces I've been washing lately it certainly feels like a cottage industry in process if not quite a fully fledged wool scour. I don't have a studio space in this house so most of the washing has to be done in the kitchen sink. While the laundry tub is bigger, the laundry itself is tiny and so it's unsuitable. In the last couple of weeks I've scoured 2 full merino fleeced and half a corriedale, as well as washing 2 full alpaca fleeced. I have a problem with the dust that alpacas dearly love so even these have to be washed before carding or combing. The alpaca fleece in the photo wash the last bucket full - I only just remembered in time to take a picture. It's from Persius and is 23 microns. Yes it's very soft and a gorgeous colour.

Fine merino on the left is sopping wet and ready for a rinse. There's a slight smell but not as strong as I supposed it might be. Perhaps late autumn impeded the process. It was soaking for about a fortnight I think. The bath water is now ready for the batch of Corriedale. I've had this fleece a while and it's quite sticky so it will be interesting to see what happens. The instructions I'm using are from Wool Ewe. . .