At our picnic last month Nicola, Madeline and Inge spoke about ways of dealing with raw fleece. We found that we had worked very differently with our recent fleeces, and we thought it might be interesting to compare these ways in a blog post. There can be many reasons for choosing a particular way of preparing a fleece for spinning. Some reasons for scouring (washing) the fleece that came up were: the quantity of fleece that needs to be prepared within a particular time frame, the space available for washing (a whole fleece as described by Nicola, or small parts of a fleece as described by Madeline and Inge), the quality of the fleece and how clean it is, and the personal preference for one or other way of working. We may also have a particular way of spinning in mind which can guide us in the final steps before spinning. Madeline I have been asked by Inge to describe how I sort a fleece. I did tell her I didn't think anyone would do it like I do, but after a lot of arm twisting I ...
