From Fleece to Fibre: Why Preparation Matters

There is nothing quite like the moment a raw fleece arrives at your door: warm-smelling, slightly greasy, and full of the promise of yarn. Whether you have bought a fleece from a local shepherd at a country show or been given one by a farming friend, the transformation from grubby bundle to spinnable fibre is one of the most satisfying jobs in the textile calendar. Rushed preparation shows up immediately in the yarn — nepps, tangles, and a hand that feels harsh — so it pays to take your time.

This guide covers the three core stages: skirting, washing, and carding. You do not need expensive equipment, but you do need patience, plenty of hot water, and somewhere the smell of wet sheep will not upset the household.

Skirting: Sorting the Good from the Bad

Skirting is simply the process of spreading the fleece out and removing everything you do not want. Lay it fleece-side down on a clean sheet or a large table, ideally outdoors on a dry day. Work in sections, pulling away the edges where the dirt, dung, and felted matting collect.

• Remove the britch wool — the coarse, kempy fibre from the back legs and crutch area.
• Discard the belly wool, which is short, dirty, and usually full of vegetable matter.
• Pull off any felted or matted patches; they will not open up in the wash and will jam your carders.
• Shake out loose debris and pick out obvious bits of straw, hay, and thistles by hand.

Sort the remaining wool into grades if the fleece is variable — softer neck and shoulder wool for next-to-skin projects, stronger body wool for outerwear or rugs. A well-skirted fleece should lose roughly a quarter to a third of its weight before it even hits the water.

Washing Without Felting

The golden rule of washing fleece is simple: never agitate, never shock it with a temperature change. Wool fibres have microscopic scales that lock together when subjected to heat, moisture, and friction — the very recipe for felt. Treat the wool gently and it will stay open and lofty.

You will need a large basin, a washing-up bowl, or a spotlessly clean bath. Fill it with water as hot as your hands can bear — around 50–60°C is ideal for removing lanolin. Add a generous squeeze of washing-up liquid or a specialist wool scour; avoid anything with bleach or enzymes.

• Fill, then add wool. Never run water onto the fleece. Push it gently under the surface and leave it to soak for 15–20 minutes.
• Lift, do not pour. Drain the water away and lift the wool out in handfuls, supporting it from underneath.
• Repeat the hot bath until the water stays reasonably clear — usually three or four washes for a greasy fleece.
• Rinse at the same temperature, again without agitation, until the water runs clean.

If you want to keep some lanolin for waterproof garments, stop washing one cycle early. Spinners who make ganseys and mittens often prefer a slightly greasy fleece, as the residual oil makes the yarn weather-resistant. Dry the wool on a mesh rack or an old window screen in a warm, airy room, turning it occasionally. It may take two or three days.

Carding and Combing: Opening the Fibre

Once dry, your fleece will look like a fluffy cloud, but the fibres are still jumbled and heading in every direction. Carding aligns them into a smooth, spinnable preparation.

Hand cards — a pair of curved paddles covered in fine wire teeth — are the traditional tool for smaller amounts. Load one card lightly, draw the other across it in smooth strokes to transfer the fibre, then strip the resulting rolags off the card. Each rolag is a neat cylinder of fibre ready to draft.

Drum carders speed the job up considerably and produce batts, which you can split lengthways into strips for spinning. Do not overload the drum; thin layers card better than thick ones. For longwool breeds, a pair of combs or a flick carder will give a smoother, more worsted-style preparation.

Whatever tool you use, work in small batches on a lap board or your knee, and keep the fibre loose. Over-carding makes nepps; under-carding leaves tangles. The sweet spot is when the fibre drafts easily between your fingers without snapping.

Storing Your Prepared Fibre

Prepared fleece is vulnerable to moths and damp, so store it properly. Loose mesh bags or cotton pillowcases let the fibre breathe while keeping dust off. Add a sachet of lavender or cedar, and keep the stash somewhere dry and dark. Label each bag with the breed, the date, and whether it is washed or still in the grease — future-you will be grateful.

Prepared wool will happily wait months before spinning, and many spinners find it improves with a short rest as the fibres relax. There is a particular pleasure in reaching into a bag of your own carded rolags on a cold afternoon, knowing the whole journey from sheep to spindle happened under your own roof.