Jacob Fleeces

I picked up two Jacob fleeces last week. Boy, are they ever full of VM(vegatable matter). Which is a royal pain to pick out. The wool is very soft though, and I think they'll be worth the effort.(I hope!)

I first tried to comb out some of the VM prior to washing....nope, the lanolin makes the VM stick to the fibers worse I think. So I filled the tub with hot water,

Dawn detergent, and Woolite. I let them

soak until the hot water got cold, drain,

and rinsed with hot water again. I was

really careful not to aggitate the fiber.

They both came out pretty clean after one wash and one rinse. After draping the fleece on a clothes rack and allowed to dry, I found that the VM combed out much easier. Hopefully my next blog will be of my progress on the fleeces. It may be a while, because it really is a lot of work! I really love Jacob though! The lady I got the fleeces from let me come out and take Aidan and Addi to meet the sheep. Aidan was afraid, but Addi fed them Wheat Thins. (Nana forgot her camera too!!!) Oh well, maybe next year, if the VM doesn't scare me off. I paid $25 for each fleece, and they weren't skirted. The VM is excessive, and I'll wind up losing about half of each 6lb fleece. If I manage to get 5lb of fiber from both fleeces, at 10$ a lb, it's not much of a bargain when I can get processed fiber 16$ a lb. (It would save me weeks of work!) But, I got them for the experience of taking a raw fleece to finish, so there you have it!