Step 1

Fill an empty bucket with water as hot as you can get from your tap. I fill my buckets about 3/4 full to ensure there is room to add the fleece. Each bucket holds 11.4L.

Step 2

I use 1 Tbsp of Unicorn Power Scour in the first round of scouring. I use Power Scour because I find it leaves my fleeces feeling clean, but still soft. I have used dish detergent previously and found it would leave my fleeces feeling dry. I gently swish the water with the measuring spoon to mix in the Power Scour.

Step 3

Next, I add the fleece, transferring it from the sorting bucket and gently pressing it down into the water. I repeat for each bucket of fleece.

Step 4

I let the fleece soak for at least 20 minutes, but no longer than 45. You don’t want to let the water cool or the lanolin will reattach to the fleece. I use a towel under the buckets so they don’t cool off too quickly sitting my basement floor. The towel has the added benefit of soaking up any water I might spill. After 20 minutes has passed, I refill a new bucket with water, following Step 1, but using only 1/2 Tbsp of Power Scour. Make sure your new water is as hot if not hotter than the water the fleece is soaking in.

Step 5

This is the hardest part - transferring the fleece from one bucket to another without agitating it too much.

I put both my hands in the bucket and lift the fleece from the bottom, to support it as I draw it out of the water. Then I give it a gentle squeeze to get as much dirty water out as possible before putting it in the clean water. Then I set another timer for 20 minutes and wait.

Step 6

After two soaks in Power Scour, it’s usually time for the rinse. However, if you have a particularly dirty fleece or your fleece is very lanolin-heavy, you may want to do one more soak with Power Scour before moving to the rinse.

The rinse cycle is the same as the scour cycles, except you don’t use any Power Scour, just clean water that is as hot or hotter than the water your fleece is soaking in currently. Fleece can move from cold to hot, but going from hot to cold can shock it and cause it to felt.

The water from the first and second scours and the rinse. I always think of it as going from coffee with cream to a matcha latte. I don’t wash my fleeces until they are perfectly clean. My yarn is going to get washed twice more before I wear it (once to set the yarn and once in blocking), so I’m not worried about getting them completely clean. The important thing is to wash out most of the dirt and the lanolin so the fleece will draft smoothly for spinning.

Step 7

Lastly, I lay the wet fleece on a sweater drying rack to dry. I will sometimes wrap my fleece in a towel and walk on it to get the excess water out - it won’t hurt it! But usually I just give a really good squeeze after the final rinse and lay it out like this. It takes a few days to dry, less if you wrap it in a towel and rotate it with some frequency, but usually I just wait. It fluffs up again as it dries.