Whats cooking? Part 2

Last Friday I happened upon a most glorious find on freecycle - 7 sheep fleeces!

I eagerly phoned and spoke to a lovely smallholder in a village nearby, who said I could pick them up the next day.  I quickly sent very excited text messages to 2 of my friends, Lee @ Another and Danielle @ A Stash Addicts Ramblings.  At moments like those, you do not want to hear ridicule or rather unenthusiastic responses - I have my husband to provide that for me!  So I went with 2 safe bets, and they didn't let me down!

Lee and I drove down with Bubba and Gremlin in tow.  It really is a gorgeous part of the country down here, if you go off the main roads.  We arrived, and loaded up the car with 7 black bags full of fleece!  The owner then showed us the animals they keep, more for the childrens benefit than anything I think, but we saw the sheep who's hair we now owned, met a rather hyper dog, saw some very cool piglets and a shy BBQ-loving Shetland Pony.  Oh, and goats, named Francesco and Houdini.

This was my entrance hall when we got back!

Excuse the mess!  Can you see Lee almost dancing a merry jig in the background?

Fleece porn!

One thing I will say, fleece smells.  Not in an overpowering disgusting way, but in the definite just came off an eating shitting living outside animal way.  Dags and leaves and twigs galore!  Lee went away with 2 bags, and Danielle arrived not long after to collect 2 bags, leaving me with 3 bags of glorious fleece to deal with!

Once the kids were in bed, using this page as a guide, I test washed some fleece.

Before: very greasy and dirty

This was just the first rinse!

Soapy!

Getting cleaner

All cleaned.  Look how white it is compared to before!

Drying on a clean towel.

I have now washed approximately 1/3 of a black bag.  This took 6 pots (in 2 sessions!) and a bath.  I need to step up the game a bit before my whole house smells of sheep!  My kitchen floor and table is covered in towels with fleece drying on it, but they dry overnight thankfully.  I'm going to be ultra-ambitious tomorrow and attempt to wash a full fleece in the bath and not block it in the process!