Spinning (carding, actually) in the grease

A few years ago a local sheep farmer stopped in at my workplace and offered me a dark brown sheep fleece. About a year earlier, I had mentioned to him that Lynda and I have a spinning wheel and were interested in processing a raw fleece into yarn instead of just spinning rovings like we had up until that point. I was thrilled, but I told him that we would not get around to processing the fibre for quite a while because we had at least a year’s worth of fibre that we would deal with first.

Last week I started hand carding a bit of the wool. After about 5 rolags, I felt a strange desire to see what the internet had to say about “spinning in the grease”. I found no one who recommended taking a raw fleece and immediately carding it. Hmmmm.

Rolags with the hand cards used to make them

Now I am looking for ways to scour my fleece with equipment I have in my home. I am considering using dish soap and hot water in an old canner that we usually use to carry firewood into the house.