With the warmer weather (and being in the Chicago area, that means anything about 20F), my thoughts turn to two things: gardening and washing raw wool. Not the most exciting things, I know, but I'm content with it - both provide a heck of a workout!
The benefit of washing fleece is that often you can get it for a lot cheaper than roving. The downside? It can take more time/resources to make useable. Some people do spin yarn "in the grease" meaning they spin unscoured (unwashed) fleece into yarn and then wash it afterwards. Some say that it helps the yarn keep some of the lanolin, which can make the spinning easier, but others think "ew". I'm not opposed to raw fleeces, obviously, but most of the spinning I do is in the house. Mr. WoolWeed hasn't been fond of the raw fleece smell, so it gets washed (or stored in the garage). One of these years, I'll give it a try.
So, if you have more time than money, you can buy a fleece for fairly cheap, depending on what you're looking for and where you are. At a Sheep/Wool/Fiber Festival, you maybe able to pick a full fleece up for $10 (I did). Yes, there are much more expensive fleeces out there, just as there are more expensive roving/spinning fibers. If you look for general raw fleeces (and avoid the ones that say "rare" or "lamb" or "first cutting") you can generally find good prices. Nothing beats a festival, though, when you can talk to the owners and often see the animals.
(I'll plug the Wisconsin Wool and Sheep Festival here, as it was a fantastic event, despite the hotter than hell day. Sheep were being sheared right on sight, and there was a 'meet and greet' of different sheep breeds. Fantastic event!)
Now, washing fleece can be labor intensive - depending on how you set up. There are people who use washing machines and more. I do it a little more old fashioned - I use tubs. Depending on how many things I'm washing I either use one tub or two, and do three washes - more or less if needed, and three rinses, the first of which will have some vinegar to help rinse the soap. Some fleeces take just one or two washes, and I've had one that took five. I carry the waste water outside to dump, as I back up to a wetlands, with an area I put in to help filter the water (rain garden). That's a lot of 5 gal buckets, mostly full, to cart and dump. And if I'm doing one tub - that's a 5 gallon bucket every 20 minutes, and if I'm using 2 tubs... it's every ten. Not much rest between carting and lifting. However, I'm getting a fantastic arm workout!
And if you haven't been scared off, and want to do this yourself, I would highly suggest starting with harder to felt fleeces. Some of the more primitive breeds are harder to felt. Dorset, Ryeland, Manx L., and several others are hard/darn hard to felt. Stay away from merino, and the Down groups unless you're feeling adventurous. (And as far as adventure goes, washing a fleece isn't much of one, is it?) The main keys to washing a fleece without felting - put it in, push it down until it's fully submerged and wet, and then leave it. Walk away and go set the timer. Come back when the timer goes off. :)
Washing a fleece has some benefits - I'm always amazed at the difference in
color and texture between raw fiber and washed. And I did that. I may not have the world's cleanest floors, but I can take dingy fleece and turn it into sparkling white. Yes, my fleece does have those funky little star effects. I may only imagine them, but they're there. ;)
