This time, it’s the Blue Texel I received from the Netherlands. Same process, basically, but this time, I commandeered some of the old toy bins from my lovely 10 yr old–he volunteered them, very sweetly, and even emptied them out. The bins have small holes in the sides that allow the water to enter and exit–sure, some dirt hangs around on the bottom, but really, a far superior method to slopping the wool by hand in and out of the sink.
I saw something similar to this on Deborah Robson’s site last month; her post inspired me to try out some containers! The lb or so I washed is drying on that old homemade rack as I type and I can’t wait to dive in.
While I was waiting for the wool to wash and rinse (15 min cycles), I busied myself with sorting the rest of the wool–pulling out any 2nd cuts, organizing by color and staple length and getting rid of the big VM I could see.
This fleece is SO CLEAN that I am really mostly sorting. Here is a picture taken by my son–he was helping to record the wool-kitchen-takeover 🙂
And the washing? Well, it only took a couple sink-fulls before the water was pretty clear. The darker wool was definitely dirtier and is taking longer to dry. If anyone has ideas about why that is, I’d love to hear them!
Knitting the Stash! 
Well, I shall definitely try this method – heaven knows we get enough rain for it! – with my next fleece which is an even dirtier, bigger one than my Shetland … Romney this time 🙂
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