Shetland Cleaning the Fermented Suint Way

UPDATE: Since I started cleaning fleece in this manner, I've created a blog dedicated to the method.  Go here: 

 http://mozfiberlife.wordpress.com/fsm/

for a more comprehensive study.

I picked up an issue of Spin Off magazine wherein Judith MacKenzie McCuin gives a basic description of the Fermented Suint Cleanser method of cleaning fleece of excess lanolin. A method developed in New Zealand it is a very smelly process. But the environmental impact is low, no soap is needed or heat to heat the water.

You start out the mix by soaking a heavy grease wool in soft water. I used the rainwater Dale had gathered from the last rains and a heavy grease Rambouillet fleece. The suint (sheep sweat) that is on the fleece creates a natural cleanser made up mostly of potassium salts.

This is a shot of the Romeny fleece before it becomes submerged in the suint mix.

It is a beautifully clean fleece. There was hardly any VM (vegetable matter) in this fleece at all. Lovely lock formation

On this Shetland batch I decided to tray the locks to help maintain the lock formation.
I sorted them by grade.

This fleece had some yellow tips, it came cleaner with the Suint Soak that it did with soap and heat. Combed in it's not noticeable and with another washing it did come out. 

This tray was some of the finer wool with better tips.
Stacked the trays...

This is a shot of the suint mix. The more you use it the stronger it gets, but it smells pretty strongly. The top can form bubbles and a milky scum at the top. You can see a hint of it here.

I used the zippered laundry bags to help keep the fleece intact. This also makes it easier to rinse and move about from Suint Mix to rinse water.

I start by draining the FSM off of the fiber into another bin....save the runoff and pour it back into the original bin. Don't add any tap water to the FSM. Rinse by running water over the fiber until the water runs clear. This takes a few rinses. But it's good for the garden! I've stopped when the fiber is milky and it still comes free of the eau de Ferment after it dries.

The Churro batch drying on screens in the dappled shade.

The Romney batch Before....

....................After :) 

This method of scouring leaves just enough lanolin to work the wool nicely. No greasy gunky fiber here!

Delicious

Ready to spin.

This is a shot of one of the suint batches that didn't ferment properly. You can see there is algae growing on the surface rather than the milky white film that forms when it has working properly. I tried to start this mix with a fleece that already had been washed. If there is no suint your mix won't work...this get's tossed out.

Shetland-my first

I decided to wash all of the locks in the bathtub, so I separated the locks, laid them between layers of tule and then hand basted across the locks with a very long basting stitch and a very long needle just to hold them in place.

 These are the locks out of the tule. I'm using a flick carder. The leather is to protect my lap from the sharp tines.  I get about this much fiber in the flicker from two large locks. I've been combing these remnants and pulling them into a roving. I believe this is actually a second undercoat, it is very soft and the combing pulls any noils VM (veggie matter) out of it.

 Tried to capture the color variations in this fleece. It has a very lovely light brown and the root fibers are a silvery white. Nummy.