In the latest “Spin-Off” magazine there is a great article by Judith MacKenzie McCuin, “On Washing Fleece”. She discusses “wool: the self-cleansing fiber” and historical methods of washing fleece including using “fermented suint cleanser”. Attracted by the assertion that “This method has the lowest environmental impact (minimal water use, no chemicals, and the wash water is good for gardens or compost boxes)”, we decided to give it a go.
Let’s start here, with Hercules’ very dirty fleece from last spring. Starting with one pound, we set up the bath.
We kept it warm and in a few days it began to ferment, developing a ‘slight white film’.
We removed the fleece from the dirty, foul-smelling bath now full of ‘the natural detergent’ suint, ‘primarily potassium salts’ secreted by a gland in the sheep’s skin.
Amazingly, the fleece appears very white even before rinsing.
After a quick wash in a weak detergent bath and two rinses (just to be sure that the lanolin had been removed), the fleece is beautiful; clean, soft and yes, as Judith says, “the smell washes right out of the wool”.
It has worked so well that pound #3 is now soaking in that same ‘fermented suint cleanser’. According to the article you can “Use the fermented water over and over; the more you use it, the better it gets. Don’t worry that it looks dirty – use the water until, as they say in Montana, it is too thick to swim in and too thin to plow.”
VERY COOL!!
