Some thoughts on cleaning fleece

[carbonel]

1. Sheep poop is nowhere near as hot-water-soluble (or even hot-water-and-soap-soluble) as one might have expected

Comments

[alien_sunset]

I think you may have a better time getting rid of the VM by combing instead of carding. but then you have the problem that combing usually culls out A LOT of the shorter strands so that you loose a much bigger chunk of your fiber than with carding.
(but the bits that you loose to combing CAN be saves and carded together too, and should be mostly VM free as well after their trip through the combs, you just won't be able to use the two different preparations in the same yarn/project)

[reedrover]

I admit that I ended up just sniffling a little and offering it to a friend who was making felted tree ornaments. So my free advice is worth Absolutely Nothing (tm)

Things that I've seen or read include:
* Spin a very fine single, then lay it on scotch tape. The VM sticks to the tape and comes out, while the longer fibers will just halo a little bit.
* Completely pick the locks apart into every individual fiber and then toss the hair like separating wheat from chaff. As you shake the very very loose pile of hair, the VM will fall out. Best I saw of this was done in a big-handled strainer - shake, shake, toss (like spaghetti), and then lift the hair out and dump the fibers from the bottom where they got caught in the strainer metal.

[magpieweaver]

combing will help- also running it through a picker will get a lot. I have some roving with VM and I pick as much out as I can as I pull it into thin slivers then spin slowly and pick more as I spin very fine. Even then I ended up using most of it for dying and weaving sample projects. I had 16 pounds of an otherwise very nice mohair wool blend. Still trying to use it all up. : )

[twilightspirit]

I use a dog brush as a flicker. It's time consuming and terribly dusty, but it gets most of the ground in crap and VM out.