# Spinning - In the grease



## Cdambro

Hi spinners.....does anyone spin in the grease? I am wondering how it spins and do you wash after you have spun and plied? Spin and leave it that way and does it spin true to what you want it to be? I guess, any information you can offer. Thanks.


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## IndigoSpinner

I haven't tried spinning in the grease, but I have washed some wool, and the first time (and frequently at least the second time) you put the wool in sudsy water, it turns instantly to mud.

If I just put it through the wash and rinse once, I, personally, would consider that "in the grease."

But no matter what, when you finish spinning in the grease, your yarn will be as dirty as clothes worn by a toddler who played in the mud all day. I can't imagine wanting to use that yarn until it was washed. And by washed, I mean I'd want it to go through 4 or 5 wash-and-rinses. And it seems to me that a spun and plied yarn would be much harder to get the dirt out of than loose fibers.

The fiber I've dealt with that was shorn and not washed didn't seem to have much "grease," but it did have a lot of dirt.

In the abstract, "in the grease" sounds great. In actual practice, that dirt is pretty abrasive. The fleeces I've worked with were from sheep who did _not_ wear coats. Sheep who wore coats would probably produce cleaner wool, and I have no experience with that.


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## BirchPoint

When I first started spinning, eons ago, spinning in the grease was the thing to do. I would not recommend it, though. It gums up your carder, leaves a deposit around the inside of your wheel orifice, doesn't lose sheep living debris as easily, and still needs to be washed to get rid of the dirt. Over time, the grease in the yarn will stiffen if you don't get it all out. I don't know what they mean when they talk about the fisherman sweater having the lanolin left in. Anyone know?


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## Woodstockgranny

BirchPoint said:


> When I first started spinning, eons ago, spinning in the grease was the thing to do. I would not recommend it, though. It gums up your carder, leaves a deposit around the inside of your wheel orifice, doesn't lose sheep living debris as easily, and still needs to be washed to get rid of the dirt. Over time, the grease in the yarn will stiffen if you don't get it all out. I don't know what they mean when they talk about the fisherman sweater having the lanolin left in. Anyone know?


I had this identical thought, experience and result.


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## Cdambro

IndigoSpinner said:


> I haven't tried spinning in the grease, but I have washed some wool, and the first time (and frequently at least the second time) you put the wool in sudsy water, it turns instantly to mud.
> 
> If I just put it through the wash and rinse once, I, personally, would consider that "in the grease."
> 
> But no matter what, when you finish spinning in the grease, your yarn will be as dirty as clothes worn by a toddler who played in the mud all day. I can't imagine wanting to use that yarn until it was washed. And by washed, I mean I'd want it to go through 4 or 5 wash-and-rinses. And it seems to me that a spun and plied yarn would be much harder to get the dirt out of than loose fibers.
> 
> The fiber I've dealt with that was shorn and not washed didn't seem to have much "grease," but it did have a lot of dirt.
> 
> Thanks. That is what I was thinking it would be like. I know a lot of spinners love spinning that way but I recently washed some fleece and the water was mud. I cannot imagine wearing it before washing and it seems to me that if you spin and ply with the dirt in it and then wash it, it would ruin the structure of the yarn.
> 
> In the abstract, "in the grease" sounds great. In actual practice, that dirt is pretty abrasive. The fleeces I've worked with were from sheep who did _not_ wear coats. Sheep who wore coats would probably produce cleaner wool, and I have no experience with that.


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## Cdambro

BirchPoint said:


> When I first started spinning, eons ago, spinning in the grease was the thing to do. I would not recommend it, though. It gums up your carder, leaves a deposit around the inside of your wheel orifice, doesn't lose sheep living debris as easily, and still needs to be washed to get rid of the dirt. Over time, the grease in the yarn will stiffen if you don't get it all out. I don't know what they mean when they talk about the fisherman sweater having the lanolin left in. Anyone know?


Thanks.....I thought it woul gum things up plus it would just feel awful running through your fingers. I see lots of spinners do spin in the grease and wondered what it is really like.


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## Cdambro

Woodstockgranny said:


> I had this identical thought, experience and result.


Good to know from your experience. Thanks.


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## Goodshepfarm

I've spun in the grease many times years ago.Yes, on the down side it does gum things up but it is a great hand softening treatment due to the concentrated lanolin. After the buildup in the orifice I had to use q-tips to clean it out. After spinning, yes it was washed in hot water. Not really something I would want to do again, but I would do it for demonstration purposes (at a fairgrounds for example) and not be troubled by it.


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## shepherd

My friend and I used to do a 2-day sheep-to-shawl demo (not a competition) at a local fair. We made 3 shawls in 2 days - auctioned 1 and we each got one. We had teens hand carding for us and often just used locks. I loved it. There is nothing like the feel of that raw wool going through your fingers! We did mostly Romney and Cheviot because that was what we had - neither was terribly greasy (I guess Ramboullet would not be as pleasant). The shawls were woven and then washed. I really miss it but that fair has been discontinued.

Just backed up and read previous posts (for a change) - te difference is in the fleeces - my Cheviot needs only 1 wash when I do it myself - not greasy at all. And I would never card it on my drum carder. My sheep are not coated but my fields are clean and the feeders I use tend to keep VM out of the fleece except around the neck. 

I just sheared a sheep from a kid's camp and his fleece was totally clean! He has a fairly large pasture and they mow it when it gets too long! He eats off the floor with the horses and evidently is a very tidy little guy. I got to keep the fleece - woohoo!


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## Linda6885

I should googled 'spinning wool in the grease', and lots of info and videos popped up to watch. Interesting. I watched and read a few. They all suggest using the cleanest fleece you can find, and to cut off the 'tips'. Use a smaller hand carder to fluff up each lock as you go. Also the fresher the shear the less likely the wool will feel gummy or sticky. It should feel oily or greasy, but not sticky. Then spin away. The lanolin is great for your hands and fingers. After washing your plied yarn, it usually retains enough lanolin to be waterproof. Lanolin also has anti-bacterial properties, and mothers used the heavy lanolin for babies 'soakers'. There is tons of info on the this subject on the internet.


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## BirchPoint

I would add that spinning a fresh fleece in the grease IS a wonderful feeling. The wool feeds beautifully through your fingers, the lanolin on your hands is heavenly. But, I'm talking a newly sheared, not sitting around in a bag for 6 months fleece. 
Sheep to shawl demonstrations are alot of fun! Great education for spinning and weaving/knitting newbies.


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## shepherd

We used a "flicker" - small hand card - to flick the locks as we spun.


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## spinninggill

When you spin in the grease, the yarn spins finer than it will be once washed, as when you wash it, the grease washes out and the fibres then fluff up. How much it fluffs up depends a lot on how much grease there is to start with and also whether it is a freshly sheared fleece or one that has been lying for some time - as usual, the 'how long's a piece of string' syndrome!! If you are planning to make a knitted/crocheted project, particularly a garment, it is best to wash the finished yarn first, otherwise it affects the end product - eg if the yarn in the grease looks like fingering and you knit it as such, you'll find that when you wash the garment, the yarn fluffs up and the garment looks/feels stiff, heavy or felted.


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## Lillyhooch

What I cannot get past is the fact that the fleece is more than likely contaminated with the strong and toxic chemicals used in sheep dip. These chemicals persist in the lanolin and sheep also become further contaminated from grazing on contaminated soil. So once this realization hit I stopped spinning in the grease, pleasant as it was. 

Looking for words of wisdom I consulted Alden Amos 'Big Book of Handspinning'. After saying raw wool by weight is about 60% fiber and 40% foreign matter he goes on: "...The foreign matter is composed of countryside, barnyard, grease, and vegetable junk, plus sheep dip, field chemicals, marking fluids and other things. That list makes a good argument for washing raw wool before spinning it...'


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## Cdambro

Thank you all for your replies. It has been interesting to see everyone's experiences and views. I don't think it is something I will do but there is a facebook group of spinning in the grease, so many spinners do. So many options to choose from.


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## shepherd

I do not know about Australian methods, but the only foreign matter in my fleeces is vegetable matter (which is minimal and contains no toxins) and possibly some manure from them (I discard any visibly tainted wool - all belly and leg wool). We do not dip our sheep (nor do I know anyone who does) and there are no field chemicals on my fields (I kill off thistles with white vinegar), I use no marking fluids (ear tags only) and definitely no barnyard debris - they are in the field or in their sheds which are in their individual fields, bedded in barley straw which is cleaned out regularly. I have a relatively small flock, but I know people who have much larger flocks and we use roughly the same methods.My fleeces certainly do not lose 40% of their weight in washing - as a matter of fact the wool that comes back from the mills I use even have the carder wool included in a separate bag. I would go out of business if my fleeces were that dirty.


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