Fermenting Fleece

I have heard about fermenting fleece and with winter coming on and the prospect of washing one fleece at a time in my tiny shower loomed before me I thought I would do a little more research.

@julie_patchuliespins posted a picture on Instagram of a Jacob fleece fresh out of the suint vat. I was intrigued. Washing fleece is back breaking work, not to mention all the water and soap it takes. Could a suint vat be the solution to days spent washing fleece and a little more environmentally friendly too?

Well I am about to find out. I went a googling and came up with Wool Ewe, the instructions here seemed pretty good, so I am about to try it out. If you would like her instructions too, just tap the above link.

Stage one begins...

I am filling my bucket with tap water, not the recommended rain water. I am hoping to catch some rain water soon, but for the time being I will settle for soft mountain water. I let it sit out for an hour so the chlorine could evaporate. I am fortunate to live in an area with very few water additives, no fluoride for my fleece today! I filled the bucket almost to the top, fleece absorbs so much of the water that it did not overflow.

Next up the fleece...

I am using a Rambouillet fleece to start my vat. I am hopping it is greasy enough, as I don't have any smaller greasy fleeces and I did not want to split my fleece up to try this. I am starting two buckets, one Rambouillet fleece in each. I have chosen to use old mayonaise containers from a restaurant, one I have accesses to them, two the lids fit nice and tightly, a must with little fingers present. The seal should also contain the smell and they tuck into a corner of our back storage area better then a bigger tubberware bin. They also stack without fear of toppling.

All that has to fit in there???...

So I did not shove the fleece down into the bucket like this, I separated it a little and pushed individual pieces into the soon to be vat. I made sure the whole fleece was submerged. 

A little extra water...

I topped off my container with a little extra water so that the entire fleece was fully submerged. My containers do not allow for as much space as a rubber maid, but I am hoping that it will work. With a few containers on the go I should be able to split larger fleeces and give more space to the fleece if the tight quarters do not work.

Even if I have to do one hot water wash for the fleece following this process I am happy to have less back breaking work to do and be using less water in the process... fingers crossed.