# lanolin - how to clean fleece w/o losing it



## silvergirl

Hi, all,
I am wanting to process some fleece - clean it and card in prep for spinning - just started a spinning class finally! Yay! The instructor gave us raw fleece to clean and prepare for next week's class but the washing instructions she gave us would almost completely remove all the lanolin... I am planning on making soaps, slaves and creams and would like to know how to clean the fleece and harvest the lanolin at the same time... Y'all must have experience with this... would some wise one out there help me out?

We have our own two sheep whose fleece we'll be harvesting in the spring and I also have some friends/clients who have sheep on their hobby farm and will need to have someone process their fleece, too... so there is potentially tons of lanolin readily available if I can learn how to harvest it...
Thanks
Jay


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## organicfarmer

Here is the webpage from a programme called rough science that explains how to extract the lanolin from the wool. I haven't tried it but plan on doing so this spring. I hope this helps.

http://www.open2.net/roughscience3/lanolin_wool_handcream.html


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## Marchwind

I don't know for sure but, I think it would take some special equipment to be able to harvest the lanolin. There really isn't that much to even make it worth your while from a few fleeces I don't think.


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## silvergirl

Hi,Silvia (organic farmer) - thanks for the link - I will use that method!

I wonder if it would be possible to remove the dirt particles without removing the lanolin, if I washed the fleece in cold water for a bit... then when the waste is out of it, start the boiling process... Also, do you think boiling will damage the wool itself or make it felt? I know you are not supposed to agitate the fleece when you are washing it, or it could felt... I am hoping the choices are not wool for spinning or wool for lanolin...

Thanks again
Silvergirl


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## FalconDance

Wash in cold = icky, gummy wool

Boiling water = lovely shrunken felt


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## donsgal

organicfarmer said:


> Here is the webpage from a programme called rough science that explains how to extract the lanolin from the wool. I haven't tried it but plan on doing so this spring. I hope this helps.
> 
> http://www.open2.net/roughscience3/lanolin_wool_handcream.html


If you "boil the wool" to extract the lanolin, you are going to have a felted mess on your hands and won't be able to use that wool to spin. You might try just using very, very hot water when scouring your fleece and then processing the water in the matter described in the article above.

You might also want to do some serious cold water soaking before hand to get rid of the dirt/poo before soaking the fleece in hot water to harvest the lanolin.

Also, as I'm sure FalconDance will point out *grin* wool with all of the lanolin removed feels dull land lifeless. One of the biggest gripes I have with commercially processed roving is that it feels too dry to suit me. If you are going to use the wool for spinning, you might want to leave *some* lanolin in it.

donsgal


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## Liese

Just wanted to add that the fleece should be skirted to remove poo - last year someone posted over at [email protected] asking how to wash out the round things! Uhmmm, long before that fleece goes into the washer. I'm with Falcon & Risa, I wash twice with laundry detergent and want to feel a little lanolin still there. According to Alden Amos whose book I just ploughed thru wash water should be about 110*. But that's not going to get the lanolin you want for salves, etc. But even my most lanoliny (new word here!) girl doesn't produce near enough I'd think worth the trouble, can't imagine you'd even collect 1/8c. off a couple fleeces. If you go forward with the project do give a final report.


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## FalconDance

Besides, *gives a wide-eyed innocent look*, if you scour all the lanolin out, how will your hands stay so nice and soft? Part of spinning (in the grease) is the bonus of _really_ soft hands .


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## RiverPines

In order to get the lanolin out without using a soap, you have to get the temp of the water high...resulting in destroying the wool.

Using soap to get the lanolin out in safe temps of water makes retrieving the lanolin impossible.

You cant get enough of lanolin out of the fiber to harvest without using to high of a temp of water.

I never heard of getting harvest-able lanolin without destroying the fiber.


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## silvergirl

So in order to get any volume of lanolin, you need multiple fleeces... which may be available to me... and the recipe I saw for a lanolin cream only needed 1/8 of a tsp - so even harvesting a small amount would be good...

If you harvest the lanolin at very high water temps, the wool is not good for spinning anymore - can it still be used for felting? or is it ruined completely? Clearly, I am a beginner here... 

Obviously, somebody, somewhere, does harvest lanolin, since it has wide spread commercial uses... but that may be done mainly by commercial processors who don't have a personal connection with the wool and its uses after they are done with it...

Thanks for all the comments and info, everyone - it is much appreciated.
silvergirl


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## RiverPines

Its not the volume thats the prob.
Its the usable quality.

What you would get at low enough temps to not destroy the wool, without soap, wouldn't be a usable quality of lanolin.
With soap, the lanolin will be broken down, again unusable quality.

Commercially, the wool is scrap. The lanolin is where the money is on the commercial basis. Its worth it to boil the lanolin out and toss the wool.


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## MTDeb

What an interesting article! Whether your wool will felt or not depends a lot on what breed of sheep it is too. Down breeds such as Suffolk won't felt. That being said though, those breeds aren't particularly greasy and I'm not sure how much lanolin you'd get out of them. Usually, the finer the fleece is, the greasier it will be and also the easier it will felt. 

I know I've boiled wool when I was dyeing it (oops!) and it didn't felt. You might want to try a little bit and see what happens. 

Then, again, I wonder if you'd really have to boil it? In the Hands On Spinning book, it says lanolin has a melting point between 95 and 104 degrees. There's a really good chapter in that book about washing wool. 

I wish I could try this now! But, my stove is sitting in my living room cause DH is putting in a new floor in the kitchen. Darn!


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## creativetracy

I tried boiling scrap fleece a couple days ago and all I got was stinky sludge! I think my problems were 1) Not enough fleece and 2) Too dirty of fleece.

I basically skirted my fleece and decided to test out making lanolin with the stuff I was tossing (the really dirty stuff). I didn't want to waste my nicer fleece that I want to spin with.

I may try this again with a larger quantity and cleaner stuff that I would spin if I feel like I can waste it. But, I will definitely have to do this outside because when I did it inside, it stunk really bad and my daughter had to seclude herself in her room with the windows open! 

The directions for making lanolin that I followed were to boil the wool for several hours with about 1 tbsp. of salt; remove the wool; continue to boil down the water until the remains are lanolin. My remains as I said were a brown, stinky sludge! 

I am curious if anybody has actually done this successfully and how much fleece they had to use to make any amount of lanolin for home use.
Thanks!


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## MoTightwad

Just for a laugh girls. Several years ago we got the kids a ram and 3 girl sheep for pets. As they grew to be big sheep and the kid couldn;t carry them around, the sheep would follow the kids and get dirty with them, where ever they played. When it came time for the man to shear the sheep the kids decided they needed to clean the sheep up. So they got the big tub and put warm water in it (this was out in the side yard) and got my bottle of Woolite and gave all 4 sheep a bath with the woolite in the water. The sheep came out so white and pretty. When we took them over to be shorn the man said they had the cleanest wool he had ever worked with. We got one of the highest paid check for our wool too. Bath paid off. We laugh every time we think of "clean sheep wool".


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## gone-a-milkin

MoTightwad, that is a cute story.

I have a friend who grew lambs for her FFA projects in school.
Her dad would take the lambs to the carwash 
and make her wash them in the back of the truck with the high pressure hose.

She said they just used Suave shampoo and the lambs came out sparkling clean.


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