Scouring Wool with Borax and Sodium Carbonate

I had previously tried scouring--degreasing--with just sodium carbonate. Sodium carbonate is also known as soda ash, washing soda, and by the ancient name of natron. Another thing I found out is that natron does not always show up by itself, it is often in combination with other chemicals, one of which is borax.
Sooooo...
Today I am scouring about a pound of wool with a combination of 5 gallons of 180 degree water, 1/2 cup of borax and 1/2 cup of sodium carbonate. I bought the sodium carbonate in the grocery where it was cleverly disguised as a generic equivalent of OxyClean. I put the chemicals in the spider tub and then added the hot water. It foamed nicely, and then I added the wool which was in a mesh laundry bag. I left it in the natron bath for about 20 minutes, poured out the tub into the planter, and rinsed the wool with 2 baths of regular hot tap water. The wool bag is now in the washer on spin. Sodium carbonate is also used in the making of fertilizer, so I'm not too worried about pouring it on the ground. Besides, we just have a lot of weeds growing in it, anyway.

I'm also flicking the locks of the same fleece I've processed earlier.

I put out some more fleece to cold soak for the rest of the day. It gets rid of a LOT of ick, which can just be poured into the planter (more fertilizer). The batch I'm scouring today was cold soaked first. Although the first wash did turn yellow brown, it was not as disgusting as batches where I just straight washed without previously soaking.

Scouring Update

So. The wool I scoured in the soda ash solution is now dry. It does not feel greasy. It smells like a sheep (duh!) and there are still bits of VM and BM stuck in it, which will flick/comb/card out.

I am cold soaking a larger batch on the pool deck now. For this batch, I will use a half cup each of borax and sodium carbonate. I'm going to increase the amount of hot water on this to maybe 3 or 4 gallons on the wash and the rinse, which means using the spider tub.

According to what I've read, ancient natron deposits are not composed entirely of sodium carbonate. Borax and other salts of volcanic origin would be present as well. Natron has been used in a variety of ways from extremely ancient and prehistoric times. I am confident in the historicity of using it to scour wool. The only problem would be whether a particular culture group would have been able to easily obtain the soda.

Scouring with Soda Ash

So...I've been sloooowly scouring (washing) the wool we bought for J2B last year.

A few minutes ago, I put some wool I'd cold soaked out by the pool into a hot tap water bath (2 gallons) with 1/4 cup of soda ash (courtesy of our pool supplies.). I've set the timer for 20 minutes. I don't have any means of weighing the wool. I think it was less than half of a pound's worth...I'm going to say 1/4 pound. We'll see what happens. The wool is in a zippered mesh lingerie bag

We have the house on a water filtration system, so we have soft water running through the pipes and in the pool.

Cold soaking with no soap appears to work fairly well to get rid of the dirt. If I set the tub out in the sun, it gets warm, too. I put this batch of wool in two consecutive cold soak baths of about 5 gallons of water, each.

Ding!
Okay! I just now took the wool out of the soda water and ran a hot tap water bath and put it in to rinse for another 20 minutes. The water from the soda bath looked like very weak tea. Obviously, the cold soak did not get all the dirt out of the wool. Depending on how icky the water looks after this rinse, I may put it in for another 20 minutes on a warm soak and then spin out the water in the machine before hanging it to dry on the back deck.

I picked the wool up off the cement around the pool deck and moved it to the table because the kids are going swimming.

I put half of the remaining wool in the spider tub (it has a spider decal on the side) to cold soak and I changed the water a few minutes ago. Yuck!

A few things I learned this past year

I've started scouring the fleece I bought last year to scour at Journey to Bethlehem. Yes, I know it's March, already. I need more time to let things settle in my mind and get into routines. I've also been sick.

Here are a few things I've come up with that I need to do for next year.
Warp Weighted Loom:
#1. Break down and use 12 ounces per warp bundle for the yarn I've got. I'm going to need 36 soda cans, I guess. Figure something else out for J2B, but just put a can in a plastic grocery bag each, out back.

#2. Find a way to do the heddles quickly. It doesn't have to be period, because very few will know and they won't be able to see it, anyway. I'm thinking texsolve cloth and stringing it to the rods.

J2B:
#3. Know my limitations. I can't do the wool washing. Someone else will have to do that.

This is some of the wool I'm scouring

Scouring wool

The fleece I bought to scour at J2B (and ended up not scouring) is REALLY dirty. Bits of poo and vm. It's the sheep dudu that bugs me. I can't get all the ick out just by washing it.

I have not found any documented way to comb it out that is period correct. The answer back then was probably to throw slaves you don't like or misbehaving children at it. The poo and vm needs to be picked out by hand in order to not mess up the lock structure.

I don't have slaves (darn!). My children would not be able/willing to pick out the ickies without tearing the wool up. If we are going to scour wool at J2B (probably not) then a fleece that has been blanketed should be obtained. If I have to pay money for a fleece to scour, then I want to be able to USE the wool.

For the fleece I have, I'm going to want to find a drum carder. Maybe Judi has one. Or I could borrow her wool combs.

In rinse bath #3

It would be easier to dye the wool at J2B. Only one tub of water, with the dye in it, just let it sit on a disguised hot plate until the dye is exhausted, hang up the wool/yarn to dry.

Clean, dry, and flicked!

So for now, I'm scouring the wool. I think I will dye some (using Kool Aid...yes, soooo not period...) but I want to experiment (cheaply!) with color changing mordants, like iron, alum and maybe some copper (pennies).

Gearing up for Journey to Bethlehem, 2011

So my church, Journey of Faith in Manhattan Beach, is putting on Journey to Bethlehem in the lower parking lot after a sabbatical year in 2010. I'm back doing research and development for this.

I had cut the project off the loom last time because I didn't know if we were going to do this ever again. This time around, I have to start from scratch. Right now, I'm planning the new project for the demonstration. I'm thinking of making a 2/1 twill set, but I'm not sure how to go about that on the loom.

They should get the box down for me from the attic by Sunday, then I can see what I'll need to order as far as spinning wool and the like.
I need to get more clay for loom weights and more lead fishing weights.

I'm going through my boxes here at home and digging out all the wool handspun that I can find, to see if there is enough to make a header cord. There probably is. It's going to be rather motley, though.

My oldest is a senior so he's got an SAT class tonight, I've got to find out where at Hamilton the class meets, so I'm stopping here. More later when I start with the header cord.