Happy Birthday, Dear Petey...

Before I go on to tell of my fibre-washing exploits today, I must send a quick shout out to my darling husband for his birthday. We're pretty sure it's his 33rd, but you couldn't look at that face and not tell me he doesn't look a day over 21? Of course not.

And so, here's to the guy who laughs at my ridiculous jokes, fears my dancing (both tap and orangutan dancing. I'm proficient at both.), tolerates my knitting and spinning... and most of all, loves me to bits.

Here he is, in all his husband-y glory. Let us all bask awhile.

Love you, honey!

And now, having lauded Pete for having a birthday today, I shall get on with the fibre-related content of this post.

I just updated my Facebook status with the following:

"Jennifer is washing her precious skein of handspun and hoping to God it doesn't felt."

Can I get an 'Amen' from any other spinners out there? I have been absolutely terrified with the mere thought of subjecting my yarn to water of any variety, let alone stinking hot water. I go into the laundry every ten minutes or so, just to check on the bucket, but I'm frightened to get too close, lest I breathe on the water in the wrong way, resulting in a wonderfully felted wreath.

I researched this step online for quite some time today, never quite finding a site with information I felt wholly comfortable about. I've read that I should have washed the fleece before spinning, that I should let the yarn soak in water of 70+ degrees Celsius and a cupful of dish detergent, then let it sit in barely body temperature water to rinse. I read I should plunge and beat the yarn with a potato masher (!) in very hot water, then rinse in cold.

I mean, I'm sure the person who wrote that last one knows what they're talking about but that scared the crap out of me. Tell me that's not an recipe for instant felting, go on... Can't do it? No, neither could I.

So as you can imagine, I was very pleasantly surprised (not to mention extremely relieved!) to see that the whole process seems to have worked! Here's the photographic evidence...These shots are of us going through the wash and rinse. Do note that for me, that first photo was totally brown-trousers time.

I have to say, I wasn't prepared for just how much dirt was going to come out of the yarn, I really wasn't. That mucky bucket photo was taken only five minutes after the yarn was submerged, and I'm certain that although the yarn looks and smells quite reasonable now, if I were to rewash the yarn it would probably make quite dirty water again.
It's turned out really quite nicely, the fibres are light and have fluffed up a little to make an attractive yarn. Now that the grease is out, I can see where I have underspun the ply (a fair bit in some places), but that's something that I can learn from and keep practicing as I go. I'm filling another bobbin as we speak (not literally - that would be fibre-talent to shout about - blogging and spinning at the same time!)...

Now that I've already found a pattern for the hat I want to make with this yarn, the big question is: do I do a rewash to be thorough, or do I get on and start swatching this stuff and working out gauge for the hat?