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A friend of mine gave me a pound of undyed carded wool roving this morning. I told her I was planning on washing it before using it for the inside of my muneca and she said that it would turn to felt if I washed it. Don't I have to wash the oil out of it before using it to French polish? How do you wash your wool roving? Thanks, Wendy

The natural oily substance in roving is lanolin. You could tie up a bit of it inside an old pair of nylons and try out your washing machines delicate cycle and see what happens. Woolite will work I believe. Even felted it may work well as an inner pad. I use cheese cloth for my inner pad. I use wool roving on my spinning wheel but I always purchase it carded and washed. A pound is a pretty large amount.

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Stephen, this is already carded, although I don't know what that means. My friend also spins and she said that they add oil to make it easier to spin, so I don't know if it is appropriate for a muneca. And yes, a pound is probably enough to make a lifetime of munecas. Wendy

Hi Wendy, we raise sheep for their wool here in Eastern Oregon, and sell a lot of raw wool and roving to handspinners. Many wool processors do use carding oil, though some don't, so it can vary. In any case it is perfectly safe to wash wool if you do it correctly. Felting results from heat and agitation together, so handle the wool as little as possible during washing - NEVER agitate, slosh, or wring out the wool! It probably would be OK for the muneca wool to felt a bit, but here is the correct process for washing raw wool (or roving, in your case):

Use a detergent (most people use Dawn), NOT soap or Woolite. Add the detergent to a hot water bath. Place the wool in a net laundry bag and roll it up loosely, like making a jelly roll, and secure with a string or safety pins. Submerge gently into the water and allow to soak for 20 to 30 minutes, with no agitation.

Gently remove the wool from the detergent bath and set it somewhere it can drain. Do NOT wring or squeeze it out! Dump the wash water and fill the container with clean water of the same temperature as the wash water when you dumped it out, which was probably warm not hot by that time. Place the wool bag in this rinse water for a few minutes.

Repeat the rinse process as many times as necessary until the water remains clear. You can make the rinse process a lot more efficient by carefully placing the wool bag in an empty washing machine and use the spin cycle for a minute. Do not allow the washer to go into an agitation mode. Gently spread out the wool to dry on something like a screen or oven rack.

My wife suggests that you experiment with only a part of your roving until you are comfortable with the process.

By the way we always have lots of raw wool scraps and will happily send some for free to anyone who wants to pay postage. You will have to wash it yourself however!

Good luck,
Brook