10 steps to creating a sustainable handwoven blanket from local Hampshire Down fleeces

Updated: Aug 21

Introduction - from fleece to fibre to create a beautiful handwoven blanket

Last year I was given a couple of Hampshire Down fleeces. After many hours of work the fleeces were transformed into a naturally dyed handwoven blanket. I am often asked about the process of going from fleece to fibre so this blog summarises the steps involved when using a local sheep fleece to create a beautiful woollen blanket

a blue and yellow blanket draped over a blue chair — The finished blanket

Steps to going from a fleece to a luxury handwoven fabric blanket

Step 1 - Sorting the fleece by hand

This involves going through the fleece by hand. The fleece is spread out on a surface outside and ideally you aim to have a whole fleece which you can lay out to see which part of the fleece is from which part of the sheep. Ideally you would be able to identify the tail end of the fleece knowing that this area of fleece is likely to be dirtier and perhaps discarded. Once the fleece is laid out the aim is to pick our large visible pieces of vegetable matter and highlight areas of the fleece that you might want to use or alternatively discard.

raw sheep fleece laid out with person looking at it — A raw unwashed sheep fleece laid out

Step 2 - Washing the fleece

First I do a couple of cold water soaks. I might soak the fleece over night. During this stage you get some idea about how dirty the fleece is. I then do a couple of hot water detergent soaks and then a couple of hot water rinses. There are many approaches to washing fleece, much depends on how dirty it is, how much lanolin there is on the fleece. I suspect that anyone who washes fleeces will have a slightly different approach. Care does need to be taken not to felt the fleece and agitation of the fleece in the water and sharp changes in the temperature of the washing water results in felting and the production of a fleece which is then very difficult to wool pick, spin and use.

Step 3 - Drying the fleece

Sometimes I do a quick 2mins in the spin drier to remove the excess water and then it just needs to air dry – a sunny day is preferable here. The fleece is spread out on an old sheet in the garden to dry.

Step 4 - Woolpicking the fleece

A woolpicker helps to open up the fleece after washing allowing the smaller pieces of vegetable matter to fall out and down into the base of the woolpicker. Woolpicking works well with all but long length fibres which have to be directly combed. The woolpicking step is really useful in speeding up the next step of carding.

woolpicker showing fleece before and after picking — Woolpicked fleece before and after picking

Step 5 - Carding or combing

I card either by hand or with a carding machine and this results in the fibres being aligned enabling them to be hand spun. Combing does much the same.

Step 6 - Spinning the fibre

I use either my Ashford traditional spinning wheel or e-spinner. First singles are spun which are then plied to produce a two ply yarn.

fleece, woolpicker, spinning and hand dyed yarn — Fleece, woolpicking, spinning and hand dyed yarn

Step 7 - Washing the spun skeins of yarn

The washing step is important. Whilst the fleeces were originally washed they never seem to be that clean as evidenced by the fact that when the spun fibres are washed a lot more dirt seems to come out of the yarn.

spinning sheep fleece — Spinning the yarn

Step 8 - Dyeing the yarn

Some of the Hampshire down yarn was left undyed and the remainder was dyed naturally with indigo dye and rhubarb leaves. The indigo dye resulted in blue yarn. The rhubarb leaf dyeing resulted in a pale yellow coloured yarn which seemed to darken with time.

handspun skeins of yarn dyed with indigo — indigo dyed handspun yarn

Step 9 - Weaving the blanket

The blanket was woven on my floor loom at double width using a twill design. I used a sett of 8 ends per inch as the yarn was an Aran weight.

blue and yellow handwoven wool blanket — The twill weave structure of the blanket

Step 10- Final washing of the blanket.

A woven fabric is always washed when taken off the loom which serves to turn the interlaced fibres into fused fibres and the fabric. This process also softens the final fabric.

Summary

So, after each of the these steps I had created my large blanket. I didn't actually keep a track of the hours to go from the fleece to the blanket but I think it is fair to say that it was many many hours. There was lots of learning along the way and whilst I would no doubt make some changes to the processes if I were to do it again they would only be small tweaks.

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