Jennifer Adair has an article in the Winter 2013 issue of Spin-Off
about a fleece-washing method she calls BioFiberSoak. "A New (yet Ancient)
Way to Clean a Fleece," explores using a Lactobacillus fermentation bath for wool washing instead of hot
water and detergent. As Jennifer collected a variety of wool samples cleaned
with BioFiberSoak, she asked several local guilds for help. The Barefoot Spinners and Nashville Spinsters guilds in
Tennessee agreed to help Jennifer with some blind fiber taste tests! Guild
members were given samples of wools processed with the BioFiberSoak method.
Jennifer says, "There were also detergent-scoured samples from each
fleece, so spinners could compare the two cleaning processes. Spinners used
whatever tools and techniques they preferred, as long as the BFS and detergent-scoured
samples were spun with the same methods." All were so engrossed with the
samples and results that no one took any pictures! So in November, the Nashville Spinsters
reenacted the spinning experiments. Read Jennifer's article in the new Spin-Off to learn more about this method
and the results of the guild members' tests.
Fermentation
cleaning methods have been of great interest in the last few years. Over 1,500
posts have accumulated on a still active Ravelry thread in the last three years. Follow Jennifer, IndigoKiwi, and many
others as they share their evolving experience using these cleaning methods.
Check out Jennifer
Adair's website for more
information about her work.
