Baba taught me how to make a Doukhobor blanket out of fleece. She said one woman in Glade, BC made 13 blankets in one year! She told me in the future I could make a livelihood doing this as well. Last year a farmer down the road gifted three bags of sheep’s fleece to Oliver Creek Farm.
Washing and Carding
First lay it out on a blanket outdoors, pull off the straw and dirtiest pieces of the fleece and give that back to the earth. Then soak it in hot water in small quantities, wash and rinse very gently, using natural soap. Hang it outdoors in the sunshine on a garden fence or use a wire laundry stand. When dried store tied up in an old sheet or cloth bag so it breathes.
Making a Doukhobor Blanket
To make a Doukhobor blanket, one needs to card the fleece on a drum carder, lay out the pieces on cotton cheesecloth in the size of blanket you wish to make. All of this is done on the floor. For a summer blanket you need maybe only two layers of carded batts. For a winter, heavier blanket four or more layers of batts. We may also make a tyufyak or mattress. Then you would need many more layers of carded wool.
This gets tacked in a pattern to a thin unbleached cotton muslin fabric. It gets sewn about three inches in all around the outside edge. For the last layer it is common to use satin material as a large pillow case like cover over the whole blanket and then quilted in a special pattern. Make a duvet cover to go over the wool blanket. This then gets washed regularly. On a regular basis the whole blanket gets taken apart, wool re-washed, carded again, and a new blanket put together. They will wear down so fluffing it up in the sun helps.
Making toys for children from the fleece
As a retired Waldorf School Teacher I love to share resources.
Make your children toys from fleece, such as, natural wool stuffed dolls, needle felted animals. Or just dye in different colors and let them play with the fleece sticking it onto a wool felt piece of fabric.