When you buy fleece it usually comes in a plastic bag. The fleece has quite an earthy odor, partly from the lanolin. Lanolin gives the raw fleece a greasy feel. The fleece must be washed to get the excess lanolin off.
Washing in an old enamel pan.
Pick the washed fleece up and place it in a rinse. The rinse needs to be pretty hot. Run hot water from the tap, and add some hot water that you heat on the stove.
The wash water shows the amount of dirt washed off the fleece.
Roll the wet fleece in a towel to remove some of the excess water. Do not squeeze the fleece as this will cause it to stick together ( a technique called felting).
After the towel has absorbed some water, it is ready to be laid out to air dry.
Find a quiet place, we do it in our basement, to let the fleece dry. An old screen allows the air to circulate more freely.
We set up an old floor fan some distance away to keep the air circulating better.