WHAT IS THIS???

As a rughooker, you never know what you might find in your washing machine.  Eleanor A's washing machine refused to drain so Doug went to work trying to find the cause of the problem. This is what he found.  

Eleanor had been washing some new wool in preparation for dyeing and it seems that this cord-like felted mass of fibre debris ended up wrapped around the blades of her washing machine's pump, jamming it up and preventing the water from draining.

We would normally expect to find fibre lint on our clothes dryer's lint trap, but we do not expect to find it clogging up the pump of our washing machine.  This is something to keep in mind the next time you wash your wool fabric.  But how can we prevent this from happening?  If you have a suggestion, please enter a comment on this post.