Sheep's Wool

...or should that be sheep (without the 's') wool? Seeing as how the plural of sheep is sheep and all that...

Anyway - some years ago, when I had delusions dreams of being able to spin my own yarn, I bought 9 kilos of fleece at a local brocante.  It was stuffed into a large sack, quite tightly, so I had no idea of how much fleece 9 kilos was!  I repacked it into plastic boxes in case of mouse attack, but haven't done much with it since.

There were quite a few boxes...

I tried to spin with it but had no luck.  I like to think the wool was not good for spinning, but actually I think it may just have been that I was rubbish at spinning. Also I discovered that, when you spin, you have to make twice as much yarn as you need and then ply it together to make your finished product.  Then - if you want it any other colour than natural sheep, you have to dye it!  Not my thing, I thought.  Too slow.  So I thought it might be a good idea to card it and then use it for stuffing.  I thought it would be particularly good for pincushions as the fleece, even after washing, still retains some of the natural lanolin, which will help to prevent pins from going rusty.

Carding is a slow process and my wool did not look like this...

...but more like this...

But I persevered (for almost an hour) and arrived at this...

As I have no pincushions to stuff at the moment, it will go into yet another box!  Maybe I'll turn out some kits...