Mixing wool

Given the interesting properties of different breeds of wool, what happens when we mix them for wet felting. It all depends on the process used in the “mixing”. The mixing may happen in many different ways.

1. Genetic Reservoir: Mixing breeds of sheep genetically to inherit different characteristics of the sheep.

Often the felt maker tries to find sheep of a specific breed, but often mixed breeds inherit desirable characteristics for felting from different breeds such as finer but durable wool that made Corriedale a very desirable wool for felting bags.

2. Mixing in batts: Some well-known fiber mixes are especially produced to incorporate different properties of breeds. C1-P batts incorporate C1 wool that is a mix of soft fibers, and a small quantitiy of Pelsull fibers, a long and fast felting fiber. The result is a soft, dense felt that also has good 3-d shrinkage as well helped by the longer Pelsull fibers.

3. Mixing by horizontal layering.

4. Mixing by layout. Using different breeds in different regions of an object can also create a very unusual looks.