Sheep's fleeces

Many moons ago I went to the Wool Marketing Board's place in Mid Wales where they received the fleeces, weighed and graded it, paid the farmers and packed the wool into huge bales to be sold on to textile companies.
One of the Graders showed me round and, to my amazement, asked me to hold his hand!! For a weather beaten old chap, his hands were as soft as a babies. He told me that the the lanolin in the wool, that he handled daily, kept his skin soft!!............So I must ask, are Bob's hands soft?

Hell no !   . But then he’s not worked with sheep apart from helping out very rarely for the last 11 years.
they weren’t soft when he was shepherding full time either.

You can use it instead of cardboard as a mulch either on top of the soil or below a compost mulch.

My OH has a wool allergy so hopefully you don't! 

Many moons ago I went to the Wool Marketing Board's place in Mid Wales where they received the fleeces, weighed and graded it, paid the farmers and packed the wool into huge bales to be sold on to textile companies.
One of the Graders showed me round and, to my amazement, asked me to hold his hand!! For a weather beaten old chap, his hands were as soft as a babies. He told me that the the lanolin in the wool, that he handled daily, kept his skin soft!!............So I must ask, are Bob's hands soft?

Hell no !   . But then he’s not worked with sheep apart from helping out very rarely for the last 11 years.
they weren’t soft when he was shepherding full time either.

I always had course rough hands when I was working outdoors but now I am retired and have become a carer, my hands are like a baby's bottom. I even need to use a tea towel to open a carton of milk. I used to pride myself on a strong handshake as I had shaken hands with blokes who's handshake was like a wet lettuce! If I had a wet lettuce handshake I would top myself!

OMG! How long does it take to learn to spin! I would love to have a go

I've seen Greek ladies, spinning wool with a distaff or is it a spindle??
Anyway, a wooden shuttlecock thing that dangled and spun as they fed it with fibres of wool.

I believe it needs carding before that stage and that takes ages   

Scarlet needs something to keep her busy.

............and the bad news is - the farmer says all 500 fleeces have to go together and there's only interest in 200 of them. I don't want to say I'll take the remaining 300 as I'm not sure what I'd be letting myself in for - so, that's it. Thanks for your input, everyone. If I can acquire a few fleece some time, just to see what they're like, I'll do it but 400 are a bit too much.

That’s a shame. Mr greedy would of liked a few of those. But understandable 300 is a little excessive.

I've just been given 2 bags of Alpaca wool. Its so soft - like plunging your hands into thistledown (not that I've done that but it sounds nice).
As soon as I opened the bag, Ted grabbed a mouthful of wool and ran off with it. Laying it down as mulch may not be a good idea!!
I almost wish I could spin - but I can't and I'm not going to even try!
Any bright ideas for no-work uses for it?