As shears are sprung to the open position, they were shut for ease of carrying with a piece of wool tied tightly round the end of the blades. When he reached home the shearer’s wife stripped the wool from the shears, substituting a piece of rag or cord, then washed it and put it away. When she had saved enough wool she used it for filling a pillow or a cushion.
(Ask the Fellows who Cut the Hay by George Ewart Evans,1956)
This originates from WWI. I found it in the family history collection.
I like the idea of collecting something unwanted until you have enough of it to make something useful. I definitely like the idea of collecting the little pieces of fleece that a sheep leaves hanging on bushes or fences. There are so many things you can do with it, apart from using it to stuff a cushion. You could spin it into actual wool, make it into felt, use it for all sorts of crafts and if you get enough, even insulate the loft! I have a very old friend who told me that he collected it as a child so his mother could make soft padding for his father’s artificial legs. That would have been nearly 100 years’ago.
The fleece will need to be washed (in cool soapy water) and carded (combed) to get the bits of twig and other plant matter out. You don’t need to buy special carders – little dog brushes will do.
I was fortunate enough to get hold of some whole fleeces fresh off the sheep, still with mud and sheep droppings attached. One of them was from the first shearing of Dingledrop, a lamb that happened to belong to L. I had a plan to spin the fleece into wool and then weave it into a blanket for her. Unfortunately, this turned out to be rather ambitious and I didn’t get very far. After many years, I found the festering fleeces in the loft and they were given their final resting place on the compost heap.
The Edda Diaries 