Raw wool?

[ShannonCC]

Does anyone have any suggestions for what to do with a small amount of raw wool?

We got it at a 4-H fair. It's a few handfuls, but not enough to make a ball of yarn or anything. Not that I know how to do that anyway.

I know you're supposed to clean and card it and all that but is there any way to do that when you don't have the real supplies? And then what to do with it?

[rajahkat]

You could felt over a bar of soap. It doesn't take much wool at all, and it makes the soap last a super long time, and it makes a nice "scrubby" soap. You could try coloring it with kool-aid too if you wanted.

I've felted over soap with scoured wool. You don't even really need to card it first, just fluff it a bit with your fingers after you scour it.

Scouring is basically soaking it in super hot water (but don't agitate it!) maybe with a tad bit of soap mixed in. You'll probably need to change the water 2 or 3 times, but don't let the temperature of the water change~hot/cold/hot/cold and don't agitate the wool, or it will felt on you. After you don't have any more dirt in your hot soak water, you could add some vinegar & kool-aid to color it.

And there is a felting soap tutorial over on youtube.

Good Luck!!

[Marlet]

You can use it as stuffing. I do that a lot.

[flapjack]

Felt. Felted soap. Spinning in the grease. Needle-felting creatures. Felted ball (depending on how much "a few handfuls" is).
When felting, the lanolin will release as you work, so as long as there's not too much vegetable matter in your fleece you're good to go

[ShannonCC]

Oooo, I like the soap idea. But it's my dd's wool so I'll run the ideas by her and she can pick.

Thanks everyone