Wooled pelts are used for bed liners, loose covers, floor rugs, and in making articles of clothing. Pulled pelts are used to make leather goods such as vests, coats, and purses. Fleece Wool Market Fleece wool may be sold as raw wool or as scoured wool. In addition to lanolin, the grease wool also contains contaminates such as burrs, sticks, urine stains and manure tags. Although there is a limited market for grease wool among hand spinners, the majority of spinners will require the wool to be scoured.
Scoured wool is washed in hot water with detergent to remove the impurities.
Depending upon production practices prior to shearing, the impurities within a single fleece can make up from thirty to seventy percent of the weight of that fleece. During the scouring process, producers must be careful not to agitate the wool fibers or felting will occur. Felting is the bonding together of the wool fibers through the interlocking of the numerous scales on the outside of each wool fiber. Felting in wool is an irreversible process that renders the scoured wool unfit for spinning. Hand spinners comprise the single largest direct or specialty market for fleece wool.