Tip – using up old tops

If you’ve had your wool tops a long time or they’ve been mistreated, you may find that they’ve started to felt slightly and are difficult to pull when laying out. You can see here new tops on the left and the older ones on the right. Not as attractive looking are they?

The blue is hand dyed and as I really wanted to use it up but couldn’t easily pull the fibres out this is what I did.

I’ve split the top down it’s length into 4 segments. This breaks it up and allows some air back into the fibres with the result that you can now pull the fibres out. Yes it’s a narrow top but it is usable. If you can’t split it down the length then you really have left it for too long or badly mistreated it. Other than making it into a felt rope, cutting it up into small sections for jewellery bead making, or using it for stuffing / low relief work then I don’t know how you can use it.