once your wools are washed in hot water, rinsed in cold, dried they are 'done' shrinking- my 'backyard gathering' have been washed/dried many times over the past few years- they hold up very well and are fabulous quilts! I would rather work with wools than pretty much any fabrics. if the wools are fairly tight weaves (like men's jackets) they do not get 'thick'- when washed in hot, rinsed in cold- it tightens up the weave so there is no fraying. you can cut appliques out and stitch down with no turn under because the edges are 'finished'. I've made quilts, penny rugs, jackets, purses/totes, hats, scarfs, I save ever little piece for appliques, any strips go in the basket for wool hooked rugs- you can use every little piece of wool- and since wool on the bolt is $20=$60 + a yard- getting it from recycling clothing means you have a 'treasure trove' of fabulous fabrics that would be very hard to accumulate piece by piece in yardage. you can over dye different textures, designs to make a 'color family' for a project (wools dye wonderfully too) the sky is really the limit when it comes to working with wools.
