It's true that not all sheep are created equally, in wool type. But, don't be discouraged. Whether you blend it, to get a different texture, or take full advantage of any given wool's particular qualities, there's always use for it, somewhere. For example, a local friend has 41 sheep. It's just too much for one person to process, so she doesn't process it all. She takes a good portion and weaves it 'in the grease', no washing, no processing, at all - she skirts* it, then divides it into strips, and uses a peg loom to make rugs with it. Then, after the rugs are woven, she washes it in a suint bath - if she even does that, and she's done. Doing that, you can go random, with the color patterns, or divide the natural colors of the wool, to make specific patterns. Working in the grease is great for your hands, too.
There are also processing companies, where you skirt* the wool, and send it out, pay them lots of dollars to process it. And, yet another way to accomplish it, for some, is to go with a 50/50 split deal (I'm working on some alpaca for one of these deals). In a 50/50 split, the owner of the fiber sends it to someone who is willing to process it, for the price of half the fiber. In my alpaca deal, Jennifer sent me about 28lbs of very dirty alpaca seconds (these would be the not best quality cuts & fibers), to clean, make into a finished product, and send half the weight of the cleaned fiber back to her. In the process of cleaning, the fiber will lose up to about 1/3 of its weight, in sand, dirt, and vm. Once it's cleaned, I weigh each one, divide it in half, and make something with her half to send back. She has a
gift shop on her alpaca rescue farm, where felted alpaca items
sell well, so I'm making a variety of them, for her, including
dryer balls, mug rugs, possibly floor rugs, shoe insoles, slippers, hats, mittens, or seat mats. Someone else received the best fiber, and will send back yarns &/ or knitted, crocheted, or woven items, someone else got the third cuts - just barely salvageable stuff - I think she's doing all of it as dryer balls, because there's not much more she can do with it.
Some wools are better for rugs, insulation, horse blankets, etc, some are good for outerwear, some for scarves and underthings. But, there's a use for all of it, in some way, or another.
* Skirting, for those totally new to it, is when you trim the bits off that aren't usable, for anything but
compost, like around the belly and under the tail, where
urine, feces, and other stains & nasties can accumulate.
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