Were you nearer I would gladly take the fleeces off your hands and have a good look at them. But it's a looooooong way... and surely there's a spinner or felter nearer to you would love to have a try?
I'll poke one I think may well be if none of the regulars pipes up in the next 24 hours or so...
The other thing to consider, I suppose, is whether any TASers near you are doing journeys, for instance just into Cumbria
, anytime soon...
Interestingly, I spent some of the afternoon today assessing some Zwartbles fleece I was given. It's been stashed in open feed sacks, is absolutely covered in hay, hay seeds, bits of straw, there are some unmentionable bits, the tips are so hard with grease it looks like dung!
- but it's not felted, so I ripped a few bits off and took 'em indoors to see what a wash did for them.
The first lot I used masses of washing up liquid and the tips came clean very easily, but my goodness! there was a lot of dirt! so the next batch I soaked in water first then rinsed till clear, then gave a light wash and rinsed till clear, and I have some beautiful soft grey and deep black with bleached tips drying near the fire...
and a sinkful drying on the airer...
and the remainder of the fleeces safely stashed in tied wool sheets. I think it will nearly all be very useable, just a bit of soaking, rinsing, drying and combing or picking. Not too bad on the picking front; most of the VM seemed to come out in the washing and rinsing.
I wouldn't have believed how easily the greasy tips washed clean if I hadn't seen it.