Felted fleece “sheepskin” cushion, natural beige, dark brown, cream, grey – Coloured Ryeland fleece provided by Ynca – 16” x 16” x 5”

Description

Just like the rugs I make, these cushions are 100% sheep-friendly, no sheep are harmed in the process of making them.  They are made from only felted wool which is then sewn onto a cotton or linen back.  They are very soft and cuddly, just like our sheep in fact!

I’ve written a bit about the cushion making process here and you can see some photos of how I make them too.  I really enjoy making them, they are a great way to use up every last bit of wool, but best of all, I love working with natural fibres and transforming “scraps” into something useful and lovely.

This cushion is made from wool Ynca’s fleece.  Ynca is one of the younger members of our flock.  You can read up about Ynca here:

Coloured Ryelands are a short-woolled breed.  While not sporting the long, glamourous locks of their longer woolled cousins who swish by shaking out their wavy manes, Ryelands have bouncy, oh so soft wool which is at the finer end of the wool micron scale and classed as “medium to fine”.  Coloured Ryelands have the added appeal of being a variety of different colours from black to brown to beige to grey, through to silvery white.

Usually, when I made a cushion I use leftover wool from the rugs I make.  This time however, I decided to work with Ynca’s fleece as a whole.  Her fleece is quite unusual with pretty swirly patterns and I wanted to showcase this and create a cushion showing the colours just as they are on Ynca.

I selected an area of fleece that combined all of Ynca’s colours, (dark grey, light grey, beige and cream).  If you look closely, you’ll notice that the coloured patches have different lock lengths too.  The darker wool is slightly longer than the lighter coloured wool.  This is perfectly normal and natural, in fact each and every fleece has different lengths running through it and it’s part of what makes every fleece so unique and special 😊

Ynca’s wool is very densely packed and springy.  It is “fuzzy soft” to the touch and the locks are “puffed out”.  If you separate an individual lock, you’ll see the tip is lighter in colour than the bottom part giving Ynca the appearance of having highlights.

The back of the cushion is 100% linen.  There are two buttons on the back which allows you to remove the cover for washing.

Inside the cushion there’s an inner which is stuffed with wool.  These are the leftovers from whatever fleece I’m working on.  To ensure the stuffing is lovely and clean, I soak it in a soapy 60’c bath to remove the lanolin and then I wash it as I would normally wash wool.  Once it’s dry I sift through it and remove any bits of grass and hay etc.  Finally, I fluff it up and add some drops of cedarwood essential oil as a moth repellent.

Should you need to wash your cushion, simply remove the inner part and gently soak the cover in warm water using a wool/silk detergent followed by a refreshing vinegar rinse to keep the pH happy.  Lay flat to dry.  More washing info will be included when I send it out to you.

Please note, although I carefully wash each felted item I make, you may still find tiny bits of hay/moss/seeds hiding away in the fleece.  Because of the gentle washing methods I use it would be really hard to remove every single little “meadow sprinkling”.  Hopefully you shouldn’t find too many though!