a new thang for me

My business card says "from fleece to felt" so I figured I better start learning to clean wool. I bought 3 pounds of Cormo wool that had just been sheered off the sheep. The seller told me it felted very nicely though I have never worked with Cormo before. I am trying to wash the first 1/2 of it today. Oh it is nasty, smelly stuff even before it is wet, she doesn't coat her sheep obviously. I am in the 3rd wash and it looks alot better, I have one or two more washes/soaks to go. Seems it has more vegetable matter than I had thought but that's ok, combing will fix that. I hope to try and dye it this weekend. Next will be trying to felt it!