Counting Sheep

[RockyR]

Great research brooster! You are a much better researcher than me.

@ 16 oz per yard 9 yards = 148 oz. To get 148 oz of yardage from raw wool you need 433 oz of fleece or 25-30 lbs of raw fleece.

The math seems a little off though...

1. 9 yards double width for a kilt = an 18 yard kilt. 8 to 9 yards SINGLE width (4 to 4.5 yards double) is all that's needed.
2. 16 X 9 is 144, not 148, but it's 'pretty close'.

So, depending on how heavy your kilt is, will depend on how many fleeces (sheep) you are wearing. The question is what does a fleece weigh? the answer is...........5.8 pounds per sheep http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/15/1/218.pdf. This means for your 16 oz 9 yard full dress tank you are wearing the product of about 6 sheep.

For one of McMurdo's 22 or 24 oz er's add another sheep or two.

trusting all the rest of your math, we can basically divide the final answer by about 2 b/c you counted double width cloth.

If you think about it further, you don't QUITE use all of the single width either... IF the material is 60" wide and you make a 24" long kilt, you only use 40% of the cloth width, not 50%. "What about the waistband?" True, but you only use about 65" length of cloth (about 4" high) for a 40" waist, so it's a moderately insignificant ammount. Let's say it adds another 3%. In reality, you use 43% of a double width cloth, not 50%.

43% of 6 sheep is about 2.58 sheep's fleece.

It also depends on the size of the sheep and how much fleece they have to give!

VERY interesting question though. I think around 2 1/2 sounds like a reasonable answer, so I think we're in the ballpark.