What's with this yarn?

My friend Jane has been attempting to knit a scarf with some yarn from her stash.  Problem is...the yarn keeps breaking!  What's the deal with this yarn??  She discovered that it's a blend of wool and recycled silk; we (her knitting buddies) are of the opinion that the fibers are short, and that's the reason it keeps breaking. 

We encouraged her to abandon that skein for the scarf project; there was even talk of dumping it in the "round file."  Suddenly it occurred to me that it might be salvageable as yarn to add to a needle-felting project.  Jane immediately donated it to me.  Well, I think I may have found the right job for this yarn : needle-felted pine branches on a felted mat.  Turns out that this worked well. 

So, here's a picture of the results. The pine cones do not show up well.  In fact, they look a little funny here, but not so much in real life.  I may continue to tweak it a bit. Various angles make it look different.  Thanks to Jane, the project I wanted to try came together with the right materials. I owe her one!