Our Wool Story

Violeta is posing with our first fleece.  It looks soft but in fact all the Romanian fleeces we have prepared have been harsh.  This is fine for rug weaving but not for other textile work.  Recently we have been promised Jacobs wool which will be wonderful.

Marioara and Margaret are washing the fleece.  The water has come from the river.  Later in the summer the river ran dry and Marioara continued in Anutsa’s yard in an old bath.  That water came from the well carried in buckets.  I don’t think anyone else in the village would have been prepared to do this work.

A well earned rest while the wool is drying.

The next stage is carding the wool using 2 flat wooden paddles coved in a rubber sheet with wire hooks.  The wool fibres are separated and aligned and easier for the next stage.

We hand spin with a drop spindle.  The aim is to produce an even thread, not easy, but we think a little texture in our bags is an attractive thing!

We have 2 spinning wheels which should make spinning easier and quicker.  However, Violeta has yet to improve her skills before we can teach the women.

Here Claudia is being helped to warp up the rug loom.  This takes us several hours and the warping will be sufficient for 3 rugs.  Here the warp is cotton but I have bought jute for our new rugs.

And here Claudia is weaving.  She is using natural brown wool and also wool that we has been dyed with plum juice.

Some natural dyes need to be fixed to the wool with a mordant.  The mordant we use most often is alum.

This dye is being made from walnut cases.  I soak the cases for a week in rain water and then boil for at least 30 minutes.  The resulting dye bath is a dark brown but if I re-use the colour is a paler colour

Here the dyed skeins are hanging on the washing line.

Here are skeins dyed with elderberries.  The white wool is washed and carded wool.

Our most interesting colour is indigo produced from woad.  I am growing woad in my garden.  When harvested in late summer it has to be soaked in a mixture including stale urine!

This is a selection of bags crocheted by Viorica in our own hand spun wool. We have used onion skins, walnuts, plums, elderberries, sunflower seeds, dock, nettles, woad, weld, cow parsley and many other plants.

One of our rugs has been slung over the gate in Carole’s garden!  It is in stripes of almost black Hebridean wool, cream and walnut.