Today was our first meeting of the spinning and weaving course at gradoli, a small village close to Lake Bolsena.
We start to get in touch with different types of fibers – plant based, like flax, hemp and nettles and animal based ones, like wool and silk.
To get a first idea the children get various forms of fibers in raw or already processed form and pair them with illustrated cards with images of the different fiber plants and animals.
They are impressed by the variety of fabrics and their origin – silk, nettles, hemp, flax, alpaca, sheep wool and even agave. A worm that creates silk? What a surprise! And even from the banana plant a fiber can be extracted!
After exploring the fibers by touching and smelling them (unwashed sheep wool is reaaally smelly!!) we start to prepare the sheep wool to spin our first threat.
The first step is to remove all the straw pieces and other dirt (luckily we had already pre washed wool) and make the wool more fluffy.
Then we take some dog brushes to card the wool – the last step before spinning it.
After preparing the black and white wool we can start spinning. Some children start with alpaca wool, which is softer and quite easy to spin while others mix black and white sheep wool. The motivation to spin enough for a carpet or a sweater is big!
In the beginning we share the work, one is spinning the spindle while the other is preparing the wool supply. Then we change the roles. In the end some are even trying to spin and prepare the wool and create their first own threat! Such a satisfaction!
After two hours we write the names on the spindles to remember which one is who’s for the next week and tidy up the room.