Spinning wool with D.Benta
On one of my trips to Salto, with the purpose of visiting the Pisão de Tabuadela (The Tabuadela Wool Stomping Facilities), where the last burel blankets made by the Women of Bucos were felted, I had the chance of meeting D. Benta. Standing at the door of her café, she told me about how she spins her wool without washing it first and showed me a trick she uses to keep the yarn firmly set on the spindle and taught me how to ply two strands using a regular spinning spindle.
1. BENTA EXPLAINS WHY SHE USES GORSE ON THE SHEEP STABLE GROUND
Benta's work is special because she alone, since a sheep is born until a pair of socks are knitted, controls all the phases of the wool cycle. The care she has, considering that one of her goals is to use the wool, are different from the beggining. Most animals have the stable "beds" lined with straw, but Benta's sheep are lined with gorse.
One of the problems with straw is that it breaks apart easily and gets stuck in the animal's wool, which will make it more difficult, later, in the tousling phase, to have it properly clean.
On the other hand, straw doesn't make a good enough barrier to avoid that the animals get in touch with the feces and urine.
Using gorse will prevent wool from getting dirty from the animals feces and it won't leave almost any residues on the wool, making it easier in the cleaning phase.
2. BENTA EXPLAINS WHY SHE SPINS THE WOOL WITHOUT WASHING IT FIRST
Benta explains why she spins the wool without washing it first. Unlike what I have seen, Benta spins the wool without washing it, just like it came after shearing it from the sheep, because she says it helps the spun yarn to be more perfect and even. Asking Ilídia about this, she told me this is also a small trick to spin a really thin ply because, when it is finally washed, the dirt will come out and the yarn will be half as thick.
3. DRYING THE DIRT OFF THE WOOL
Before tousling the wool, and to make the job easier, the dirty wool can be put out in the hot sun, so that most of the dirt dries out and turns into dust. Then, to make sure the fibers aren't damaged, the wool is tousled by opening it from the root and not from the end of the fiber.
4. TOUSLING AND FINGER COMBING THE WOOL
To prepare the wool for spinning first you have to pick and finger comb it. First you pick the wool with your fingers, removing the bigger bits of dirt and pieces of wool that aren’t good enough to spin into a yarn. Then you finger comb it, setting up the wool rovings in parallel manner, on top of each other, until you have enough wool to be placed on the distaff.
5. SPINNING WITH A SPINDLE AND DISTAFF
D.Benta explains how she spins the wool using the traditional portuguese spindle and a distaff.
6. ARRANGING THE WOOL ON THE SPINDLE
While spinning, the wool on the spindle keeps growing and to stop it from falling, D.Benta has a small trick she uses to fix it.
7. PLYING THE YARN WITH A REGULAR SPINDLE
Outside her little café, Benta shows us how to ply a 2-ply yarn using a normal spindle with nothing but a twigg crossed over.
"So, now you catch the thread. And now you pass the shuttle to continue twisting. And now, you twist the thread and here you unwind a little so the twist moves onto the skein. Then you rub the thread a bit so the twist settles onto the skein. Next, you remove the shuttle and catch it with the spindle. Then the shuttle again. You keep doing this until it's finished. After finishing the twisting, you make a skein and wash it in a little warm water, to remove the ludro and leave the wool nice and clean. Once the skein is dry, you put it on a swift, wind it into a ball, and then you make the 'meiote'. And that’s how the wool process goes."
