Making yarn – a start

The wool industry of Aotearoa New Zealand has been declining, at least where what is termed “strong wool” is concerned.

Strong wool is the wool that is not “fine”. In Aotearoa (pronounced “Ow-teeAh-raw-Ah”) fine wool almost automatically means merino type and strong refers to all other types. The definitions rely on micron count – the thickness of the individual threads – and you can read more about that here. In the past, the numbers of sheep in the country were many times the number of people but there are half the number today than there were in 1982 when 70 million animals roamed paddocks and hills across New Zealand.

With much of the wool clip being exported to places like China, India, Italy, Romania and the UK (2023 statistics taken from here) and with few places remaining that can actually process wool into yarn – most is processed offshore – there are some gaps in the yarn provision. One of those gaps is in the manufacture of “tweedy” yarns, those that contain flecks of colour in each strand.

A few weeks ago 8 kilograms of wool went across from the studio in Greymouth to a small mill in Burnham to be scoured (washed) and carded (brushed to make the fibres lie parallel). This is the first step of any wool processing because the washing removes dirt and greases like lanolin that protects sheep from inclement weather. Without doing this, dye would not penetrate the fibres and it would be impossible to put unprepared fleeces through machinery to make yarn. The bale has now returned as rollags, considerably lighter than when the wool went over the mountains, and beautifully white. The rolls are bouncy and have a distinctive look and feel. Opening the box and seeing the prepared wool was like viewing clouds through an aeroplane window. The prepared rolls are now going to be dyed in primary colours so that experiments in blending colours can take place.

As is the way with complicated things, it has taken time to get to this stage but small steps are adding up to getting a locally-produced yarn that will be suitable for capturing the colours of the West Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand. Hooray!