If This Wool Could Talk

I use many materials in my work but I have a special love for wool. I have worked with it in many forms. From holding a newborn lamb to skirting a fleece I know where it begins. I have washed and carded, spun and knit. I have changed its nature by dying it. I search for and collect 100% wool garments to strip into lengths for my wool rugs. I dream of feeling it in my hands. Perhaps I am in love with it.

And every once in a while I find a length of it that really stops me in my work. So it was with a woolen jacket. Instead of being a solid color it was a multicolored muted print. The elbows and cuffs showed some signs of wear so the past owner must have liked it, too. As I stripped it into lengths, I started to wonder, who owned and wore it? Where had this jacket been? Why had it been parted from it’s wearer? Oh, if only this wool could talk.

When I use recycled wool in my rugs and projects it isn’t just because I’m frugal and because it gives me such a good variety of patterns and colors. Or the fact it keeps fabric out of landfill sites, although all of these reasons have merit. This old wool has a feel and character to it that comes through in the finished products. As you sink your feet into a pure wool rug or hold a doll with woolen clothing, I believe the wool will talk to you. Of sheep and color, of places and people. If only you are wise enough to hear it.