B.he would refuse to look at them after they have been clipped. They jump with contentment. They burst out with happiness, finally free from that cumbersome fleece. And it is true. Because shearing is essential for the well-being of the sheep. Leaving them covered in wool is a danger to their health and even ours. Yet wool has long since become a problem for farmers. Because it costs more to remove it, and then dispose of it, than it costs to sell it. So over the years the wool of Italian sheep has ended up in sacks, mixed with plastic bottles and waste, sometimes piled up in barns or burned in secret.
The sheep of the Valle d’Aosta cooperative Les Tisserands.
The wool of our sheep
“The fact is that our wools have a very thick, unappetizing fiber for the current market “explains the president ofLane Agency of Italy Patrizia Maggia. «Until the seventies and eighties, we used it to make rugs, mattresses, then nothing. Indeed, by European regulation, it has become an animal by-product, a special class 3 waste. Thirteen million kilos of “greasy wool”, that is unwashed, produced every year by eight million sheep, 40 percent in Sardinia, which risks being simply waste, when instead it is an extraordinary raw material »explains Maggia. A few months ago there has been a petition launched on Change.org with the Indigenous Wool Manifesto which, in addition to raising awareness of the “state” of health of Italian wool, wants to reconstruct the supply chain by enhancing it in all sectors in which it can be used, from textiles to construction. The name chosen by the promoters (GAL – Local Action Group – Barigadu Guilcer, Seriana Valley and Bergamaschi Lakes, Quattro Parchi Lecco Brianza, Lane of Italy Agency and CNR) for this project leaves no doubt: Tramando, s’innova .
The new life of wool passes through innovation
It is by reweaving the textures of a supply chain that goes from wool to skein, which can in fact be innovated. One of the first Italian wool makers, Valeria Gallese, did it. She arrived on the Gran Sasso to study the many wools of the Park – where she recognized 16 different categories -, she remained there, and now has his Apennine wool workshop, Aquilana, in Santo Stefano di Sessanio. «They are at 1250 meters above sea level, you can only come to me on foot, by hiking, and yet I sell everything I produce, even online. I started by collecting 50 kg of wool from the family sheep, in 2021 I reached eight thousand, involving the shepherds who transhumance between Abruzzo, Molise and Puglia. I remember that at first they put it in bulk in big bags, now they deliver it to me packed: a sign that they have understood that it is not a refusal, but an opportunity. For me and for them, since they are waiting for the sale to pay for the custody of grazing (the use of other people’s land to graze their own animals, ed) ».
And it is a sign of a growing sensitivity despite concrete criticalities: a single wash in the whole national territory, in Biella, a few spinning mills, and the total lack of collection centers. Annalisa De Luca, Eva Basile and Claudia Colmar, organizers of the Local Wool Working Summer Schoolso they decided to collect on the site lanaiole.weebly.com the many initiatives around the enhancement of Italian wool and its supply chain. They have divided them region by region, and there are more and more.
It is important to collaborate with young people
But gathering wool also means protecting breeds at risk of extinction. Like the Ciuta della Valtellina sheep, the Bergamasca in Val Camonica, the Rosset in Valgrisenche. Here, in one of the most intact areas of the Aosta Valley, four women, Luana Usel, Emy Maguet, Aslik Aloyan and Caroline Houal, who correspond to the name of Les Tisserandsin addition to the wool of the mountain sheep, they have recovered the ancient weaving of drap, the typical fabric of the valley, and activated collaborations with young artisans such as the leather craftsman Nicolas Mazzali of Saint Pierre, or Laura Cortinovis who has taken up Italian dyeing practices widespread before the industrialization.
Cristina Ferrarini Pasture wool with the wool of the Brogna sheep.
In Friuli-Venezia Giulia, to take care of the wool of the Brogna sheepSlow Food presidium, there is Cristina Ferrarini with her Pasture wool. «I have a small flock of 30 mares, but I also collect the greasy wool of the breeders of the garrison, 30 quintals a year: it is a useful quantity for a small artisan production, but it solves a great problem of disposal and storage. It does not mean that new yarns cannot be invented: ior I did it by mixing Brogna wool with that of my alpacas and silk, and an exclusive yarn was born, BAS. The important thing is that the entire supply chain is traceable ». Traceable and respectful of animals.
Most of the wool makers requires the shearing to be done by hand, without tying the sheep, but in the traditional way, almost hugging them. Benedetta Morucci of LaMantera, named after the cape used by the Abruzzo shepherds, even wrote it about her project initially supported by the Garrone Foundation. «I myself take part in the shearing, and by hand I also make the selection, separating the wools of the Sopravissana or Gentile di Puglia sheep. I have always had the ambition to bring Italian wool back to the industrial sectorand today I can say that I have reconstituted the entire supply chain, from harvesting to spinning, and be ready with the first line of small knitwear and, of course, with the mantera, the shepherd’s hood ».
The circular economy under test
However, wool is not transformed into yarn alone. Ilary Bottini, who from her Instagram account made indigenous wool become social, in 2019 stopped being a manager to dedicate herself to weaving tapestries on vertical looms using the very hard Sardinian sheep wool spun in the only remaining spinning mill, the Crabolu Textile .
Ilary Bottini, a former manager, weaves a tapestry using Sardinian sheep’s wool. He also organizes workshops.
Instead, he has the carpenters of Lake Maggiore make small frames of 30 cm by 20 cm to organize workshops and teach the art of hand loom, even if the important thing, he says, is to show that a distant idea can be born from a mortified raw material from its original appearance. There are companies like the Sardinian Brebey that use it to produce elements for green building, others like the Apulian start-up Hackustica which make it sound-absorbing coatings.
The many lives of wool
Chiara Spigarelli, agronomistjust in these days, after the experimental tests at the University of Udine, it is launching its sheep wool pellet, a nitrogen fertilizer that can be used on any plant.
© Cristina Panicali for the Edoardo Garrone Foundation
“The wool fiber contains lanolina nitrogen-containing protein that is released gradually when it rains. And it is also a hygroscopic matter, that is, capable of keeping the soil moist. I collect it from the Friulian shepherds, also using organic matter. Everything is transformed into fertilizer” He says. “And it’s nice because in the end I give back to the farmers, in another form, what they gave me. If this is not a circular economy… ».
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