How do Cooperative Ibilou artisans create such fluffy, clean clouds of carded wool for spinning? It all starts with a walk to the river with a bundle of fresh High Atlas sheep wool. You can read more about the washing process and how the wool is spun in my article published in Ply Magazine’s Summer 2020 issue.
Below are some photos and videos that illustrate the process. Please note that High Atlas sheep produce wool that is low in lanolin, so this cold wash method works very well. When I tried this method with some merino wool, which is very high in lanolin, it didn’t work well at all. The lanolin was like velcro – it kept the VM and other debris firmly stuck in the wool.
Other posts related to High Atlas spinning:
106 Meters from the Road 