In September my friend Cecilia and I visited the Skansen open air museum, where one of perhaps five fulling mills in Sweden is situated. Outside the mill the visitors were welcome into a wooden tub for some walking waulking.
We were thrilled when we saw the fulling mill, I knew it was there but I had never seen it. Cecilia hopped right into the wooden tub outside the mill and started waulking with her feet. I was reluctant at first, but Cecilia persuaded me to hop in the tub. I did, and feeling the wooden tub and the wet wool against my bare feet was surprisingly thrilling.
As I splashed my feet in the tub I thought of a failed fulling experience at another fulling mill.
Fulling mill in Dala-Floda
Back in May I visited the fulling mill in Dala-Floda with my wool traveling club. I had brought six fabrics to full, three of which were woven with my handspun yarn. The fabric I had the highest hopes for was woven with Gute wool. I spun it back in 2018, and made a woven swatch that I fulled, just to see how it behaved. It fulled very fast and beautifully and I decided to use the yarn to weave a fabric with the intention of fulling it.
The strange thing was that the Gute weave was the weave that was fulled the least in the fulling mill – only 23 per cent of the total area. This annoyed me since I knew it had fulled so evenly and easily when I first spun it. My theory was that the lanolin must have stiffened and worked as a barrier against the fulling.
A tub in the living room
A couple of weeks after the tub waulking in the September sun, I decided to try it at home with my Gute weave, with the addition of soap. I figured that if the soap could clean the lanolin off the weave on top of acting as a fulling agent, chances were that the fabric would shrink properly.
I had no wooden tub and no fulling mill backdrop. Instead I spent half an hour every evening for a week or so waulking while listening to the audio version of Jane Eyre. I was quite generous with both warm water and soap to speed the fulling process up a bit. After a total of perhaps three hours I was happy with the result. The fabric had shrunk 73 per cent from the raw weave, and very evenly, just like my original swatch had. What was once more of a net than a weave had now become a heavily fulled 4 millimeter thick fabric.
When I first got the idea to full the fabric my plan was to sew a vest from it. But now, at only 28 x 150 centimeters [11 x 60inches] there won’t be enough fabric for a vest. Even if there was, it would probably have been too dense and warm for me. Perhaps I’ll sew a pair of mittens and add some embroidery. The possibilities are many.
Read about the fulled pillowcases I made from three of the other weaves I waulked in the fulling mill in May.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
- This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
- I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
- My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
- I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
- I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
- On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
- Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
- Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
- I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
- In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
- I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
One Reply to “Walking waulking”