The weekend of June 12th to 14th 2026, we celebrated our first EWA Wool Camp in Northern Spain.
Since it was a wool weekend organized by us in cooperation with EWA, we wanted it to be an
international gathering. However, apart from Anna, EWA member from Iceland, all the participants came
from the Basque Country, Navarre and Madrid. It is nice to see that this rough wool of Northern Spain
mountain areas seems to have some interest, even when it is considered “bad wool”. Our aim for the
Camp was to show various ways for using this wool and give participants some inspiration for finding
more new ways.

Day 1: Friday, June 12th:
In the afternoon, the participants arrived at the Artaza-Urederra campsite: we had reserved one of the big
houses on the campsite for our stay, the house Izar has two bedrooms with 8 and 6 beds. Almost
everybody stayed in this house, only three participants lived so nearby that they were able to go home to
sleep in their own beds. All the meals were prepared by Koldo, our wonderful cook, in the house’s
kitchen.

  
First, we had some Latxa sheep come to the site: Javier showed us his 6 months old sheep and sheared
them with blades. Most Latxa sheep had been sheared already as the shearing time is usually beginning of
May. Although this shearing was the first for these sheep, they kept surprisingly still. Probably, they were
quite glad to get rid of the wool as the temperatures were quite high then.
Next step was washing some of the fleeces with lukewarm water and a bit of soap. We used a soap made
from sheep whey (the liquid that is left when making cheese from milk) by a local artisan. We soaked the
wool gently in the soapy water then rinsed it with cold water until it ran clear. Then we tended the wool to
dry on some fences.

      
We then started our first workshop: Spinning Latxa wool with the Basque spindle, the txoatile or txabila.
This spindle has lots of different names, depending on the region where it was used by the shepherds in
the mountains. Some first timers were not overly happy with their irregular and thick yarn but they had
two more days to practice....

Day 2:
For Saturday we had two workshops: Felting with molds in the morning and pegloom weaving in the
afternoon.
The felting session was mainly conducted by Mia who explained the importance of laying out the raw
wool really thin on the balls or balloons we had provided. As Latxa wool is quite difficult to felt due to its
strong character, we mixed it with Spanish Merino wool. Each participant got his or her own package of
raw wool and then they shared a table outside in the shade with three other people.

      
After felting the bowls, participants were invited to add some lovely locks of Latxa wool to the edges, or
smoothen them a bit more and all the beautiful art works were then put to dry into the plain sun.

    
After a fabulous lunch and a short ‘siesta’, we started the second workshop of the day: Pegloom Weaving.
Each participant got the pegloom with its clamps and some of the pegs had to be prepared still: Birte had
spun some raw Latxa wool into thick 2-ply yarn that suits the resulting fabric well: it has enough structure
to hold the weft in place when it is pushed down. We offered unwashed raw Latxa wool or washed Latxa
wool for the weaving. As the pegloom weaving is such an easy technique, the participants were soon
happily working away on their looms. It was really fascinating to see how different the approaches were
of each person, so that everybody really had his or her unique seat cushion.

        
Saturday evening we enjoyed a Finnish sauna session: two barrel saunas with wood-burning sauna stoves,
a cold shower and a hot tub outside! The best way to finish a perfect day!

Day 3:
On Sunday, we started the day with the belt weaving workshop led by Mia. She had prepared beautiful
bundles of belt looms with the colorful warps already inserted. Each bundle contained the chart for the
resulting belt, too. In this weaving technique the warp is not shown except only in the edges, so the
pattern is formed by the warp threads.
Mia also showed how to prepare the warp threads, of course, so everybody can make his or her own
design later at home. 

This is how many of the participants got their first experience with a weaving tool.
After our last lunch together, we invited everyone to finish their unfinished projects or just explore a little
bit the surroundings and pack up for departure.
 

We asked for participant’s feedback and they were all quite pleased with everything: the organization, the
location, the food, the workshops, the group. The only thing that we could not offer was single rooms for
those who prefer more privacy. But we will think about this for possible future Wool Camps. So stay
tuned!
 

We thank all of the participants and hope to see you and them in other events!
Mia Rissanen & Birte Kurth