Preparing Goat Hair for Spinning
The coarse hair of the mountain goats of Greece has been used to create textiles for thousands of years . For example, fragments of a Minoan carbonized, narrow, 6.6 mm plaited textile band with three linen threads for warp and a weft of dark goat hair, alternating with nettle, has been found at Chania in Crete. (Gleba & Mannering, 2012, Textiles and Textile Production in Europe from Prehistory to A.D. 400, p. 198.) (see also Ryder, 1993)
For Greek villagers and shepherds, during the period of study, goat hair provided a strong, water-repellent fiber perfect for saddlebags, all-weather capes, and hut rugs and coverings. Commercially, goat hair was used for rope and to make the bags (tsourapes/τσουράπες) used to hold olives during pressing. The hair is still used commercially for brushes.
Preparing Goat Hair for Use
Step 1: The long side hairs on both of the animal’s flanks are clipped. Goat hair has a greater range of colors than wool. It can be white, gray, tan, reddish, an assortment of browns, and pure black. If desired, it is sorted by color.
Step 2: A sheltered area away from even the mildest breeze is found. This prevents the goat hair from blowing away during the processing. A windless day and a corner where two walls meet are preferred. The area is swept free of debris in preparation. Before cement floors were available, they would take a wood door off their house to use as a hard surface. IN the summer the village would resound with the thumping of the rope on the wood, preparing goat hair for the winter spinning.
Step 3: A simple tool is created using a sturdy stick, about 3 feet (92 cm) by 3 inches (7.5 cm) in diameter, two heavy rocks, and a rope (see photo). The rope is tied in the center of the stick and the two rocks placed on each end to hold it down.
Step 4: The unwashed goat hair is shaken to remove loose dirt, and then it is placed under the rope, close to where the rope is tied to the stick.
Step 5: The free end of the rope is whipped up and down vertically. With each snap of the rope, the goat hair fibers rise into the air and settle to the sides.
Step 6: Using a pointed stick, the now fluffy fibers are gently gathered and then rolled up into a loose tube.
Step 7: The roll of fiber will be placed over the top of the distaff, fastened with a loop of string, ready for spinning.
*Spinning and weaving goat hair will be covered in another article. Sign up here to receive notice of future articles.
Historical Precedents
The above process is very similar to the way goat hair was processed in the 1920s in Aetolia, Greece as described by Dimitri Loukopoulou in Πως Υφαινουν και Ντγνονται οι Αιτωλοι (How They Weave and Spin in Aetolia), 1927. One difference is that they used four ropes instead of one as shown in this illustration.
