Abenaia is family produced yarn, processed and dyed in Portugal. The wool comes from local sheperds, making sure to pay a fair price, making their own work more sustainable and to contribute to the circular economy.
This project was born to make Portuguese yarn more visible, collect some ethnobotanical knowledge, and also try to recover the artisan work of wool processing. All sheep are free range and mulesing is not practiced.
Abenaia has an artisanal yarn that is scoured, teased, carded and spun by hand.
Also, there is a special batch of local merino wool that was spun in the nearest mill, this is a worsted spun yarn that is non superwash, not bleached and have no silicone based softeners, it is a 2 ply yarn in Sport and Fingering weight.
The yarn is natutrally dyed, with local plants, using mountain spring water & the charcoal fire that heats the own workshop, ensuring a minimum ecological impact.
Natural dying means creating from the very beginning, with long walks looking for dye material, its preparation and then the colour appearance after a long and slow infusion in the woodstove. When a skein is dyed it can be appreciated the colour shift and change in time, they are living colours and also they are kind to our environment.
