Photos of Hand-Spinning Wool

Handspun wool is a very important material found only in superior carpets. Wool that is spun by hand is more lanolin rich, has less broken fibers and remains stronger and more resilient over time. But maybe more importantly, handspun wool in rugs looks better than machine spun wool! Wool that is processed by machine spinning (a much cheaper process) tends to look more flat and “two dimensional” as opposed to handspun wool that imparts a rich character of depth and brilliance in the carpets.

Although most of the wool in our Afghan rugs is spun using a drop spindle, the wool in our Tibetan rugs is hand spun using a spinning wheel. Here are some great photos that our Tibetan producer shared with us showing spinners at work making the superior handspun wool.