For the love of wool
“At XOLLA, we aim to contribute preserving the Catalan wool heritage. Every year we collect the wool from local flocks to transform it into yarn so that it is no longer considered a waste.
Creating our yarns is a truly challenge but it also allows us to know every step the production process from sheep to yarn. As we work with small family mills from Spain, we know every person involved and this allows us providing you fully transparency and traceability”.
Sheep makes the landscape
Sheep play an essential role in maintaining the rural environment, however, the flocks are decreasing in number at an unbridled speed. In Catalonia, the sheep is linked to a way of life and uses of long tradition, with deep roots in the land and to rural ways of life.
One of the premises to have good wool is that the sheep graze freely: wool means extensive livestock farming; it also means closing the circle and invigorating the rural world. Choosing local wool also helps giving continuity to a profession that could be at risk of disappearing in our country: the shepherdess and the shepherd. Without them, there won’t be wool.
Local production
Knitting is a manifesto of empowerment. Choosing a natural fiber, short-haul and locally produced, promotes a circular and fair economy. For us, it is important not just how the sheeps are raised but also establishing good and fair relations with the people with whom we work.
Traceability is important; as well as the kilometers traveled. Our wool is collected the shearing day, in Osona, Lluçanés and Pla de l’Estany. The wool is scoured in Palencia (out of Catalonia).Then, it is carded, spun, plied and dyed in Catalonia. All processes are carried out in small semi-industrial family factories. Therefore, Xolla also promotes, although its footprint is still quite small, national industrial processes and helps to reactivate a sector that had been very important in Spain.
Ripollesa sheep
The Ripollesa sheep is (along with the Xiqueta and Aranesa breeds) one of the three native Catalan sheep breeds: the three officially cataloged as Endangered Native Breed. It takes the name of its original geographic location.
It is an ancient cross between the Tarasconian sheep that formerly inhabited the Central Pyrenees with transhumant Merino sheep from the rest of the Peninsula and Roussillon. In its beginnings it was a fairly isolated breed due to its geographical location. Currently, the majority of flocks are located in the north-eastern part of Catalonia and have been moving towards southern lands.
Ripollesa wool is considered as entrefina (breeds with double aptitude “wool-meat”) and it has a very characteristic freckled pigmentation on the head and extremities that gives the fleeces brown, black or gray spots.
Natural wool
Wool is a resource of unquestionable value with countless properties. At Xolla we bet on natural and rustic yarns, with texture and smelling of sheep.
The Ripollesa sheep wool is dry when you touch it, reflecting the geography and relief where the sheep graze, and yet it is not itchy! Therefore, we strive to keep our yarns true to these characteristics, which give it authenticity.
We have decided, however, to give a touch of color, opting for low-impact acid dyes, all of them with Oeko tex standard 100 certification. All our yarns are plastic and silicone free.
Hello! I’m Elena, the person behind Xolla.
A few years ago, I don’t know how many exactly but I know it was November, I re-started knitting and got hooked. So much so that soon I build my first drop spindle to be able to spin the wool of the sheep of some friends.
From then on, everything emerged in a very natural way: my passion for spinning and dyeing grew at the same time as the projects on my needles.
Little by little I began to see that the wool I found to knit and spin was of very different breeds but none of local origin.
During all these I lived between France and Spain and it was precisely in France that I discovered the resurgence of la filière laine française. I think that was when everything began to add up and I decided that when I came back, I wanted to give value to the wool from local flocks.