Sibillana, the story of a sustainable brand.
Did you know that in some places dog wool is also spun?
Well, I didn't know that until I met Giulia.
I will tell you about Sibillana, a small company in the Marche region that stands out for its very short supply chain and for putting the environment and animal welfare first. Sibillana was born thanks to the courage of Giulia and her husband, and indeed, it takes great courage and generosity of spirit to allow oneself to be carried away by a dream into such an adventure. They were ordinary people with white-collar office jobs. Everything in the norm, until the day when the decision to adopt a dog from the pound opened a new path in their future. He was an Akita dog, but he was so dirty that his fur was all felted on him. After a long intense washing, the dog came back white, I don't know if they knew the dog was white before washing it. His coat began to molt and regenerate as soft and shiny as it had not been in a long time. Giulia started collecting the hair and putting it aside instead of throwing it away, who knows why. Pretty soon she had enough that she could have made a sweater out of it! ...make a sweater out of it?
What a crazy idea.
Yet that is exactly what she and her husband did. They obtained an old spinning wheel and in a few months managed to weave a soft, white yarn from their dog's wool. Such a story could not remain hidden, and people started talking about it. They have become “quelli che tesse lu pilu de ca’” (in the local dialect, those who spin dog hair). Over time they began to receive requests from all parts of Italy from other people asking if they could spin their pets' hair as well. An entire room in the house was now dedicated to holding bags of hair for spinning.
One particularly touching story is that of a wife who wished she could weave a sweater for her husband from the fur of their beloved dog, now gone for more than a year. They had watched a documentary on TV a while back in which this practice was discussed, and so they started preserving their friend's fur, hoping that sooner or later they would find someone to spin it. When they heard about quelli che tesse lu pilu de ca’, she contacted them to ask if they could spin the hair they had stored. At that time, Giulia and her husband were not spinning for work, it was more of a very special hobby, and they knew it would take forever. Yet, the burgeoning passion within them and empathy for this couple they had never met but who had placed hope in them to make this dream come true, made them accept.
In about three months they managed to spin enough hair to make something to wear. The couple sent them a letter with heartfelt thanks for allowing them to keep something that would remind them of the great loving relationship they had with their dog. With the yarn she received, the wife made a vest that her husband wears every year on Christmas Day, when the whole family gathers, even their four-legged friend is remembered and kept close to his master's heart.
Isn't it an incredible story?
This is just the beginning of an adventure, indeed the adventurous life of two Italians who have chosen to reinvent their lives and devote themselves to an ancient craft.
Today they weave wool from a native sheep, the Sopravvissana, but among their yarns there is also the blend of Sopravissana fiber and the Abruzzese Shepherd guardian dog, symbol of their millennial union, which brings with it the values and traditions of the pastoral life of Central Italy.
Find them in the Next Surprise Box from Italy! Very few are still available.
