When I was a young girl I remember my mother telling me about the first big job of the year; Spring Cleaning. Sweep the floors with this brush, wipe the walls with that cloth. I have a very strong image of my mother telling me to never throw away old spiders webs. Then she sang to me this little rhyme.
When webs are tired
and webs are dull.
Then it’s time to make
your Spider Wool.
Recipe
Collect as many old Spiders Webs as you can, you can tell old Spiders Webs from the new ones as they look a little tired and no Spiders live on them. When the moon is bright and full Gullwick trundles up to the clifftop heather to harvest them with his pattle rakes and wool baskets.
Half fill a finsters barrel with old Spiders Webs then pour over sea foam from a sighing sea until the barrel is almost full with the frothing liquid. Sea foam should be drawn from a mill pond sea lit up by the first full moon of the year.
Throw in a couple of nips of crumbled peat flakes and stir well with a cootie club. Scatter with a billy doo of your favourite coloured flower heads otherwise your Spider Wool will be a dark browny colour.
Now pop on the barrel lid and leave in bright sunlight, to steep, for one whole year.
Once the year is done remove the lid of the barrel and haul out the swollen tangled fibres and hang them out to drip dry on the washing line.
Leave for a week and then delicately untangle the threads rolling them into balls of the very finest Spider Wool.
Spider Wool is soft and smooth to the touch and almost indestructible. Garments knitted with Spider Wool will feel lighter than an airborne feather and will never unravel or wear out. Jumpers, cardigans, vests and under garments, are some of the many things you can make with Spider Wool but my very favourite things to knit are Spider Wool hats which have never ever worn out and to this very day have never ever gone out of fashion.
Gullweena