3. Project Report
Project No.: ICIA-01/2014
Project Duration 06 Months
Project Name: Came Wool Utilization
Sponsors: Nil (Self-Financed)
Collaborators: GODH Lahore
www.pakol.ru
Background
A delegation of Islampur Cottage Industries Association (ICIA) visited Cholistan deserts from 4th Sep to
9th Sep 2014 to know about the production of camel wool and its utilization in the area and to explore
ways and means to for better utilization of camel wool that may bring more earnings to the camel
dependent families in the deserts. At the end of the trip, it was decided by ICIA decided to start experiment
on camel wool spinning and making cloth out of it that could be used to produce Pakol, Waistcoat and
Hand Bags etc.
The report presents the process that was adopted to spin and weave
the camel wool with the help of male and female weavers from
Islampur. It was an existing experience both for ICIA’s team and the
weavers where the camel wool was processed for the first time and the
result is much encouraging that was assumed at the beginning.
At this stage we are able to say that camel wool could be used to weave
woolen cloth that has greater demand in the national and international
market. Despite the fact the first trial version of the woolen cloth is far
better than the existing available woolen cloth, still there are many issues that needs attention to add
more value to the camel wool and artisans working in the weaving industry.
Goal of the project:
To explore ways for better utilization of Camel Wool
Objective of the Project
To study the camel wool situation in Cholistan area and facilitate
the member weavers to process camel wool in Islampur and
produce trail version of woolen cloth up to 20 Yards using the old
technique of weaving.
The Process
The wool was brought to Swat by the delegation members who
visited Cholistan area. It is to be mentioned that 6 KG wool was
purchased during the visit while order for 50 KGs has already
been placed. Using the traditional technique was adopted to
prepare thread from the camel wool and weave it through local
handlooms.
4. Conditions of the Wool
The wool was mixed with hairs and soil elements with high proportion. Wool of different camels was
mixed having different colors and measures and qualities.
Sorting & cleaning of wool
Usually the weavers in Islampur clean the wool while separating different colors manually however some
time the fatty wool of sheep is washed by weavers using
soap and detergents. The came wool was tested with
both the methods. Some 100 Grams of wool was washed
but that made it difficult to card the wool properly. In first
step it was tried to remove the hard hair from wool that
was difficult and very less quantity of hair the wool was
dried in sun for removal of soil elements while beating it
with a stick. On the other hand many small pieces of
plants and sticks were found in the wool making hard the
carding and spinning process. 15.21% losses were
recorded during the wool cleaning and sorting process.
The losses weight includes soil, part of plants and hair
that are mixed with the wool. Presence of soil and plant
elements damaged the quality of wool as in the presence
of these elements quality wool spinning is difficult.
Carding of Camel Wool
Manual carding of camel wool was not possible due to its
short fibers. In old days manual carding was preferred to avoid
wool fibers damages that further reduce the strength of wool
against the cold. Traditionally, a simple leather handmade
cord and a stick were used to card the wool to make it soft.
The carded wool was then spanned through a spinning wheel
made of wood, locally by females while the men were used to
spin the wool through a small tool called “Attehran”. Due to
unavailability of old relevant tools, the camel wool was carded
with the help of electric wool carding machine being installed
by a local in Islampur. This machine is used by the weavers
since nineties when the Pak-Swiss Small Scale Enterprise
Programme introduced the same. Services of Wool Carding
Machine’s Operator were hired to card the wool carefully and
separately. Most of the time the weavers mix the remaining
parts of wool previously carded on the machine that change
the color of newly carded wool.
1 Sorting and Cleaning of Camel Wool
2 Wool Carding Machine
3 Carded Wool
5. Some 30.42% out of total losses occurred during carding. During the discussion with the carding machine
operator, it was found that due to small sizes of fibers of camel wool, the carding machine is unable to
card the total quantity. “This problem could be solved by maxing some 10-15% sheep’s wool with the
camel wool” the operator told.
Spinning of Camel Wool
Historically men and women were masters of spinning in Islampur
but with the passage of time and introduction of already spun
woolen threads and other readymade raw material for weaving, the
trend of manual spinning by men went out of mind while the
females are still spinning the wool with a wooden spinning wheel
made locally. It is to be mentioned that the men were using very
simple tool to spin the wool with better quality as compare to
woolen thread spun by the females.
The Camel Wool was spun by the female spinners in Islampur who
are famous for their fine work. The females used very traditional
spinning wheel for spinning. A major proportion of losses were
observed during the spinning process. The wool was spun by the
females famous for their quality work. Keeping in mind it was
decided to spin the wool in count number 11 as the same size1
of
thread of sheep wool is used for weaving woolen cloth. It was
advised by the local weavers that enough twist must be given to the
wool during spinning, which need a bit soft fiber of wool. As mentioned earlier the shorter fibers of camel
wool are a bit hard thus remained un-spun and went to waste. 39.55% of the total losses occurred during
the spinning process.
Weaving Woolen Cloth from Camel Wool
The Camel Wool is not yet suitable to be used as warp while weaving woolen cloth out of it. Despite careful
cleaning of the camel wool at the beginning of the process, the wool still had plants elements that
restricted the weavers to use the wool as warp and it was decided by the weaver that the wool would
only be used for weft. Imported wool of Australian Sheep was used in warp.
Keeping in mind the thickness of wool thread comb of count
No. 18 was used to weave the cloth. This comb is used by the
weavers to weave sheep wool cloth since years. According to
the local counting and measurement system, 3 Chal and 05
Dhuki of warp’s threads were used to fill the comb. There are
80 threads in 01 Chal and 4 Threads in 01 Dhuki that means
that 260 woolen threads of Count Number 2/48 were used in
the warp with total length of 25 Yards. A manual shuttle
machine locally Called Tak-Takay was used to weave the
Woolen Cloth. Unusually the weight of wool thread further
1
The Count number of wool threads determine the thickness of thread. The thickness increases when the number decreases. For
example 11 No. thread is thicker than 10 No.
4 Spinning Wheel and Spun Thread of
Camel Wool
6. reduced by 14.82% during the weaving process. A total of 25 Yards of woolen cloth has been produced
out of 6 KG rough wool that reduced almost by 50% during the process. Due to technical limitations the
wool has been produced in 2 pieces.
Washing of Camel Wool Cloth
The woolen cloth was washed as per traditional methods used by the
weavers. Usually the weavers put detergents and other chemicals to
make the woolen cloth free from fates but in this case the use of
chemicals was strongly opposed. The cloth was put in an iron tub and
was washed with enough quantity of boiled water. The woolen cloth
was pressed with help of feet from all sides. The cloth was measured in
width prior to wash. It has been observed that sheep wool cloth is
shrieked during te washing process by 17 % and 17” rough woolen cloth
size minimized to 14” in width similarly the cloth also shrink in length
by 3.84% and 13 years long piece in reduced to 12.5 years. Due to
technical limitations of handlooms the size of camel wool cloth was not
increased in width and the width of the camel wool cloth was reduced
by 23.52% and 17” wide cloth was reduced to 13” that shows that a
proportion of the hairs, wool and any other remaining elements went
out of the cloth. The cloth was washed for one and half hour. The camel
wool cloth was shrunk by 1.50 % in length as the 25 years cloth was
reduced to 23.5 Yards.
Drying of Wool Cloth
As per traditional techniques the wool was dry in sun light by hanging
the cloth on steel wire fixed between two points in air. No iron has been
used as the small pieces of wool are burnt with heat. After drying the
cloth up to 95%, it was folded with the help of an iron road (yard) and
was put on plastic sheet over the ground. A wooden piece was placed
over the folded cloth that was further pressed by putting a heavy stone
over it. The cloth was laying in the same position for 7 days. Purpose of
the exercise was to press the cloth very naturally to be softer. Usually
the weavers in Islampur do this job using an electric pressing machine
having a rolling drum having intensive heat from Gas Cylinder. This
modern technology has damaged the quality of the product and its
durability is also on stake. Due to increase in production, most of the
times the weavers do not care about drying and pressing of product and
adopt easy way that collapse the strength of wool fiber due to
overheating and thus loss its capacity to resist cool. Sunlight is the most
efficient source to dry the product naturally in a given time frame that
is a bit lengthy. Similarly the methods used for dying the sheep wool
are not natural that always damaged the wool quality. The camel wool
was not dyed as it has a good brown color however it can be dyed easily
using the natural dyes techniques.
7. Final Product
The final product if far better than the expected one in terms of softness and the
strength. 13” wide camel wool cloth can be used for making the traditional cap,
waistcoat, long coat and other small products like mobile cover, hand bags and laptop
bags. Despite the fact that the result of the experiment is good, still there are some
gray areas that needs attention that will result in quality improvement. The final
product has been sent to tailors to make different products out of the cloth that would
be presented in international market by ICIA through social media.
Wool Losses
A total of 6 KG wool was processed during this experiment that was reduced almost 50% due to many
reasons. About 15% of the weight was lost during the cleaning and sorting process. In carding process
some 30.40% of the weight were lost. The higher ratio of losses was recorded during the spinning process
that is 39.55% of the total losses. During the weaving process 14.82% of the wool was lost. The following
table indicates that almost 50% of the wool lost during the process.
S. No Process Loss in KGs % Losses
1 Losses During Cleaning & Sorting of Wool 0.50 15.21
2 Losses During Carding 1.00 30.42
3 Losses During Spinning 1.30 39.55
4 Losses During Weaving 0.49 14.82
Total Losses 3 100
Total Quantity of Wool Process 6
Net 3
