There is a moment every year when our farm’s calendar stops following the months and starts following the flock. It happened again at the end of May, when we sheared the sheep: the day that closes one cycle and immediately opens another—the one that, in a few months, will turn the wool gathered in the fields into the garments you wear.
Those who have never experienced a farm up close often imagine shearing as a quick, almost mechanical task.
In our reality, it is anything but: it is teamwork that requires skilled hands, patience, and respect for every single animal.
Our sheep are sheared once a year, in late spring, when the heat begins to set in and their heavy fleece risks becoming more of a burden than protection.
Shearing them at the right time means, first and foremost, caring for their well-being: an animal relieved of the weight of its winter wool faces the summer more healthily, breathes better, and moves more freely through the pastures.
But shearing is only the beginning of the summer work, certainly not the end.
From the end of May onward, our family’s attention shifted to the flock’s daily management during the hottest months of the year.
The sheep are moved to cooler pastures during the central hours of the day, when the sun is strongest, and brought back into the shade or shelters as soon as the temperature requires it.
Fresh, constantly available water becomes an absolute priority: we check the drinking troughs several times a day, because a dehydrated animal is a stressed animal, and prolonged stress also affects the quality of the fiber it will produce the following year.
Then there is the less frequently discussed but essential aspect of summer veterinary care: checking the skin after shearing, when it is more exposed and delicate during the first few weeks; preventing parasites, which find ideal conditions to multiply in summer; and paying attention to hooves and feet while moving through the more rugged pastures of Central Italy, where we raise our flock.
These are tasks repeated every day, almost invisible to those looking in from the outside, but for us they represent the most authentic part of our work: caring for the animals before even thinking about the yarn we will obtain from them.
And this is precisely where the circle of our short supply chain is completed.
The fleece collected at the end of May is not “just” wool to sell: it is the first, real step in the traceability that matters more to us than anything else.
After carefully selecting the finest fibers, we sent the first samples to Italian laboratories specializing in washing, carding, and spinning—the same artisanal processes that have transformed raw fleece into yarn ready to be knitted for centuries. These weeks, we are eagerly awaiting the results: the fineness of the fiber, its yield after washing, and the quality of the yarn that will emerge from this first experimental batch.
We are experiencing this wait with the same care with which we followed the flock throughout the summer, because for us at Lanaioli, a short supply chain is not a communications slogan: it is a daily choice made up of concrete actions, checks, and decisions made by looking into the eyes of the animals we raise, rather than simply reading a certificate.
We want anyone who chooses one of our garments to know where it truly comes from: a family farm in Central Italy, a flock whose every individual animal we know, and work that puts animal welfare before production yields.
In the coming months, we will tell you what emerged from these first samples: whether the resulting yarn will have the characteristics we hope for, and how the journey toward creating the next zero-kilometer wool garments will proceed. For now, summer on the farm continues like this: shade and fresh water for the flock, daily checks, and the anything-but-passive anticipation of seeing the first ball of yarn emerge from this story.
Keep following us: the road from the countryside to the ball of yarn is long, but it is precisely this length, made up of time and care, that makes the difference between just any yarn and our short-supply-chain merino wool.
