Peter Crisp and Hansie Armour aim to create eco-sustainable yarn from happy sheep at their Yass Valley Woollen Mill. They hope to counter the rise of synthetics which has left wool with 2 per cent of the international textile market, by producing eco-friendly superfine merino wool. Every other Australian woollen mill has closed, but members of two old wool families have taken a step back to the time before merino fell prey to harsh chemicals and bulk production overseas as just another global commodity.

Armour bought half of the 1856 Gwandoban shearing shed, which a farmer won in a poker game in 1912, and moved it to a property where the glass artist Peter Crisp already attracts tourists to his gallery on the Hume Highway.

The giant round drums and spikes of a carding machine will clean the wool, pushing it out like piped clouds. It will be transformed into slithers of thread by another machine, combed, then spun and put through the plyer, which strengthens the threads, before being woven on the loom.

A teasle raiser with rows of real Scottish thistles will finish the fabric.

Couple at the mill hope we'll go woolgathering again — The Sydney Morning Herald