Where the Wool is Boiled - Stapf, Wörgl, Tirol, Austria

In the Austrian Alps the technique of boiling wool developed over centuries to meet the needs of Alpine herdsmen in the cold wet climate. The fabric and finished textile producer Stapf has been perfecting the technique for generations on knit wool fabrics. On my 2016 visit to their Wörgl facility, located in the Austrian state of Tirol, I took the following pictures. The pictures were taken without models, staging or special effects. They simply show the people, equipment and a bit of the craft behind making "boiled wool" garments. "Boiled" is actually a misnomer because the temperature of the water shouldn't exceed 30 degrees celsius. The german word for these types of garments is "Walk" pronounced "valk" coming from the verb "walken".  They are differentiated from woven garments.  With developments in wool yarn production and finer wool fibers coming to the market the quality of "walk" garments has dramatically improved in recent years.

Enjoy,

Robert

 

This shows knit wool fabric before and after being shrunk by washing in warm water

A couple employees joking on the factory floor 

 A woman sewing a trachten jacket

  

A trachten jacket being made

A demonstration of how the needles on the knitting machine hook the yarn  

Spools of wool yarn feeding a knitting machine 

A well-used knitting machine feeding the yarn

 

An antique hand operated knitting machine 

Wool threads feeding into a loom for making trim 

 A Viennese knitting machine

Inspecting a sewn wool jacket

 

A close up of the threads in a knitting machine 

A special purpose washing machine for shrinking knit wool fabrics

A modern knitting machine 

 

Giving an explanation about how the machine works

 

 

Fabric patterns for different styles of trachten wool jackets 

The view out the window on a dreary winter day

  

The Stapf logo on a leather patch

A knit pattern being programmed into the computer 

A knit fabric being produced