The life of the women of Metsovo centred round domestic activities. Up to the 1970s, women spent much of their daily life making and caring for their clothes, as well as creating woven fabrics for use inside their homes.
Metsovite woman holding a recently dyed warp. To her left there is another waiting to be dyed before being taken to the loom. Most dyestuff, such as walnut shells, walnut tree leaves or berry leaves, was collected locally. (Ed. Καπόν / Με στημόνι και υφάδι / Catherine Van Steen & Ελένη Λυκιαρδοπούλου)
Wool processing was an exclusively “female” activity. The women’s first task upon the arrival of raw wool to the village was to clean it. After washing the wool and drying it in the sun, they sorted it by length and brushed it with a special tool called “lanari”. The wool was then spun onto spindles and rolled into large balls. The yarn that would eventually be used to weave multi-coloured carpets and bedding was dyed and, using a spinning wheel, rolled onto spools and taken to the loom.
Under Ottoman rule, Metsovo became a city of wool and commerce. The wool trade brought wealth to the village as wool was the leading export from the western Ottoman Empire until the early 19th century.
Family in Kato Vermio, 1947. Women are pictured with a distaff, spindle and spinning wheel – tools used for spinning wool. Today, Kato Vermio is the epicentre of Vlach settlements in the Prefecture of Imathia. Until the 20th century, it was the third largest town after Veroia and Naousa in the area that today encompasses the Prefecture of Imathia. (Foundation of the Museum for the Macedonian Struggle)
Women spinning wool on a distaff and spindle in front of Sarakatsani huts, circa 1922.