THE EMBRACE OF MATTER: THE ÁBBATTE BLANKET

A few weeks ago, we received a call from someone who has owned an ÁBBATTE blanket for many years. Recently, his dog had damaged it, tearing some threads along the edge. He came to see us with his blanket and explained that he didn’t want us to weave a new one, even if it could be identical; he wanted to keep his old blanket.

He asked us to repair it because that blanket has taken root in his life through years of use. I realised that, for this stranger, the more he used the blanket, the more he loved it. It had transcended the textile. What moved me the most was seeing how deeply he understood our project.

ÁBBATTE blankets are one of the pieces that best embody our philosophy of living. They comfort, wrap, and protect us—like a second skin, like the embrace of the people we love.

This connection has much to do with our materials, which stimulate our sense of touch, the most primal of all senses, to which we give great value. That’s why we reclaim it, train and encourage it, trying to cultivate sensitivity toward materials, to revive a facet of life we once possessed naturally.

When we touch, we develop emotional connections of affection, calm, or security. We can even release oxytocin, the happiness hormone. Wrapped in a blanket made of natural fibres, we feel closer to nature because, like us, these fibres were once part of a living organism.

In an increasingly digital world, we are becoming desensitised to tactile perception. This loss not only affects our ability to appreciate materials but also limits our vocabulary to describe what we feel through touch.

That’s why one of the missions of ÁBBATTE textiles is to rediscover, cultivate, and retrain the sense of touch as a source of knowledge and connection.

"We touch things to assure ourselves of reality.
We touch the objects of our love." Anni Albers

Elena Goded,
founder of ÁBBATTE