In the 15th century, Henry the Navigator ordered the release of sheep in the recently discovered islands of the Azores. They were to provide food and clothing for the first settlers a few years later. For five hundred years, weaving and knitting of woolen goods took an important part in the life of the azorean people. Nordeste is hand spun in the village of the same name (S. Miguel) by some of the few women who still know and practise the old ways of transforming fleece into yarn.