"Two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black wool." (Conrad 24)
"Often far away there I though of these two, guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the scrutinising the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te saluntant."
I believe that these women are a mythological allusion; they are the Greek Fates. They weave a dark cloth the way the fates weaved the futures of the humans. The cloth of the Fates foretells the future of the individual; and the cloth color of the women's is Black with foreshadows the fates of all who enter the office and sign up for this venture into the jungle.
