Stand on your tiptoes and you can just about see Wovember peeping over the horizon!

(is that A LAMB I see?!) Photo © Sara Dunham

We have been lining up a month of incredible posts and articles for you on this year’s theme of Where Wool Meets Wellness; some of this content is by us, and some of it has been curated or contributed by our wondrous woolly friends! Tomorrow we’ll take you through the themes and structure for the month, but first we wanted to tell you about some changes to our usual format.

The Wovember Photo Competition

As you will have seen from our post earlier today, we’re very excited to say that Alison and Rachel from Yarn in the City – who always fly the flag high for Wovember – have taken over the Photo Competition for 2017! Last year they challenged their followers to #wearwoolforwovember and to take the #wovemberchallenge. The flavour and exuberance of their spontaneous woolly celebration was incredibly positive; they shared and amplified the Wovember message across social media with real enthusiasm and in such a wonderful way that we asked if they might consider doing something this year too. We are thrilled to report that they agreed, and have a whole heap of fun for you planned on Instagram. Building on their awesome #wearwoolforwovember challenge, they’ve devised an awesome Wovember Instagram Challenge with daily prompts to focus your love of 100% WOOL in a specific way.

Take part throughout Wovember by using the daily prompt! Wovember readers never disappoint when it comes to sharing your woolly pursuits and we can’t wait to see the variety of woolly images for each theme. As you can see from the graphic there will be prizes too, so be sure to follow them @yarninthecity and watch out for their updates. This instagram photo challenge replaces the contest we have hosted over the last few years.

Wovember WAL

While on the topic of contests and changes, the Wovember Wool-along (WAL) is taking place again, but this year there is no competitive element; the focus this year is on MAKING FOR THE LOVE OF WOOL! We know most of us take part to share our collective appreciation for wool and that the prizes are just an added extra, but we’re sorry to anyone that only takes part for this element.

Annette’s actual sheepy rainbow, containing wool from 11 different sheep breeds! (WovemberWAL sheepy rainbow winner in 2016)

Please show us what you are making in wool – be it knit, crochet, weaving, spinning or sewing – and share your work on social media channels using #WovemberWAL and #fortheloveofwool, and in our Ravelry group. The WAL has become a real mainstay of our ravelry group during Wovember: thank you for always being so enthusiastic and for constantly inspiring others by showing what we can do with this wonderful textile!

Guest Curators/Contributors

Something else new this year is that we have three amazing new curators/contributors. Emma Ross, Louise Spong and Paula Wolton each speak from a distinctive place within the world of wool. Each of them has featured during Wovembers past – either on the blog or on our social media channels – and we’re delighted to reveal that they have each curated a week of posts on themes respectively relating to wool, wellness and the individual; the locale; and the land.

For those of you who don’t already know about the work being done by these amazing woolly comrades, we’ll profile each of them at the start of each week. Please give them all a very warm welcome to Team Wovember!

Woolness & Me

The other content contributed by guests this year is our daily elevenses posts! Formerly known as Wovember Words, these posts this year have been mostly created by YOU. We have been blown away by the beautiful, personal accounts of what the concept of “where wellness meets wool” means to so many of our readers and friends online. From healing through grief and illness, to maintaining mental health, to adding a celebratory dimension to life, the content we have received from you really speaks to the roles that wool (and our work with wool) can play in wellness. Between personal accounts, we have curated excerpts of texts that we feel speak to this year’s theme.

Daily Image

Passionate wool photographer Jeni Reid © Felix Ford

Of course, Wovember just would not be Wovember if we did not have a daily image from photographer Jeni Reid. Jeni’s images provide real texture and depth to what we do here and, we’re sure you agree, she has an eye for woolly detail that is quite unparalleled. We are delighted that she will be taking over our instagram account at @WovemberWool again this November. If you are not already following us there, please do!

A Month of Woolly Revelations

We hope this has whetted your Wovember appetite! We are really happy to have so many friends involved with this years’ woolly celebrations, and to have so many different voices coming to this blog in 2017. Come back tomorrow to hear more about this year’s theme and learn more about what to expect from Wovember 2017. Until then, we hope this will be a month of woolly revelations; of gentleness and collective care; a month of sharing woolness stories with love and respect.

YOURS IN WOOL,
Felix & Louise

Felix & Louise