Estonian Native Sheep

For Wovember Words today we are in Estonia! When team Wovember member Felix traveled there in 2012 for a residency, she discovered the wondrous organisation Hea Villa Selts (Facebook link) which translates loosely as The Good Wool Society. This is a coalition of shepherds and wool-workers working to understand and teach the best ways to… Continue Reading Estonian Native Sheep

From The Wovember Archives – EU Labelling

Last year we shared this Wovember Words post on the use of the term ‘Wool’ – which looks at EU labelling. The EU legislation on textile labelling regulations was updated in April 2016 (and the link at the bottom now points to the updated version) but the terms referred to here are still as unchanged. How do… Continue Reading From The Wovember Archives – EU Labelling

Sheep and Wool in Denmark, with Richard Regnery

Today on our EU tour of sheep and wool, we are quoting from Richard Regnery’s book, Ruminations of a Grumpy Shepherd. Richard and Gretchen Regnery have been raising a flock of white and coloured Corriedale sheep in Door County in northeast Wisconsin for over twenty years, and this book recounts some of their experiences along… Continue Reading Sheep and Wool in Denmark, with Richard Regnery

Week one of the #Wovember2016 instagram photo competition…

As we mentioned in this post Wovember is once again hosting an annual photo contest on instagram. All you have to do to enter is use the hashtag #Wovember2016 on any images which show the ways in which you are appreciating and celebrating sheep and wool this Wovember. You can see some of the diverse… Continue Reading Week one of the #Wovember2016 instagram photo competition…

Wool in the Czech Republic

For today’s stop on the EU sheep breed tour, we’re in the Czech Republic. We found some of our links for this piece via the cesky a slovensky Ravelry group, and others through extensive use of Google translate services, through which we learned that the Czech word for wool is vlna, and the Czech word… Continue Reading Wool in the Czech Republic

The Cyprus Mouflon: Κύπρος αγρινό πρόβατα

Κύπρος αγρινό πρόβατα, pronounced Kýpros agrinó próvata, is a strain of mouflon sheep particular to Cyprus. It is worth knowing about this sheep and its mouflon cousins, as these are the precursors to all our modern domesticated breeds. Unlike domesticated sheep, wild mouflon have a hide rather than wool, and do not require shearing. However,… Continue Reading The Cyprus Mouflon: Κύπρος αγρινό πρόβατα

Connecting wool work with Wovember, featuring Yarn in the City

Starting tomorrow, this weekend in London sees Yarn in the City hosting their Yarnporium. The tutor and vendor lists for this event include many designers and small businesses whose work maximises the potential of wool. Every year we are approached by small businesses doing really special things with wool and looking for ways to more… Continue Reading Connecting wool work with Wovember, featuring Yarn in the City

Wovember.com

We are in the process of moving all the content from this website to a self-hosted platform which will give us more flexibility with the design and layout of the site. This site is an archive now of all the content produced between 2011 – 2015 but WOVEMBER 2016 is happening at WOVEMBER.COM. Please bear… Continue Reading Wovember.com

Croatia and the Halubajski Zvončari

Today in our European tour we are traveling to Croatia to explore a modern manifestation of an ancient shepherding tradition. In Croatia, the word for sheep is ovca and the word for wool is vuna. Every year there is an amazing annual pagan-slavic festival in Croatia in which men and boys gather together to ward… Continue Reading Croatia and the Halubajski Zvončari

From the Wovember Archives: Sheep as Propaganda

This post was originally published on the Wovember blog on the 6th Wovember, 2011. It was written by Kate Davies and we are thrilled to republish it here as one of our “from the Wovember archives” pieces. We all probably know that knitting socks for “our boys” became a part of the war effort during… Continue Reading From the Wovember Archives: Sheep as Propaganda