Sheep and WOOL really do get into everything and, if you have purchased a copy of the KNITSONIK Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook you will already know that “everything” even includes a 1930s book about electricity entitled “The Wonders of Electricity”. Published in the 1930s, this book provides fascinating glimpses into the domestic interior of the 1930s… Continue Reading Wovember Words: WOOL and electricity
Category: wovember words
Wovember Words: sounds and lost sounds
As WOVEMBERSISTS know, I am passionate about how sounds can be used to connect us to the landscapes, people and animals that are ultimately the source of WOOL. I was therefore thrilled to discover that Cathy Lane – composer, artist and one of my PhD examiners – has also been exploring these connections. Cathy Lane… Continue Reading Wovember Words: sounds and lost sounds
Wovember Words: Baa Baa Black Sheep
Often the simplest sentiments have deep roots which are neither simple nor sentimental. Let’s look at an old favourite nursery rhyme… Original version: Bah, bah, black sheep, Have you any wool ? Yes, marry have I, Three bags full; One for my master, One for my dame, But none for the little boy Who cries… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Baa Baa Black Sheep
Wovember Words: Alnagers
I was reading about the history of woollen blanket manufacture in Witney, Oxfordshire, when I came across a curious term: “alnagers”. Further reading revealed that ‘Alnage, or aulnage (from Fr. aune, ell) is the official supervision of the shape and quality of manufactured woollen cloth’ and that alnagers were the official practitioners of Alnage. They… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Alnagers
Wovember Words: Wool from stuffing to stitches
At WOVEMBER we love to hear exactly why people love to work with wool. Louise interviewed Linda Regel – owner of Made By Ewe – last year for KnitBritish: her knitting kits are illustrative of her love for British wool and here she explains her inspiration for her Knit Your Own Sheep kits. “It is absolutely essential to me that… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Wool from stuffing to stitches
Wovember Words: Click go the shears
Team WOVEMBER’s Louise cannot resist a woolly song or poem. I was searching for a song for your Sunday listening pleasure and I found Click Go The Shears, an Australian folk song from the turn of the 19th Century. This is a totally new one on me, but may be familiar to some of you.… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Click go the shears
Wovember Words: Man's best friend
I was thinking that in all this talk of wool, sheep, sheep products and those involved with those, that we are forgetting someone very important..the sheep dog! Time is short and I can’t obviously celebrate every breed, but after stumbling across this picture on the Internet Archive, I felt we must take a brief moment… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Man's best friend
Wovember (lack of) Words: In Sheep's Clothing
Ahead of this week’s Friday Night Vi-EWE-ing, Louise has fallen into the archive rabbit hole again to bring you an early WOVEMBER matinee. Not so heavy on the words, the film in question is Jenny Gilbertson’s silent film, In Sheep’s Clothing (1932) Jenny Gilbertson, nee Brown, was born in Glasgow at the turn of the… Continue Reading Wovember (lack of) Words: In Sheep's Clothing
Wovember Words: Reestit mutton soup
Following the earlier post about sheep collars there was the mention of a food very specific to Shetland – reestit mutton. Here at WOVEMBER we like to celebrate everything the sheep has to offer and thought we should look a little further at this. Reestit mutton has been a home-killed and cured meat in Shetland for… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Reestit mutton soup
Wovember Words: St. Blaise, Patron Saint of Wool combers
While I was thumbing through Sue Blacker’s book, Pure Wool, I came across a reference to St. Blaise which led me to investigate and uncover the story of the Patron Saint of Wool combers… If the yarn is to be worsted-spun, the wool is taken half-carded to a series of machines which align the fibres… Continue Reading Wovember Words: St. Blaise, Patron Saint of Wool combers