on We are absolutely delighted this evening to be featuring Deb Robson as our guest blogger. Deb has been extremely supportive of our WOVEMBER aims, emailing us on the very day that we published this site with warm words of encouragement in spite of having a schedule absolutely full of fibre-related and WOOL-centric classes to teach. If… Continue Reading Deb Robson’s take on endangered sheep breeds
on Following the Prick Your Finger post, we thought it would be interesting to feature work by artists and makers who use WOOL in their practice. It is hoped that this series exploring imaginative uses of WOOL will shed more light on what WOOL means. Today I want to introduce you to Irish artist Caroline Walshe,… Continue Reading An Snag Breac
on You are amazing. Thank you for your interest in Wovember, for your thoughtful comments on product descriptions and fibre content, and for publishing your own thoughts on the Wovember issues elsewhere on the Internet. It is really encouraging to see the response to Wovember and a real pleasure to upload your photos whenever we can… Continue Reading January 2010 “snowcase” revisited
on Herdwick Sheep at the Royal Berkshire County Show, photographed by Felicity Ford As some of you have requested further information on the situation of WOOL today, I decided to consult Alan Butler’s SHEEP book* and round up some of the facts he cites concerning the global situation re: sheep & WOOL. I have interspersed these… Continue Reading some sheep and wool numbers
on This evening’s sheep-related tale comes from Richard Martin at Filkin’s Mill in the Cotswolds. According to Alan Butler*, “the name Cotswold is a combination of ‘Cot’ from the cots or enclosures where the sheep were kept, and ‘wolds’, which is a descriptive word for open, hilly ground.” In Filkin’s Mill, Richard has collected a vast… Continue Reading The Sheep Yoke
on In a world where widespread knowledge of where and how clothes are made exists, it would be unthinkable to describe a pair of viscose shorts as “woollen” because everybody would know at once that this was nonsense. Yet as long as there are enormous gaps between producers and consumers of clothes on the High Street,… Continue Reading Prick Your Finger
on From your wonderful comments on the Wovember petition it is obvious that incorrect and confusing descriptions of textiles are abundant. But how has the confusion surrounding the word “WOOL” arisen? Throughout the month we will explore that question in different ways. This evening we shall hear from Ethel Mairet’s wonderful book published in 1939 and… Continue Reading On ‘Artificial Wool’
on Throughout Wovember we shall be sharing blog posts here which gave us extra insight into the history, culture and production of WOOL when we read them. This post was written by Rachael Matthews in 2009, and all the photos were taken by her. It is re-published from the Prick Your Finger blog. We shall be… Continue Reading Walter’s Crook
on We all probably know that knitting socks for “our boys” became a part of the war effort during World War II, but perhaps less familiar is this piece of sheepy propaganda from the First World War. In October 1918 – a few weeks before the conclusion of the war – the US board of agriculture… Continue Reading sheep as propaganda
on Did you know that LAMBS-WOOL is the name of a traditional English beverage? This tasty brew is made by mixing hot ale with sugar, spices and roasted apples – either whole crab-apples, or pulped cooking apples – and its woolly name derives from the ‘fleecy’ appearance of the apples floating on the surface of the… Continue Reading drinking lambs-wool