WOVEMBER WORDS #29 – Parting Words

Alas, the last Wovember Words for Wovember2012. Wovember hopes you enjoyed reading all the snippets on growing, harvesting, processing, working with, and wearing wool as much as we had gathering them for you – and that it has peaked your interest enough to go and find one or two of these books for yourself to read them cover to cover. We will end Wovember Words with two quotes; the first comes from Elizabeth Zimmermann:

I reconnoitered in my wool-room yesterday; it is full of possibilites for the New Year. Another Aran perhaps, to start off with? Should it blow tradition and be hooded? Six pairs of socks for the Old Man? His “Woodsman’s Sock” shelf is groaning, but the ranks of the lighter socks are thinning. Cushion-covers? What a chance for experiment with color-patterns and Aran curlicues. A shawl with a ten-inch lace border, and perhaps design the border myself? I never did desin a lace-pattern. A huge afghan to keep one’s knees warm while being knitted? A lace-edging for a valance, why not? A revolutionaroy pot-handler? Hey! a Knitted Icebox for camping and picnic?

By this time next year some of these will have been achieved, and some scorned and abandoned. Some as yet undreamed-of whims will have taken shape. I’m ready for them; my mind is open, my wool-room full of wool, my needles posed, my brain spinning like a Catherine-wheel. There are plenty of pencils – I think – and where did I see that old block of squared paper?

My words, such good fortune. I can only hope the same for you.

-Elizabeth Zimmermann: Knitter’s Almanac; projects for each month of the year, Dover Publications, Mineola, NY

The scond quote comes from a Q&A with Emily Chamelin earlier during Wovember, and for some reason really resonated with Tom personally. Emily on being mindful of where your wool comes from:

I think it is so important for fiber users to really be aware of what it takes to produce the wool they love, and to learn that EVERY fleece must be harvested by hand by a skilled crafts person. I love my job so much and love to see people enjoying wool in all its glorious products!

Image © Cecilia Hewitt and used with her kind permission, showing Cecilia’s Wool-Room