Wovember Words #21

As this is the last working day in Wovember, this will be the last Wovember Words post. Today I’d like to share Felix’s, Kate’s, and Tom’s Personal Favourite Top-Three Wovember Words Winning Entries, and also the most favourite word selected by Wovember Readers. But first, here’s a recap of all the Wovember Words we heard about this Wovember:

#1) Wovember coins a new word: WAL
#2) Oxford English Dictionary woolly entries part 1: chilver, cosset, cuckoo-lamb
#3) Oxford English Dictionary woolly entries part 2: gimmer-lamb, hob-lamb, mutton dressed lamb-fashion, in three shakes of a sheep’s tail
#4) Oxford English Dictionary woolly entries part 3: lamb-ale, teg, crone
#5) Winding Wool, a poem by Robert William Service
#6) Quote from Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain: the way to wrap oneself up in warm blankets in order to take the air out on the balcony, even in the middle of winter
#7) Kate’s research on the meaning of ‘drugget
#8) Definitions from Textiles in America part 1: baraclade, barracan, bay. bearskin, beaver cloth
#9) Definitions from Textiles in America part 2: berlins, borsley, box cloth, broad cloth, bunting
#10) Definitions from Textiles in America part 3: calmuc, carptmeal, cassimere, cubica
#11) Cardings: conversation taken from Tobar and Dualchais archives about the cardings get-togethers in Shetland
#12) Gaelic sheep words from Uist Wool
#13) Edward Miller, Textiles, properties and behaviour in clothing, quote 1: definitions of three qualities of wool (merino or botany, cross-bred, carpet)
#14) MACGREGOR: a Scottish Blackface sheep, photographed in 1890
#15) Hefting: definition and link to short film
#16) Da Spinning Sang/Roo da Bonnie Oo, by Rosabel Blance and link to oral history record
#17) The Wool Pack by Cynthia Harnett, quote 1: resting under an oak tree and wool-gathering in the fields
#18) The Wool Pack by Cynthia Harnett, quote 2: new-fangled wheels versus spindles, and a young man secretly enjoying spinning
#19) SWANTS and SWEEKS
#20) Edward Miller, Textiles, properties and behaviour in clothing, quote 2: about remanufactured wool, in three different qualities: shoddy (from shredding soft rags like knitwear), mungo (from shredding hard rags like thick heavily milled fabric), and noils (waste product from the worsted combing process)

Felix’s Personal Favourite Top-Three Wovember Words Winning Entries:

1) Winding Wool, a poem by Robert William Service

2) Hefting: definition and link to short film

3) Da Spinning Sang/Roo da Bonnie Oo, by Rosabel Blance and link to oral history record

Kate’s Personal Favourite Top-Three Wovember Words Winning Entries:

1) Da Spinning Sang/Roo da Bonnie Oo, by Rosabel Blance and link to oral history record (for its evocation of the relationship between wool and those who work with it)

2) Quote from Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain: the way to wrap oneself up in warm blankets in order to take the air out on the balcony, even in the middle of winter (somehow suggestive of the whole of the Magic Mountain)

3) Edward Miller, Textiles, properties and behaviour in clothing, quote 2: about remanufactured wool, in three different qualities: shoddy (from shredding soft rags like knitwear), mungo (from shredding hard rags like thick heavily milled fabric), and noils (waste product from the worsted combing process) ( I always find the embedded historical meanings of textiles, that lie buried in their everyday uses, really interesting)

Tom’s Personal Favourite Top-Three Wovember Words Winning Entries:

1) Winding Wool, a poem by Robert William Service (for describing how everyday things create bonds between loved ones)

2) Da Spinning Sang/Roo da Bonnie Oo, by Rosabel Blance and link to oral history record (for showing the Shetland character so well: a very practical answer to how the song came about, and the sheer poetry of the song itself)

3) Kate’s research on the meaning of ‘drugget’ (for drawing me into textile history and the changing meanings of words)

The Wovember Readers Personal Favourite Top-One Wovember Words Winning Entry:

There’s a joint first here:

1) Da Spinning Sang/Roo da Bonnie Oo, by Rosabel Blance and link to oral history record

1) MACGREGOR: a Scottish Blackface sheep, photographed in 1890

Clearly Da Spinning Sang is an all-time favourite amongst Wovember Readers and Team Members alike, so we’ll repeat it here. Joined by MacGregor, the magnificent Scottish Blackface.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the Wovember Words as much as I had putting them together. Until next year!

Da Nortmaven Spinning Sang [Roo the bonnie oo]

words and music by Rosabel Blance, You can listen to the recording on the Tobar an Dualchais website by following this link.

Roo da boannie oo fae da haet sheep’s back;

Roo da boannie oo at we’ll spin an mak,

Da auld spinning-wheel ‘ill hae wark to dö

Fir we’ll hae foo bags ere we laeve da crö

Da dirl o da wheel gyings hurr-in hurr-in,

Da whip-tree clicks as da wheel gyings roond.

Da whirr o da flicht gyings murrin, murrin,

Da sang o da wheel is a weel-kyent soond.

Taese da Shetlan oo till it’s clear an fine,

Lyin laek a clood wi a silver shine,

Dan shak ower it oil, laek bricht draps o dew,

Ower a wib i’da hill whin da mön is foo.

Da dirl o da wheel etc.

Tak doon da cairds noo apo your lap,

An turn oot da rower wi a quick saft flap.

Da risk o da teeth, as ye caird da oo,

Keeps da time o da sang at we’re singin noo.

Da dirl o da wheel etc.

Reck oot your haand fir da spinning-wheel;

Lay on da treed noo, an lay it weel.

Da rower rins oot as da treed rins in,

Wi da fit-board clappin, as da oo ye spin.

Da dirl o da wheel etc.

macgregor

MacGregor has found his pastures at the Online Gallery of the National Galleries Scotland website.