on As promised yesterday, here are some more lamby words. Wovember friend Liz Ashdowne has found them all in the Oxford English Dictionary! gimmer-lamb, n. A female lamb that has not been shorn. a1642 H. Best Farming & Memorandum Bks. (1984) 4 From lambinge time‥till clippinge time‥they [sc. ewes] are called gimmer lambes. hob-lamb, n. A… Continue Reading Wovember Words #3
on Seeing that we’re talking about growing wool here at Wovember at the moment, here are some words relating to lambs. All three words have been carefully hand-picked from the Oxford English Dictionary by Wovember friend Liz Ashdowne. She got rather enthusiastic, so there will be some more lamby words tomorrow! chilver, noun A ewe-lamb: commonly… Continue Reading Wovember Words #2
on Dear Wovember readers, welcome to Wovember 2013, where we will be celebrating another round of all things WOOL! The official start will be tonight, but I, Team Wovember Member Tom, have the privilege to start the first of Wovember with the first of a new series of Wovember Words. Some of you may know already… Continue Reading Wovember Words #1
on Well, Wovember is over and the whole team took a well-deserved weekend off! Thank you contributors for sharing all your knowledge, stories, thoughts and ideas. Thank you readers, for all your positive and supportive comments, they kept us going. There are still a few loose ends to tie up: here is Tom talking about his… Continue Reading Wovember Post Script #1
on 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… Continue Reading WOVEMBER WORDS #29 – Parting Words
on Kate Lynch joins WOVEMBER this evening, to talk about the ultimate house & garden WOOL project – dyeing with plants (perhaps from the garden?) to create woollen textiles for the home! Making it meaningful: Thoughts on using natural dyes this Wovember. Wovember highlights and promotes wool as a valuable natural resource. It is a versatile… Continue Reading Kate Lynch on Wearing Wool…
on In the late 19th century, Dr Gustav Jaeger developed a philosophy of ‘sanitary clothing’ in which wool is given the spotlight. In contrast to ‘chilling materials’ such as linen and cotton, wool could absorb and pass away the ‘noxious exhalations’ of the body. In 1884 the Dr Jaeger’s Sanitary Woollen System was founded by English… Continue Reading WOVEMBER WORDS #28
on Wool has some amazing qualities, all in one fibre, grown naturally: The first thing to know about wool is that it is hygroscopic – a great trait for clothing and an equally great word for your next crossword puzzle or cocktail party. Hygroscopic means that the fiber is able to absorb up to 30% of… Continue Reading WOVEMBER WORDS #27
on The first Wovember Words on Wearing Wool come from Elizabeth Zimmermann, believed that you can’t start too early with wearing wool. Here she is on making babies’ things: Although babies rarely, if ever, express their pleasure at being dressed in wool, it is surely manifest when you dote on a small plump person soundly and contentedly… Continue Reading WOVEMBER WORDS #26
on As anyone who reads Tom’s blog will know, this member of TEAM WOVEMBER is a very keen mender of clothes! Tom is interested in textile traditions as well as in the physical characteristics of wool, and his mending practice often utilises wool for both its referential and material properties. For instance in the case of… Continue Reading Tom van Deijnen on Working with Wool…