Oi și lână în România – sheep and wool in Romania

Today for our EU Wovember Words post we are in Romania where the word for sheep is oaie, and the word for wool is lână. To begin with the sheep (info from this report); In Romania there are two autochthon native breeds: Turcana, named also Zackel (“mountain peasant”, “Romanian”) or Walachian (“Romanian”), is the sheep… Continue Reading Oi și lână în România – sheep and wool in Romania

Owce i wełny w Polsce – Sheep and wool in Poland

Today in our EU themed Wovember Words tour, we’re in Poland where the word for sheep is owca, and the word for wool is wełna. The source of our words is an amazing report written by Stanisława Trebunia-Staszel PhD. Handicraft based on the products of the sheep was a Polish Research Project concluded in 2011,… Continue Reading Owce i wełny w Polsce – Sheep and wool in Poland

SCAEP & SCEAP, WOLLE & WULL – some woolly words from the Netherlands

Today on our Wovember Words EU tour of sheep and wool, we are in the Netherlands. To celebrate this, we are republishing a post from Tom of Holland – inventor of Wovember Words – written in 2011, and exploring Dutch knitting terms for sheep and wool. In this EU Wovember Words series, we are rarely… Continue Reading SCAEP & SCEAP, WOLLE & WULL – some woolly words from the Netherlands

Croatia and the Halubajski Zvončari

Today in our European tour we are traveling to Croatia to explore a modern manifestation of an ancient shepherding tradition. In Croatia, the word for sheep is ovca and the word for wool is vuna. Every year there is an amazing annual pagan-slavic festival in Croatia in which men and boys gather together to ward… Continue Reading Croatia and the Halubajski Zvončari

Bulgaria’s endangered Karakachanska ovca

Continuing our tour of Europe for Wovember words, today we are in Bulgaria, discovering the endangered Karakachan sheep. In Bulgarian the word for sheep is овца, or – for non-Cyrillic readers – ovca. This breed of sheep – along with the Karakachan horse and the Karakachan dog – is a focus for The Bulgarian Biodiversity… Continue Reading Bulgaria’s endangered Karakachanska ovca

Friday Night Vi-EWE-ing – the 150 mile wardrobe

Good evening WOVEMBERISTS! This evening’s Friday Night Vi-EWE-ing follows on from today’s earlier and highly recommended post from Kylie Gusset. Kylie closed her discussion by speaking about the importance of buying “close to farmer fibres” and sourcing textiles from within a 100-mile radius. This inspiring film made in the USA focuses on a very similar… Continue Reading Friday Night Vi-EWE-ing – the 150 mile wardrobe

Wovember Words: Government of Cattel

For today’s WOVEMBER WORDS we examine a 1596 document by Leonard Mascal, as it is introduced by Barclay Wills in his own fantastic tome, ‘Shepherds of Sussex’. Words from both ‘Government of Cattel’ and ‘Shepherds of Sussex’ indicate the unchanging aspects and long history of much of the work involved in Growing Wool and it… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Government of Cattel

Celebrate single breed wool this WOVEMBER!

LOUISE is here tonight to tell you a little bit more about the KnitBritish Breed Swatch-along and how you can get involved with discovering the deep wonders of swatching – and WOOL – this WOVEMBER. I took this picture at Shetland Wool Week 2014. It is a fine (prize-winning) fleece and, to me, it speaks… Continue Reading Celebrate single breed wool this WOVEMBER!

Wovember Words: Leg-waarmers song (1983)

At Shetland Wool Week 2014 Shetland ForWirds put on a wonderful evening of songs and readings in Shetland dialect, designed to introduce and celebrate the richness of the Shetland dialect and to share some of the beautiful terms for WOOL and WOOLWORK used in the past and today in Shetland. Laureen Johnson has very kindly… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Leg-waarmers song (1983)