on In the last week of WOVEMBER we received some amazing contributions which were just too good not to share which is why WOVEMBER will be continuing until Friday. This is therefore not the last post of WOVEMBER! Though the month has run out of days there was just too much good content for us to… Continue Reading Soft Fell sheep and their fleece #3 : logistics and finances
on Team WOVEMBER’s Louise cannot resist a woolly song or poem. I was searching for a song for your Sunday listening pleasure and I found Click Go The Shears, an Australian folk song from the turn of the 19th Century. This is a totally new one on me, but may be familiar to some of you.… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Click go the shears
on Ahead of this week’s Friday Night Vi-EWE-ing, Louise has fallen into the archive rabbit hole again to bring you an early WOVEMBER matinee. Not so heavy on the words, the film in question is Jenny Gilbertson’s silent film, In Sheep’s Clothing (1932) Jenny Gilbertson, nee Brown, was born in Glasgow at the turn of the… Continue Reading Wovember (lack of) Words: In Sheep's Clothing
on As well as here you can find Team WOVEMBER on Facebook and Twitter and on Ravelry. Louise looks at how the world of wool operates in social media and introduces us to some of her favourite Tweeters! Who can remember the times before social media? Although find it odd that things like cassette tapes and dial… Continue Reading The Daily Bleat
on In the second of this week’s WOVEMBER posts featuring Kate Graham and her farm at Shankend, Louise finds out more about the sponsorship scheme Kate runs. Earlier this year I had read an article about Ralph Lauren buying yarn from a farm in Oregon to clad the entire USA team for the Winter Olympics in… Continue Reading Shankend Sheep Sponsorship
on We shared this photo by Jeni Reid here a few days ago. This beautiful coloured fleece was discarded with only the white ones from the clip being sent on to the Wool Marketing Board. Many of you commented that you would have found a use for the fleece and that this lovely wool really shouldn’t… Continue Reading Nature's Natural Colours
on ‘In the far north west of mainland Scotland is a tiny place called Stoer. This is a brown cheviot fleece that I was given when I happened to walk past the shearers as they worked. The white fleeces all go to the Wool Board and coloured fleeces are generally discarded. What a waste.’
on Chrissie Day is a textile artist who runs Teesdale Fibres. She has made it her mission to source local wool and her pedigree Teeswater and BFL yarns have been dyed by Yarn Garden , proving hugely popular at the wool shows this year. As well as finding time to run her wool production she is… Continue Reading British from Fleece to Finish
on Staple: “wool grows on the sheep in definite locks as distinct from the way in which hair grows, for example, in a cat. These locks are the staple, a word which, during our long history, has symbolised the power and dignity of the wool trade. We may be sure that, in whatever setting we may… Continue Reading WOVEMBER WORDS #18
on Now we have had a few days of exploring how wool is processed – both domestically and commercially – we thought it would be amazing to showcase a very special project which brings all that processing together! In 2011 the Kennet Valley Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers undertook a historic recreation project, based on… Continue Reading The Newbury Coat