on About this time last year WOVEMBER became aware of a wonderful new buzz around the Internet; we heard tell of a film-maker seeking support to produce an amazing documentary detailing the lives of a tenant farming family living in Upper Teesdale. Entitled “Addicted to Sheep” and with the support of 167 people & The Heart… Continue Reading Friday night Vi-EWE-ing: ADDICTED TO SHEEP
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 After hearing from Sally yesterday about the work that goes into producing wool at the breeding and farming stage, we thought it would be nice to move along the chain to learn how that wool is then turned into a yarn. Sue Blacker of Blacker Yarns and the Natural Fibre Company joins us to talk… Continue Reading Designing a Yarn, Part 1
on In week one of WOVEMBER we met Sally Antill who discussed the unique fleeces of the Soft Fell sheep that she and her husband, Michael, breed and their involvement in a fantastic community ‘sheep to shawl’ event, in Northumberland. Today Sally is here again to discuss the evolution of the breed, one which produces a… Continue Reading Sally Antill: Evolution of the Soft Fell sheep #2
on ‘Ronnie Eunson’s Rams. Ronnie is one of the members of Shetland Organics, an organisation promoting organic fleece and wool from the Shetland islands.’ – Jeni Reid
on Sam the Ram, Whitefaced Dartmoor sheep from Paula Wolton’s flock In contrast to the historic films presented last week which reveal the story of how wool suffered with the advent of artificial textiles in the 1950s, this evening WOVEMBER shares the trailer for a very different sort of film: one that celebrates the lives past,… Continue Reading OneHutFull: Friday night Vi-EWE-ing!
on One of the wondrous things about WOVEMBER is how much WOOL information comes through in your comments. A few years ago several remarks on this post informed me that a Bellwether is a castrated ram that wears a bell around its neck and leads the rest of the flock about. The bell enables the shepherd… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Bellwether
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 Kate Graham has been the tenant farmer at Shankend, in the Scottish Borders, since September 2010. Not only has she successfully run her sheep sponsorship scheme this year (more of which we will be learning about later this week) but work at Shankend certainly keep her busy. With the average age of UK farmers reaching… Continue Reading Adventures in farming: Kate from Shankend
on The practice of putting bells on one’s sheep is no longer widespread in the UK, however there is some evidence that it was once much more popular in the UK than it is today, and sheep bells still seem to be used in other parts of Europe. The sounds of sheep bells featured in a… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Canisters and Cluckets