on Κύπρος αγρινό πρόβατα, pronounced Kýpros agrinó próvata, is a strain of mouflon sheep particular to Cyprus. It is worth knowing about this sheep and its mouflon cousins, as these are the precursors to all our modern domesticated breeds. Unlike domesticated sheep, wild mouflon have a hide rather than wool, and do not require shearing. However,… Continue Reading The Cyprus Mouflon: Κύπρος αγρινό πρόβατα
on 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
on 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
on Today for Wovember Words, we’re thrilled to tell you about a particular flock of Belgian Milk Sheep, kept by Barbara and Pete in the province of Luxembourg, in Acremont, Belgium. Researching this breed has been quite interesting; French, German and Dutch are all spoken in Belgium and, respectively, the breed is called brebis laitières belge;… Continue Reading Belgium and the Belgische melkschapen
on On the first stop of our European wool tour for Wovember Words, we’re thrilled to tell you about the Alpines Steinschaf. We are hoping that by the end of the month, we will all know more words for sheep in different languages. In Austria, in which German is the most commonly spoken language, the word… Continue Reading Austria and the Alpines Steinschaf
on Thank you so much to WOVEMBER reader KATA, who wanted to contribute a little nod to knitting from the late Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. I have been re-reading the Discworld novels and although Terry Pratchett does not seem to have had a soft spot for sheep, there is this episode in Carpe Jugulum: ‘Yeah,’… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Pratchett
on Louise is back with more woolly words as described by participants in the #breedswatchalong. Last time I shared with you some of the words and phrases used by knitters to describe the feel of the ball of yarn as they approached the crafting of their swatch. After casting on and noting observances of the feel… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Breed swatch-along – the feel of the fabric
on Today’s WOVEMBER WORDS post was written by one of our long term WOVEMBER supporters, Nadine Haarich, who writes about her own discovery of local wool. Nadine lives in Germany and was inspired to explore her local breeds for knitting her Shetland Wool Week Baa-ble hat. She has extended this adventure by swatching wool from breeds… Continue Reading Wovember Words: KnitLocal
on Louise is here with some fabulously descriptive words from the Breed swatch-along. I am just loving the Breed Swatch-along and really enjoying watching how everyone taking part is exploring wool is a slightly new and different way. Of course, one of the main reasons I wanted to host the Swatch-along was to get people thinking beyond words like… Continue Reading Wovember words: Breed swatch-along – the feel of the ball of wool
on Today’s WOVEMBER WORDS explores different regional cloaks traditionally made from 100% WOOL to protect Shepherds from the elements. Wearing Wool has historically been very important for Growing Wool! Suba This suba is a traditional garment of Hungarian shepherds. The suba is awe-inspiring with its use of sheepskin in the body of the garment as well… Continue Reading Wovember Words: Cloak, Suba, Kepe…