WOVEMBER WORDS #20
Elizabeth Zimmermann, famous unventor of many things knitting, gives some of her typical advise on working out how much wool to buy for a sweater. She also touches on the importance of correct...
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Yesterday’s Wovember Words gave us some advise from Elizabeth Zimmermann. Here she is again, and this time Zimmermann tells us about how she felt that there is a shared memory, that skills seemingly...
View ArticleWOVEMBER WORDS #22
Working with wool also means taking care of your woollen items during their lifetime. Some people consider hand-washing wool an onerous chore! Here Elizabeth Zimmermann explains how to look after your...
View ArticleWOVEMBER WORDS #23
Having read about the careful, careful approach when washing knitted garments yesterday, we will read about a rather different approach which is needed when washing woollen fabrics as part of the...
View ArticleWOVEMBER WORDS #24
As we are nearing the end of our Working with Wool section, we have a lot of woolly words to share with you today, therefore Wovember Words will be short: Numerous kinds of fibres, animal, vegetable,...
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Working with wool, especially breed-specific wool, gives you an incredible choice in each breed’s specific properties and qualities, as Ethel Mairet explains: Every raw material has its own definite...
View ArticleWOVEMBER WORDS #26
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...
View ArticleWOVEMBER WORDS #27
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...
View ArticleWOVEMBER WORDS #28
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...
View ArticleWOVEMBER WORDS #29 – Parting Words
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...
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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...
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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....
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The last triad of a trio of Oxford English Dictionary entries, as selected by Wovember friend Liz Ashdowne. This time we move from lamb to crone. lamb-ale, noun (see quotation). 1781 T. Warton Hist....
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Today’s Wovember Words is brought to you by a member of the Wovember Ravelry group. She goes by the Ravelry name Corvid and is superstar glove knitter; do check out her project page if you’re a Ravelry...
View ArticleWovember Words #6
Today’s Wovember Words is a small excerpt from German writer Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel The Magic Mountain. It’s been a long time since I read this last, but I still remember the scene where a young Hans...
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Today’s Wovember Word feels a bit naughty, as it isn’t about 100% wool! When I was discussing wool-related words with Team Wovember Member Kate, I mentioned I was fascinated by historical names for...
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Today’s Wovember Word will go back to 100% wool. I mentioned yesterday that Team Wovember Member Kate had looked up the word ‘drugget.’ As often happens when one looks up a word in a dictionary, Kate...
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Wovember Words continues with a selection of historical woollen fabric names, all selected by Kate Davies from Florence M Montgomery’s indispensable reference work Textiles in America, 1650-1870 (2007...
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And here are the last Wovember Words from a selection of historical woollen fabric names, all chosen on Kate Davies’s journey through Florence M Montgomery’s Textiles in America, 1650-1870 (2007 edn.)...
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Today’s Wovember Words is “Cardings” and it comes from an oral history project with Shetland Crofters, the recording of which you can find on the the Tobar An Dualchais website by following this link....
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