Wovember

Shovel Down, by Rachel Rawlins

How did it become December before I learned about Wovember? A month-long project looking at all things wooly and woolen -- that is, everything from sheep to newborn babies in handknit hot-pink swaddling cones (you have to see the photo to believe it.)

Thank you to Rachel Rawlins for the link and for allowing me to re-publish this beautiful and unconventional (not surprisingly) wool-themed photograph of hers from the Wovember Gallery, of a tuft of wool caught on lichen-covered rocks. She's a dear friend, fine photographer, and one of my favorite knitters in the whole world...The picture is titled "Shovel Down" and she writes this about it:

 “This is a picture of wool caught on one of the stones of a Bronze Age stone row on Shovel Down on Dartmoor. Archaeologists consider the rows to be ancient field divisions. The landscape, 4,000 years ago, had already been shaped by the cultivation of sheep, the use to which it is still put. Scanty pockets of trees in open pasture. At about this time there is evidence that the people of northern Europe had begun spinning wool and weaving textiles. I love the way this relationship – animal-human-landscape-textile – is so deeply, well, woven. (Also the wool and the lichen. But that’s another story.)”

Other favorites: a photograph of the annual Icelandic sheep round-up, and another showing just a few sheep on a road in some astounding mountains in Norway.

Every single photograph in the Wovember Gallery made me happy -- partly because I come from sheep country (Vermont); partly because I've just been in another sheep country (Iceland); partly because I too love to knit and to see what others make out of this best-of-all-fibers, a gift from the animal kingdom to us. Take a few minutes and browse through; you won't be sorry.

Comments

[Leslee]

Wow, how beautiful! So much better looking than Movember! (My male colleagues grew moustaches for Movember, the charity event for men's health, with rather mixed aesthetic results but good fund-raising results.) I can't knit, but I can certainly wear and appreciate the beauty of wool and the talents of the knitters out there. Will have to remember next year.

[rr]

Thank you so much Beth! I had a lot of fun, and the blog posts on the Wovember site are all fascinating. I hope they do it again next year, and I hope to be slightly more prepared!

[Robert]

Lovely! Thanks very much, Beth. I have several knitting friends who will enjoy this.

[zuleme]

I was just reading that the last company in Sweden to make the traditional mittens has closed. So now the mittens are made in China. I don't think I could find time to knit but if I did, I'd make those. They are thick lanolin left in wool in grey with a colored bit on the cuffs. Very very warm.

[Ugg Boots Clearance]

ancient field divisions. The landscape, 4,000 years ago, had already been shaped by the cultivation of sheep, the use to which it is still put. Scanty pockets of trees in open pasture. At about this time there is evidence that the people of northern Europe had begun spinning wool and weaving textiles. I love the way this relationship – animal-human-landscape-textile – is so deeply, well, woven. (Also the wool and the lichen. But that’s another story.)”