As promised, the next post in my November catch-up series! Before I get to the spinning I wanted to tell those of you that haven’t seen it already about Wovember. Wovember is a project initiated and invented last November by Kate Davies (needled) and Felicity Ford (the domestic soundscape) and dedicated to Real Wool during November. This year the project has gotten an addition by Tom of Holland whom you may know through his Visible Mending Project (if not, go take a look!).
The idea behind Wovember is to explore and celebrate the properties of real wool in all its dimensions, from the different breeds of sheep to the shades of the fibre, from the people producing wool to those who use it and from the feel of real wool to the sounds of wool (and for me, the smell. Love the smell of sheepy wool!).
Real wool opposed to what sells as wool in shops, mind. When I wanted to buy a new winter coat last year I simply couldn’t find one made solely of wool! I had to settle for one with a mixture of wool/Cashmere/Nylon but I found ‘wool’ coats with only 10 % wool in total. If you don’t make it yourself, real wool is hard to find in clothes and even finding 100% wool fabric proved difficult.
This year the motto is ‘closing the gap’, meaning the gap between yarn and clothes and the origin of wool used.
You can read more (and much better explained!) about the purpose of Wovember here and have a look at what has already been going on (since I’m late) here .
I really love this project and I’ve been looking forward to November very much.I’m trying to wear as much wool as possible this month and I will be spinning fibre from different sheep breeds (more on that in a later post). My mobile phone has a sheepy ring-tone which you can download from here ( together with other wool related sound files) and I will be wearing the assorted Wovember badges Felicity Ford made for Wovember.
Now to the fibre and the spinning!
I’ve finally finished spinning and plying the rest of my Hello Yarn Polwarth in ‘Cauldron’!
Together with the skein I finished ages ago this is destined to become a squishy cowl!
I’m also on the last part of the Wildcraft Falkland I started spinning at the Spin-In in Dorset in September (I forgot all my fibre at home in Germany) and I plied the first half on my wheel.
I’ve wound the third part on my Nostepinne and got another fibre-egg and I’m now spinning the last 50g.
Further spinning plans involve making a DKish yarn for a pair of leg warmers and to spin wool from German sheep-breeds. Happy Wovember!!!!
The missing needle 