From Boing Boing

I love these official, licensed lumpy Super Mario cardigans, though at $400+ a pop, I probably won’t be wearing one this winter.

Please continue reading HERE.

We’re talking with the owner of a flock of Shetlands that graze one of our County Wildlife Sites, to see if we can bring them into the Nude Ewe project. We’ve been wanting some Shetlands for a while, and these seem to fit the bill. It would be great if we could bring all of Bedfordshire’s conservation flocks into the Nude Ewe, but we do have to be a bit picky about who we approach. Of course we have to be able to sell the wool so we can generate profits for the grazier. But a flock also needs to meet a couple of criteria for us to be able to consider it:

1. the flock must graze unfertilised, unsprayed pasture. The Nude Ewe is first and foremost a conservation project. It doesn’t matter if the pasture is in an agri-environment scheme, and it doesn’t need to be a designated nature reserve. What matters is that the sheep are being used to create, restore or maintain habitat. Nude Ewe flocks currently graze lowland meadow, chalk grassland and a traditional orchard.
2. any fly-strike treatment must have been administered in specific ways. Fly-strike is a horrible condition, and animal welfare must come first. However the chemicals used to prevent fly-strike are quite potent. Fleeces must have been treated more than 12 weeks before shearing, to give the chemical time to attenuate. Otherwise the effluent from scouring (i.e. washing the fleeces) will not meet water quality guidelines, and the mill will not accept the fleeces. Bedfordshire is a bit of a fly-strike hotspot, so this criterion is often the most difficult to meet.
3. ideally the sheep will be a heritage breed. This isn’t compulsory, but part of our conservation mission is promoting the use of heritage and rare breeds. These breeds are best for conservation grazing as they will eat rough vegetation that modern breeds won’t.

The flock we’re considering seems to tick the boxes. And even better, the grazier still has this year’s fleeces! The flock has it’s own blog too; check it out!

I’m waiting for my first kool-aid dyeing experiment to dry, and to be honest I feel a bit guilty about it. The Nude Ewe motto is ‘Pure. British. Wool. Just the way the sheep made it’. And I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen any apple green sheep around Bedfordshire (although if there were any I suppose they’d be well camouflaged against the grass, hmmm…). I’m doing this for my fibre swap partner who isn’t over fond of natural colours. And it’s fun too, although uses way more Kool-Aid than I had imagined.

We received our latest batch of ‘Wes’ today, a DK weight worsted spun Wensleydale. The sheep whose wool is currently hanging in the garden graze a traditional Damson orchard. Our local Damson variety is also known as the Aylesbury Prune. The skins produce a pale blue dye once used in the Luton hat trade. So if I’m going to dye any of our wools, I suppose the Wensleydale is the most appropriate.

And in spite of the teeny amount of guilt, I’m pretty impressed with the results!

The Green Apple Awards have been going since 1994. They’re held by the Green Organisation, and independent non-profit environmental group dedicated to recognising, rewarding and promoting environmental best practice around the world. We (or at least I; we’re waiting to see if we can get a £110 ticket for free for my Wildlife Trust – i.e. charity – partner in crime) will be heading down to the House of Commons in November to pick up our award. We’ll also find out then if we’re being selected to represent the UK in the European Business Awards for the Environment. Over 500 applications were received for the 2010 awards, so we’re well chuffed to be one of the winners!

Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve only got 3 months to figure out what I’m gonna wear…

My mum has a policy of not giving a gift that she herself doesn’t like. Which to be honest rarely served me well: the kitten nightshirts, pearl ring and gingham blouse went unworn. I did feel bad really. But, well, really. Gingham and pearls aren’t quite my style, and I like my kittens live (although Lyle really is pushing it these days, getting up on the bookshelves and generally destroying everything in sight).

The point is, I always thought that gift giving should be about the recipient. And if the giver likes the gift too, even better. Now I’m faced with buying a series of gifts for someone so unlike me that I’m bound not to love some of what I give. This is going to be a real test of my resolve to think first about the person I’m buying for. I’m responsible for creating seven little packages to delight, intrigue and bring joy to someone who’s idea of joy is so different from my own.

So. Challenge #1: the wool. One of the reasons I joined the swap was to show off Nude Ewe wool. And as we say, Nude Ewe wool is ‘just the way the sheep made it’. I imagined the rapture on the face of a distant stranger as (s)he opens the package of lovely, soft, cuddly Wensleydale wool.

The problem? She hates white and neutrals! Nooooooooooooo!!! So I’m going to ‘do unto others’ and take the ultimate ‘un-Nude Ewe-esque’ plunge.

I’ve always wanted to try Kool-Aid dyeing!

From The Independent

There may be only a few hundred Dairy Shorthorn in Britain, but Tulip and other rare breeds of cattle, sheep and pig aren’t just genetic dead-ends. As their impassioned owners explain, these beauties are the supermodels of animal husbandry – and, quite possibly, the saviours of the 21st-century farmyard.

Please continue reading HERE.

From Wired.com

They’re identical twins. They’re from Australia. And they’re trying to teach the world about the fragility of coral reefs, one crochet stitch at a time.

Please continue reading HERE.

With a bit of trepidation but lots of excitement The Nude Ewe is heading to the marketplace at UK Knit Camp in Stirling. The event has been fraught with organisational troubles. They’ve all been resolved but there are still quite a few upset knitters. I can only hope that they decide to console themselves by shopping!

My buddy and I are now on the 9.15 to Edinburgh and looking forward to an exhausting but fun trip. We’re each hauling a huge suitcase full of wool and display equipment. Whatever room was left in our rucksacks had to suffice for knitting, knickers and a fresh t-shirt. Fortunately one of the gals in my spinning guild is going up and is taking our bigger display bits and another supply of wool. The Nude Ewe is not for profit so no company car for us, alas!

Event problems notwithstanding I’m still excited to be going to Knit Camp. People have flown from around the world for it, and we couldn’t refuse the chance to spread our conservation message. With a little luck we might sell a few balls of wool, too!

Before hundreds of little lovely packages start winging their way around the globe, we’ve had to fill out a questionnaire so the organiser can match us up. Here’s what I answered:

Country of residence: UK

Preferred countries to ship to, and where are you prepared to send your package if needs be? Happy to ship worldwide

Do you have a blog? Yup!

Favourite kind of yarn: natural fibres, worsted weight or lighter

Yarns you particularly dislike: silk: can’t touch it, like nails on a chalkboard

Favourite colours: purple, pink, teal, bright colours generally

Colours you just can’t stand: yellow looks like hell on me!

Other fibre related crafts: spinning, a bit of crochet

Do you collect anything? a pebble from each beach that I visit

Non-crafting hobbies: yoga, reading, photography, learning to play my fiddle, working on my little Georgian cottage, recording the bumblebees that visit my garden

Describe yourself in 5 words: Canadian, ecologist, neurotic, funny, tall

List your 3 favourite things that are in eye’s view and why they please you: 1) my two 16-week old kittens, ’cause even though they’re really annoying they’re just so adorable; 2) the 2009 London Tattoo Convention poster hanging in my kitchen, ’cause it’s just so cool, it matches my turquoise kitchen walls perfectly and it reminds me of the tat I waited 20 years for and finally got that day; 3) the 1890s duffle trunk my parents bought before they were married, and which I used to move to the UK, because it’s so beautifully old and scruffy

Do you have allergies? no, but I can’t touch silk

What is your shoe size? 7.5 UK, 9.5 US

Name your 3 fantasy dinner guests: the Dalai Lama (so I could bask in his mellowness), Amelia Earhart (so I could ask where the heck she disappeared to), Steig Larsson (so I could find out what the next 8 Millennium books were going to be about)

Would you rather be a diplodocus or T-rex? diplodocus. All T-rexes are men: all big and macho looking but with tiny arms so they can’t actually do anything useful like feed themselves

Favourite kinds of treats: sweets, and choccy of course!

Favourite animal: probably sheep

If you could be any fictional character, who would it be? Trinity from the Matrix. I even have a poster that a friend made me, swapped her head for mine just so I could have that body. And those clothes!

What 3 things would you want on a deserted island (no people, and of course your knitting stuff has kindly been brought for you)? 1) SAS Survival Guide (since I can’t bring Ray Mears); 2) a year’s supply of loo roll; 3) my iPod (and a solar charger)

So that’s me in a knitting nutshell. Wonder who I’ll be paired up with..?

From Anywho, I digress

While we were rummaging in the yarn stash, we came across a most unusual, and frankly disturbing, knitting pattern.  My knitting buddy clipped it from the Dec 91/Jan 92 issue of Threads magazine.

Please continue reading HERE.