Once Twice Three Four times this last week we awakened to snow, and since there has been little of it this winter, I was excited to need to be out to run about a dozen errands and the chance to catch a bit of the light dusting (that eventually became a real good covering).
We live in what I’d call a “semi-rural” location, so you are as apt to see apple orchards and fields as small towns typical of New England.
Did I mention I love winter? It is after all, wool season!
Speaking of which……..(wool, that is)
I haven’t yet reported on the different sheep I saw on my January trip. The predominant sheep of both Egypt and Jordan (as well as throughout most of the middle east) is known as Awassi. They are highly valued for milk production, and have long provided milk, meat and wool to nomadic communities. While they have long been in Egypt, however, ancient Egyptians avoided the use of wool as being “dirty.”
These are fat-tailed sheep, well adapted to poor pasturage. They are able to survive by drawing on the energy reserves from the fat in their tails during the dry season when available nutrition is low.
The wool has a long staple (16.5 cm) and a high percentage of hair (24%), which makes yarn that is mostly suitable for carpets.
The hair also is combed out of the wool, combined with goat hair, and woven for the traditional nomadic tents seen throughout the entire Middle East. In Central Asia, these tents tend to be round (yurts) and made of felted rather than woven fibers.
Upper left: Cairo traffic makes accommodations for pedestrians, animals, and bicycles. Upper right: Sheep and goats along the roadway outside of Amman. Lower left: Bedouin family camped in Cairo (Reuters photo) Lower right: Bedouin gentleman with Awassi lamb in Syria (photo-Ed Brambley)
Today’s nomads from the Wadi Rum and Petra locations in Jordan have made adaptations to their way of life largely as a result of tourism. Their tents, called beit ash-sha’ar (house of hair) are made of strips of fabric woven on ground looms from goat hair and sheep wool from their flocks. The strips of fabric are then sewn together.
Each strip takes about 40 days to weave. These days it also is possible to purchase the fabric.
There is archaeological evidence that Neolithic peoples as far back as 6000 BC used ground looms. The ancient Egyptians used them as well from 5000 BC until sometime after 1550 BC when the vertical loom was developed.
There is archaeological evidence that Neolithic peoples as far back as 6000 BC used ground looms. Ancient Egyptians used them as well, from 5000 BC. Sometime after 1550 BC, the vertical loom was developed.
On the Needles
I mentioned a while back that several of the Wednesday knitting group knitters are making Caitlin Hunter’s Easy V. I don’t usually knit top down, but since part of the challenge was to knit with stash, I saw this as a good opportunity to make some headway with stash busting
I then proceeded to take issue with parts of the pattern design — firstly, I didn’t like the neckline. I thought that the ribbing was too wide, and I didn’t like the fact that the increases were very obvious. So, as I’d worked my way past the arm holes, I decided to go back and pull out the ribbing and knit it back to the neck edge. My initial thought was that because my decreases usually are less obvious than my increases, working backwards might solve the problem.
But then, I decided I just didn’t like the neckline at all, and I’d change it. I’m not sure where this is going, but at the moment I’m working the decreases faster than the original (12 decreases/decrease row rather than 8) and spacing them evenly rather than at center back and front and next to the sleeve edges. I’m also using a much smaller needle, working first in stockinette, and then I’ll finish up the top edge with just a few rows of ribbing and a rolled edge. Time will tell if I’ve gotten it right (or that instead I’ll have to rip it out for the third time).
Just as an aside, the sweater is laying atop a hat (from an Alice Starmore design) I made several years go, that looks like I chose the colors for the sweater based on the hat. As it happens, that isn’t true; the hat was knit from Baa Ram Ewe Pip, and this sweater is a combination of Malabrigo, Peace Fleece and Cumbria. With them sitting next to each other, the hat looks like a slightly faded version of the sweater. I guess this is my colorway!
Aside from this knitting and the weather, there isn’t much news from our small corner of the world. I haven’t made any progress on Sylvia’s wheel, so my suggestion is have a nice cup of cocoa, and curl up with a book and your current knitting project, stay calm, and craft on. Until the next time……
You never cease to amaze me Ms Sara!